AI in the Classroom: Secondary Social Studies

There is no replacement for human review

As incredible as artificial intelligence (AI) is, and continues to be as it is ever improving, all advice received and information provided consistently emphasize that there is no replacement for human review. AI is an incredible tool, it saves time, kickstarts ideas, completes busy work, and so much more, but it is just that: a tool. And like most tools, it is not perfect and can display bias in a number of ways and for a number of reasons including the following: 

Algorithmic, Implicit, and Selection bias are the three that I felt were most consequential when it comes to using AI in the classroom. 

• Algorithmic bias means that there is a problem in the algorithm the AI was trained upon. The code powering the AI is flawed meaning bias is built into the AI system.
• Implicit bias comes from humans. The person designing the AI system uses their own opinions and personal way of thinking to program the AI. This threatens bias because all humans naturally hold at the very least their own opinions which will keep the AI from being objective, balanced, or fair.
• Selection bias is perhaps the earliest point in which bias can sneak in. If the data set used is not large or representative enough the AI will be forced to make assumptions as it was not fed enough variance to begin with. For example, if the data set is too narrow, AI may assume that all nurses are women and only present that scenario when presented with questions pertaining to nursing. In terms of education, AI may assume that female students perform better than male students, that white students are more likely to succeed than students of color, so on and so forth, creating very serious problems in providing equitable education. 

Now, of course, this makes using AI sound problematic, perhaps even irresponsible, but let’s remember, AI is a powerful tool, but again, just a tool, which means the user has power over it. To combat the biases that can result from AI there are three things humans can and should do to use this tool responsibly.

1. First, remember who is in charge, you do not have to bend to the will of AI. It is there to serve you
2. Second, review your AI results! Remember the title of this section? There is no replacement for human review. You know what you are looking for as you went to AI seeking something out, double check the AI result to ensure it is giving you first, what you actually are looking for, and second, something that is free of bias. You know your audience, pick and choose from AI, edit results, it’s yours to manipulate as you see fit.
3. Finally, shop around with AI. There is an ever expanding network of AI services, if one isn’t giving you what you want, or you fear is representing biased results, then don’t use it! You are free to move on, or, compare AI. Choose three systems you’re interested in using and ask the same sample question to each, where does it guide you, what does it generate for you? Feel free to choose one, or use all.

The most important thing we must remember when using AI and working hard to avoid bias is that humans are in charge.

AI and Bias: TCE Thresholds

In education specifically, we can look at bias in relation to the TCE thresholds we have been examining:

1. Education is not neutral/Teaching is political: When looking at this threshold we should ask ourselves multiple questions, but perhaps the most important in relation to AI usage and bias being: what do teachers need to know about their content areas? Their students? Their school, community, and country? How are these limited by your individual identity? What does it take to work past these limitations once they are identified?  
   • In ourselves, as well as in AI, we need to check for bias, this was already established in the previous section, however, how do we check for bias if we do not know what our biases are. If we do not understand the content we must teach, and couple that with the content that is important to teach, we will not be able to make decisions about the information AI generates for us. If we do not understand our students, school, community, and country, we will now know what parts of AI generations need to be edited or removed. We must understand our environments to ensure that the information we generate is appropriate, and free of bias toward the environment within which we teach. The most important part of being able to identify these shortcomings of AI is being able to identify these shortcomings within yourself and then do the work to correct them and educate yourself. It is one thing to know that you do not know your students’ community well and just sit in that ignorance, it is another to recognize that ignorance and then take action to remedy it. If we can recognize and remove our shortcomings and biases, then we can do the same in AI. 
2. Curriculum is more than standards, textbooks, or courses of study: When addressing this TCE threshold, the most important question we must ask ourselves is: How does the subject matter taught in schools reflect and impact the lives of your (future) students, and larger social issues? 
   • What we teach our students must go beyond our standard textbook or what they are going to see on their standardized tests. If our goal really is to create lifelong learners, a love of learning, and help students see how they can relate to the content then we need to build a curriculum that goes beyond our provided materials. AI is a great tool to help us do this and ensure that student learning and thinking brings about greater depth of knowledge (DOK) however, if we fail to recognize the biases that may result from AI usage then the subject matter we are teaching will impact our student’s lives and the way they interact with social issues, but likely not in the way intended. Bias could reinforce the way students see themselves in relation to these social issues, perpetuate social issues, and damage our goals in the education of our students. Absolutely we should use AI to generate ideas and lesson plans that are related to our required content, but also brings us beyond this, but we, as always, must take AI with a grain of salt, review what it generates, and edit it. A previously stated, we know what we are looking for when we turn to AI, so we should feel free to make cuts, adjustments, and additions to serve our students correctly and effectively and in a way that is free of bias.

Exploration into AI

To aid in my own lesson planning and work I used three AI tools this week to get started. I used Eduaide to generate discussion questions for me, I used chatGPT to develop an answer key and level reading passages for me, and I used MagicSchool AI to translate documents for my ELL students.

• I used Eduaide to generate discussion questions for my sophomore U.S. History class. Each day my students answer a “starter” question (a bell-ringer) that we discuss as a class after they have had time to think and talk with neighbors. Sometimes these are review questions, sometimes I’m looking for one specific answer, or sometimes we use these to discuss topics. No matter my goal of starters, it can be a challenge to think of one for every day of the week. While Eduaide did develop many discussion questions for me, I really only borrowed one from the list that felt usable or even editable to be appropriate for my students. I think if I spent more time with the program things may have gone better but I felt the home page was not very user friendly, the keyword box was a good idea, but I don’t think what I put in the box helped the AI generate what I needed, and, it took me a minute to even figure out how to get the AI to begin generating responses! Eduaide did leave me slightly frustrated, however, the discussion that sprang from this search with my students was rich and involved. Almost every student in the class participated in the discussion time and some really good thoughts about what we have been learning, as well as how this relates to their lives sprang out of the discussion which was a great way to start class. 
•  ChatGPT was perhaps the most impressive AI program I used. Intuitive design and easy to begin using, I’ve even been keeping a tab open on my computer in case I think of something it could help me with. I started out as I was muddling through grading wondering if I could feed it a document and ask for an answer key. Good news, you can, and the answer key was very impressive! I asked it to give me an answer key based on a set of sources my students used, not only did it give an accurate answer to every question, on ones that are more opinion-based it replied “answers may vary” but still offered me an example answer. Not only was I deeply impressed with its ability and accuracy, my Achilles’ heel of teaching is being a slow grader. Having Ai generate me an accurate and detailed answer key has cut my grading time down significantly, this makes my students happier, and makes me happier, as it frees me up to do what I actually love to do, teach! 
• I also used ChatGPT to level texts for me. Both my classes took tests this week and each text had a passage based question in it. Nearly all of my students do not read at grade level and I felt, since they had not seen this reading before, it was important that I level it down for them. I was nervous to do this because often when texts are simplified for reading level, detail is lost, so I asked ChatGPT if it could re-level the passage without removing any detail, it answered right away with an appropriate passage with all the detail the previous one held. ChatGPT is a sophisticated AI that I am wildly pleased with, I know for sure I will be using it again and it will save me time.
• The last AI system I used was Magic School. Magic School AI has all kinds of programs within it, and I have used it to generate some test questions in the past when I was in a pinch, but what has been most helpful to me recently is the translation generator. It can translate documents, texts, even powerpoints which has been unbelievably helpful as I have seven students this year who don’t speak English at all and somewhere around thirty who have English as a second language. While the translation is not always perfect, and if documents are laid out a specific way the AI struggles with organizing information on a page, this has changed my education ability and saved me hours as a teacher! Students can always have something in front of them in English, and in their native language. This has proven to help students relax and grow more comfortable and confident in class, it has helped students develop their English skills more quickly, and it has allowed these students a chance to succeed because of their knowledge, not because of how well they know English.

Overall, I see my AI use as a success, as something I would absolutely try again and expand my use of! If I did need to change something, I would spend more time with Eduaide, I don’t think, if my knowledge of the program were better, I would feel as frustrated about it. While I feel like AI has won me over, I still feel nervous about some of it. For example, the other day I was speaking with a teacher in my department about our lesson plans for the day and he said, “I don’t know what I’m teaching today, hello ChatGPT!” This statement caught me off guard, it’s one thing to borrow ideas from AI, it is completely another to generate a lesson morning of, certainly not have time to vet it, and just throw it in as your day’s lesson plan. Of course there are times this may be necessary, we need an emergency sub plan, for example, but overall, to be blunt, I felt like this was lazy and irresponsible. Just because we have AI, doesn’t mean there is no need for human intervention and connection with your students. I came to realize that I do support AI usage, but that’s just it. We should be prepared to use AI, not rely on it.

Hey everyone! Check out my newest blog post about AI in the classroom. Beware of bias, read my blog to see how we can combat it! https://t.co/CosskRGvYF

@TCE623 @edutopia @usedgov #exemplaryteaching #AI

— Annie Aumiller (@Annie6405) October 27, 2024