Journal Week 4: How can AI enhance teaching and learning?

As big a science fiction fan I am, I have to say I am not fully on the AI train.

More specifically, I am not a fan of seeing AI as a replacement of anything, but more as a tool. I have seen the benefits of AI in many aspects of my life—helping create baseline lesson plans for intense units in my ELA classroom, helping me plan the first big family Thanksgiving dinner by creating grocery lists and finding recipes that met my qualifications, and even helping answer some questions I had on a few tax forms. 

So if I approach AI in my classroom as a tool and not as a replacement for content or learning activities, I predict I may have success with it. Besides, denying AI's potential for assisting in the ELA classroom would be like denying the internet as a classroom tool when it emerged decades ago. Now, it's a requirement for any job or college.

In Tucker's "Applications of AI in Primary and Secondary Education," she notes that AI in the classroom is not only an efficient tool for content aligned with instructional standards, but for developing soft skills in students as well that they will need for both college and career readiness (Tucker 2024, p. 2). 

The first step Tucker explains is critical in implementing AI in the classroom is teaching media literacy that is adapted to all grade levels (Tucker 2024, p. 3). A key part of media and digital literacy is being able to discern between information that is accurate and inaccurate, as well as sources that are reputable and those that aren't. This skill is crucial for secondary students meeting their writing standards, needing to make sure their research is thorough, accurate, and reliable. This extends to AI because as AI searches through layers of material online and generates responses, students need to be able to comb through the text to verify it.

In ChatGPT's early days, I was teaching tenth grade English. My students were the lower scorers on the FAST exam from the previous May and we were working toward their tenth grade exams which required an essay. To practice, I had them practice an argumentative prompt that had them analyze our unit's texts MLK's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and Elie Wiesel's "Night" and explain each author's use of rhetorical appeals to achieve their purpose. One of my student's turned in a paper that claimed Elie Wiesel had been assassinated in 1944 at his home in Memphis, TN. Clearly, ChatGPT had confused the texts and my student lacked either the a) knowledge to correct it or b) the effort or ability to proofread his paper. Because there were no AI checkers and I couldn't prove he had used the generative text (even though his vocabulary scores were directly inverse to the diction of his essay) I couldn't officially report him for cheating, but after I confronted him and asked, he agreed to take a failing grade instead. It was a defeating moment because our district was not encouraging us to concede that there was anything remotely beneficial about AI in education, and I had no time in the curriculum to help students brainstorm solutions.

Thinking of AI as a solution to brainstorming is a better description than just calling it a "tool." In his TedTalk below, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman explores the many potential uses of AI, but my interest is piqued at 14:41 when he tells the story of a man using ChatGPT to check his dog's symptoms and bouncing them off of different vets to get the right treatment that ended up being lifesaving:

One of the main fears of AI in education seems to boil down to cheating, and by extension that means students losing the ability to develop very critical thinking and analysis skills. Tucker addresses this as well.

Part of developing the proper literacy needed to navigate AI in the classroom is helping students understand what kinds of assignments would be appropriate for AI and which ones would not. As a teacher, if I use AI to help me create lesson plans, it's very unlikely that I will stick to the original recommendations AI gives me. My discernment combined with my knowledge in my subject and field allow me to use AI as a jumping off point to explore creative and innovative ways to present content. 

Tucker says, "What will make students valuable in the future is to be able to make up for weaknesses that AI tools have, and one of these is the ability to be human (2024, p. 5)." There are a number of skills and abilities students must have to be college and career ready that will likely never be adopted by AI, or at least will be very difficult to complete. Collaboration with peers, emotional intelligence, nuances in communication—if students can effectively demonstrate these while using AI as the tool that helps them meet their academic standards, they will be ahead of the curve when they graduate. 

In addition to stronger human skills, they will also be equipped with the skills to generate effective prompts for AI that will help them yield the results they need, making their AI interaction a tool instead of a dependency (Tucker 2024, p. 6). At this point in AI's development and implementation, it would be more of a disservice to students to not implement it in instruction to allow them to develop the skills they need to work with it and to help them master their academic standards. 

Tucker suggests modifying class assignments so there is less dependency on AI for parts of assignments, like group projects or presentations. Students could use AI within a certain set of rules, but they would still be responsible for presenting the actual information and explaining AI's role in their project (2024, p. 6). They could also use AI to help them move past "road bumps" in their assignments, such as script writing for a video or an outline for a final presentation and provide the report that explains how and why they used AI in their project (Tucker 2024, p. 7). 

It's no use denying AI's role in our society and its potential future impact on society. As I noted before, to deny students the opportunity to work with AI and develop crucial skills they will need for college and career would be a disservice to them and antithetical to the role of an educational institution. Although I am still cautious of dependency on AI, I am hopeful and positive for its future in our classrooms and beyond. 

References:

Tucker, L. G. (2024). Applications of AI in primary and secondary education (Master's thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).