Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom
Are Our Assignments Meeting Modern Student Needs? Facing Common Fears of AI in the classroom
There are many negative discussions surrounding AI in the classroom currently. For reference, I have linked a few below.
Educators worry about students using artificial intelligence to cheat
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/educators-worry-about-students-using-artificial-intelligence-to-cheat
Being a teacher means adapting to the current needs of a classroom, which change every year. I had to adjust my core beliefs and accept that these students grew up with Google. When they want to know something they search it up, read it, and then they know it. I demonstrated comprehension of materials by writing essays where I synthesized multiple events or ideas, but this wasn’t what I was asking my students to do. I had to accept that I was just asking them to rephrase the information that was already given to them. This is relevant when we discuss AI because assignments that could easily be completed by just putting the question into Google are also easily completed with putting the question into AI. It is our job to end the copy and paste epidemic that is taking over our schools, and that starts with adjusting our assignments. We need to “remind ourselves why we are assigning it – and reinforce the benefit it brings to our students” (Ditchthattextbook).
Many educators and researchers response to this, while some may view it an controversial, is to reevaluate the assignments that are being given to students. I remember last year I had students completing an assignment that required short answer summary responses. The students were furious with me. I originally thought they were upset because of the amount of work, however when I talked with them I learned that they felt the assignment was pointless. They told me that they felt like they were just restating what they had already read; one student specifically stated that they felt like they were just a human google, spitting out a rewrite of information that was already published.
Now, here are a few more articles that align with adjusting our assignments and tasks to meet the needs of modern learners. These focus on understanding that traditional education models are obsolete and offer solutions for how educators can change their expectations.
Why AI Makes Traditional Education Models Obsolete – and What to Do About It
https://www.minervaproject.com/insights/why-ai-makes-traditional-education-models-obsolete-and-what-to-do-about-it
The GPT college classroom is almost here, but professors say AI isn’t the real threat
https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-ai-university-school-student-educators-reaction-2023-8
How Can AI Align with TCE?
Curriculum is co-constructed
- Using AI is a great way for students and teachers to work together. By seeing educators embrace AI, we are showing students that we are not afraid of “cheating” , that we are willing to adapt and that we are modern learners ourselves.
- This is a new tool for everyone, and there is something very powerful about learning a new tool alongside your students. This can help the students feel empowered because we are able to ask for their feedback and discuss the AI tools with them as equals, not as leader/teacher and student/follower.
- Embracing AI requires that teachers question their own values and shy away from the traditional “AI is just plain cheating” mindset. It requires that we look at other discussions teachers and educational leaders are having around ways they are embracing AI in their classrooms. It turns teachers back into learners and it allows for really meaningful and equitable discussions to happen between educators and their students.
Teachers and Students Engage in Critical Consciousness
- Embracing AI means asking ourselves tough questions. For example, I had to ask myself what the purpose of the short answer summaries was that I was asking my students to complete. I had to take something that was a CORE element of my personal schooling and admit that it is becoming obsolete. This was difficult! However, it is these kinds of difficulties that increase critical consciousness in the classroom.
- This mindset shift helped once again remind me that I work in partnership with my students and the community, and not against them or on my own. I need to know my students, the world they are growing up in, and do my best to understand their relationship with technology. It requires me to remove my own experience as a student from my values and bias surrounding education, which can be hard but is necessary.
- Showing the students new and innovative ways to use AI in the classroom helped them think critically about the world around them. Yes, I can use these tools to write an essay in under a minute, but how else can I use these? AI is so new and our students are at the front of it, which puts them in a really powerful and unique position.
The Use of AI in a Secondary Social Studies Classroom – A Tool to Increase Teacher Happiness, Retention, and Job Satisfaction
I am interested in researching how the implementation of trauma-informed practice in classrooms can increase educator happiness, retention rates, and job satisfaction rates. AI aligns greatly with this theme because there are many tools that educators can use to aid them in the classroom. In a world of larger class sizes, decreased availability of classroom aids, and the social emotional support that our students need, AI can help educators across the nation meet their students needs while also helping them adjust their time and energy.
Classpoint
- Classpoint is something that I can easily add in and truthfully, I am really excited to try it. We are starting a unit on progressivism and during the beginning of the week we are building our understanding of the content knowledge. This is the phase in the unit where multiple choice questions about content can be really helpful in building their foundational knowledge. I am hesitant to see how this will work in tandem with Peardeck, but eager to find out.
The Use of a ClassPoint Tool for Student Engagement During Online Lesson
https://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/ace2021/ACE2021_61372.pdf
AI Graphic Art Generators
Canva: Magic Design
https://www.canva.com/magic-design/
- I will also be using graphics. The progressive era is filled with political cartoons and graphics that show the issues our nation was facing at the time. The students will be exposed to MANY meaningful graphics throughout the beginning of the week and I am going to ask them to use AI to create their own. I want to make sure the students are identifying key words and phrases and learning how to ask AI to make adjustments, building their twenty first century learner skills.
How I Will Plan to Try Out AI
CBCI Unit Plan Overview: My unit plan will be focused around building students’ creative thinking and metacognition skills. I scaffold choice-board unit performance tasks throughout the year and towards the last few units students are challenged to push themselves. I look forward to developing a unit surrounding social transformations in the United States, with a focus on scientific inquiry, the shift to a technological economy, impact of mass media and expansion of civil rights. The unit will be focusing on the following learning targets:
-Following World War II, the United States experienced a struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil rights.
-The postwar economic boom and advances in science and technology, produced changes in American life.
-Political debates focused on the extent of the role of government in the economy, environmental protection, social welfare and national security
Processes I will use to Implement CBCI in the Unit Plan:
I will identify essential key concepts for students to learn, and the students will choose one main concept to focus their project on
Students will use their own pre-assessment data to guide their learning
Students will write their own essential questions that their classmates will use to peer-grade
The multi-element choice board will include options that appeal to multiple intelligences/learning styles
Choice board options will be the same for all students, however, the information used to respond to the prompts and demonstrate comprehension will be differentiated for students who are ELL, Gifted, have an IEP in place, are in an honors level-course, or require other individualized adjustments
Using AI in CBCI Unit Plan:
I will definitely be using Turnitin during my CBCI unit plan. Students are writing their own essential questions and their classmates will peer-grade. I am also going to have TurnitIn grade their responses. The first step is students formulating a response to the essential question, which I may attempt to have them use AI to do as well. However, this means that I will be receiving a large amount of structured responses in a very short period of time. Since the unit plan builds daily, the quicker I can provide feedback the better it is for the students. This can really decrease my turn-around time for grading their responses and give them immediate feedback that they can use.
A Collection of Resources on How AI Can Make Education More Personal, Assist Teachers in the Classroom, and Improve Instruction.
7 AI Tools That Help Teachers Work More Efficiently
https://aiforgood.itu.int/4-ways-ai-can-optimize-learning-and-teaching/
AI In Education: 5 Ways it Can Assist Teachers
https://www.viewsonic.com/library/education/ai-in-education-5-ways-it-can-assist-teachers/
AI Can Make Education More Personal (Yes, Really)
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-ai-can-make-education-more-personal-yes-really/2023/08
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introduction-ai-education-revolutionizing-learning-technology
Pros and Cons of AI
| Pros of AI in the Classroom | Cons of AI in the Classroom |
| – Personalized Learning – Provide Assistance to Educators -Increased Accessibility -Improved Assessments, including personalized feedback -Increased Engagement -Data Analysis | -Lack of Human Interaction -Data Privacy -Cost -Technical Challenges -Controversial Opinions on the Role of Educators -Many believe that this could make educators obsolete |
AI In the Classroom: Pros, Cons And the Role of EdTech Companies
Bias in AI
Unfortunately, the more we use these tools the more we become aware of their cons. One major con that can be particularly harmful in our classrooms is bias present in AI. AI can show bias based on gender, race, location, etc. Educators are morally and ethically responsible for educating themselves on these issues and MUST be diligent about what tools they use in their classrooms, along with being prepared to have discussions should any biases show themselves.
First off I LOVE all of the outside articles you included in your blog! It’s so nice to have so many resources located on the same page. Personally, I’m still learning about all of the AI tools out there and enjoy reading the articles about AI tools and general information about AI in education. The ‘Why AI Makes Traditional Education Models Obsolete – and What to Do About It’ article link you included was an interesting read. It made a great point that it is time to evaluate and change our ‘current’ teaching model and adapt it to the times, especially when considering AI’s role in the classroom. Also, I like how you called educators modern learners because even though we are teachers, we should always be willing to learn about new trends, techniques and implementing AI in effective ways.
Thank you! I almost felt a bit “overkill” with all of the outside pieces but I really dove head first into this topic – haha. I often have to remind myself that teachers are still learners too – I think the students appreciate when we are human and vulnerable and admit that we don’t know things, or are still learning.