This week, I worked with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom. AI is here and will not be gone anytime soon. It is actually becoming more prevalent in school settings than ever before. AI can offer help and speed up the lesson planning process, but it’s important to remember the possible biases, and AI does not replace a teacher. We can address the biases in the classroom by incorporating diverse perspectives and creating a more inclusive classroom. Check out this article about AI in the classroom.
AI Biases
A lot of the bias comes from computer coders and their algorithms. We are teachers, not programmers. We need to help correct the biases that we can control. When using AI in the classroom, we need to be aware of the content that it has gathered from all over and may not be accurate. This can be done by proofreading responses before giving them to students. We can incorporate diverse perspectives and voices in the materials, such as word problems. All of this can help with the biases of AI by looking at it through the social justice lens. AI does not account for the diverse needs of your students or classroom. For example, my student’s socioeconomic status is diverse, and they may not have had all the experiences that AI may think they have. Check out this article about AI bises in the real world: https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/shedding-light-on-ai-bias-with-real-world-examples
Pros of AI in the Classroom
Allows learners to learn at their own pace: It can help differentiate instruction and adapt to a specific learner’s text level. Differentiation is extremely important in the primary to meet the needs of the learners.
Enhanced engagement: learning can be more interactive, including educational games
Customized support: AI can identify where students need extra support, scaffolding, or enrichment based on their responses to questions.
This provides teachers with more time. Can create lesson plans and grade papers, allowing them more time for individualized instruction.
Cons of AI in the Classroom
Relying too heavily on AI: Some may not proofread and have an inaccurate assignment.
Lack of human element: Students can do all of the work without learning, which does not really help them understand at a critical level.
Lack of Accessibility: Not all students have access to technology.
TCE Thresholds
Curriculum is more than standards, textbooks, or courses of study.
- AI can help align lessons to the standards and generate standardized practice test questions; it can go past by meeting the diverse needs of students. There is a tool that can adapt the text level to meet the needs of specific students who may need more scaffolding or need the text to be lowered. You can also create real-world connections that can increase student understanding and engagement. Students can be more successful in the classroom and out when they can relate to the learning and provide learning that is personalized to them. This can also help with their confidence and help them be more successful.
Both teachers and students have empowerment/agency.
- With AI, students do have the potential to further their agency. The tools can help students with more personalized learning experiences that are tailored to their needs. AI can be more interactive, allowing students to take more ownership of their learning. This can then lead to the empowerment of students to be more comfortable with their learning and want to explore more concepts at a deeper level.
AI in Third-Grade STEM
This week, I played around with Magic School, a great teacher tool. It offers many features, such as text differentiation for students, assignment rubric creation, text summarization, science labs, real-world connections, and an IEP generator. I specifically utilized the real-world connection feature, which generated word problems related to real-life scenarios. I provided the topic and question type for practice before we took a Mid-Module multiplication and division test.
The Good
- It took only seconds to generate the questions.
- Personalizable to my student’s interests.
- I took and copied Ohio standards for Third Grade and the questions were aligned.
- I was able to select the number of problems I wanted.
The Not so Good
- The problems had a lot of “fluff.”
- I had to copy and paste it into a Google document to allow students to solve the problems.
- The decision problems were too complex to solve.
Next time…
I plan to use Magic School again in the future. This tool saved me time and allowed me to work more with my students one-on-one. Using the real-world connections feature, my students were more interested and focused on the questions. I will, however, make a few changes to make the process run more smoothly. I will remove some of the extra wording that was used as “fluff” because some of my students struggled with reading it and it was there more for detail than needing to solve the problem. I would also change up the topic to allow for even more connection. To challenge my students appropriately, I would create three sets of word problems: intermediate, average, and accelerated. I would put these word problems into the stations we do in class to have students become more familiar with multiplication and division word problems.
If you want to learn more ways AI can be used in a STEM content area, check out this article on how AI is used in Math. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-ai-math-instruction/
Hi Rachel,
I wanted to comment on the reading being too difficult. I often find that AI goes a bit too high for the reading level, so I try to always say “for an 8th grade level” when generating a reading. I love the idea of having an easy, medium, and harder section to challenge your students!
Hi! Thank you for the suggestion on the wording for generating the questions. I will try that out next time I work with small groups. I wonder if I should set the level to fourth grade for my accelerated and gifted students, third grade for my average students, and second grade for my intervention students. This will allow for tier one and tier two instruction while also providing gifted instruction. Thank you for the ideas!
Hi Rachel, my school has a subscription to Magic School so that’s super cool that you were checking it out! I admittedly have not used it as well as I could (I’m usually just trying to translate everything)! I am a recent AI believer so it took me a minute to realize how valuable this could be! I think your usage of it was a great idea! I wonder how much editing you did the first time around? It definitely can be tempting to just take the beautiful document it provides and run with it! Will you use AI to generate the leveled questions you discuss for next time? Or do you think it will be better adjusted by you? Either way, love the work you did!
Hi! I didn’t spend too much time editing. I mainly added space for my students to show their work. I plan to use AI to generate leveled questions, which will require a bit more editing since my students will be working in small groups, and the text must be decodable. I love using AI to create word problems as it saves a lot of time.