This week, Taylor led an interesting discussion about the ethics and morals of using Artificial Intelligence in education (specifically, Chat GPT). This is something that I have been struggling with myself, wondering when it’s appropriate to utilize this tool as an educator vs. when it should be avoided.
I started by watching this TEDX Talk that Taylor shared with everyone. In it, Erik Winerö talks about how over 100 years, the record for pole vaulting has “…improved by over two meters, or in other words, by 48%” He explains that the reason for this is the development of the equipment. People didn’t care that vaulters were using different poles, they just cared about how high they could jump. He relates this to generative AI, saying that teachers may consider it “… a flexible pole to help our students overcome their higher obstacles… That what matters is the quality of the product that our students produce.”
Erik continues with his athletic metaphor by telling us to imagine a coach telling a sprinter to run from point A to point B… the person could use a bicycle or take a shortcut to get to that end goal. In doing that, they would still reach the destination but fail to get the training they should be doing to get better at their sport.
Now let’s think of this in the scope of education… although the use of AI may help students push out an improved result, we have to think about whether it is helping their learning along the way. Part of learning is running into obstacles and learning how to overcome them. Erik says that “if there is no resistance, no real learning is taking place.”
My big takeaway from this video is that although AI can make a lot of things easier in the world of education, we need to think about when it is appropriate to use, and when it isn’t. This conversation was brought up in our small group when Dean shared this thought…Let’s say you have a teacher use AI to create an assignment. A student takes that assignment and completes it using AI, and then the teacher uses AI to grade the assignment. What’s the point? What’s being done? Really… if a student wants to get the opinion of AI on their assignment, can’t they plug it in themselves?
This leads me to think about when it is most beneficial to use AI as a teacher. I have been working my way through The Artificial Intelligence Playbook and here are some of the ideas that are laid out:
- To scaffold assignments to meet the needs of students
- To gamify learning
- To find real-world connections
- To teach students how they can use AI
- To create AI-resistant assignments (ideas to foster critical thinking)
- As a starting point in planning
There is so much to learn, and there are so many wonderful ways that we can use AI to help our students. If I’m being totally honest, at this point I am feeling very overwhelmed by it all. I suppose the best way to start is just by trying one thing at a time to see what sticks.
I’m curious, what are some beneficial ways you have used Generative AI in your classrooms? In what ways can I support my teachers as a facilitator when it comes to the use of AI?
Hi Jenni,
Thanks for your thoughtful post! I really liked your video’s analogy of utilizing sports as a metaphor for incorporating AI in the classroom. My one question about this metaphor or maybe a consideration is asking what exactly we are asking students to do in the classroom, and how AI can aid in this process. My hope y asking these questions would be to examine the structures/frameworks of our learning similar to the structure of the sport with pole vaulting and running 100m. The frameworks of these competitions did not change with the evolution of the event, but the technology did enhance results. So, how can we educators help to enhance the learning and process of these “events” without changing or diminishing the expectation of high-quality learning in the classroom?
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Jenni, This post is relatable. The metaphor of the AI being a flexible pole is apt, it can extend to help students reach higher goals, but as you astutely reflected, we must consider whether it’s really supporting the learning process. I agree that AI can make tasks easier, but it’s important that students still have challenges to meet to truly grow. As you explore ways to integrate AI, I believe the most important focus is how it can support critical thinking and how to use AI responsibly. Building life skills is important to obviously survive outside the classrooms.