AI in the Classroom: Unlocking Potential Without Fear
Written by: Jason Walke
One of the most controversial topics within education right now are those scary two letters “AI.” How is an educator supposed to handle artificial intelligence in the classroom? School districts have been creating their own policies that range from complete avoidance and no use to having no policy and everything in between. AI does not have to be seen as a threat in the classroom. As an educator, it comes down to how you treat AI and how you promote its use to your students.
“We understand that AI probably isn’t going away any time soon and that many businesses are grasping the use of AI, so we want our students to be able to understand it and use it in an ethical manner.”
As part of a policies and procedures committee within our school, I was able to help define our school’s approach to AI. Essentially, we have what many call an “acceptable and ethical use policy.” We understand that AI probably isn’t going away any time soon and that many businesses are grasping the use of AI, so we want our students to be able to understand it and use it in an ethical manner. This doesn’t mean that they can use AI by putting an essay prompt into ChatGPT and asking it to create a student-made essay response. Some of the safeguards against this taking place is that many teachers will require a few early-in-the-semester assignments to be handwritten or will do personal writings that do not make sense for the student to use AI. After these assignments, the teacher is able to pick up on the personal writing style of the student and some of the nuances that make their writing unique to them. AI checkers do get used, but we also know that they can be at fault, so between AI checkers as well as having an understanding of the student’s writing style, it is typically pretty easy to pick up if something had been created entirely by AI, just the same as when a student plagiarizes.
In my classroom of high school juniors and seniors, I focus on teaching them to use AI as an efficiency tool. There are many articles and reports about how AI is ruining people’s creativity. However, if used properly, it can be used to bolster creative juices. In business classes, we will brainstorm on paper for project ideas when starting a project. After a brainstorming session, I have the students take a few of their favorite ideas and plug them into AI and ask AI to brainstorm similar ideas. Oftentimes, AI will help students connect ideas and put them together to create what they wanted, and they arrived at it in a more efficient manner. In a US History classroom, we will ask AI to play the role of a historical figure, and students will create an interview to learn more about that person and then create a podcast. Students are required to fact-check the information that AI gives for accuracy. This usually leads to a lesson on how AI is not always fully accurate, and that as AI users, we need to be sure we fully understand the information taken from AI before putting it to use. In an Economics class, we have used AI to help compare and contrast economic statistics across multiple countries. Students would research and find the information and feed it to AI, and then ask it to create certain charts and provide specific information based on those data sets. This makes for much more efficient use than trying to create them themselves.
“By using AI and being more efficient, it allows us to spend more time in class on building soft skills that are going to make them more productive and successful when entering the workforce.”
By using AI and being more efficient, it allows us to spend more time in class on building soft skills that are going to make them more productive and successful when entering the workforce. We spend less time in my classroom on fact memorization and more time on building critical thinking skills, time management, grit, communication skills and more. I remember sitting in my history classes as a high school student and needing to memorize certain dates, the Presidents in order and other such facts. Today, my thought has become that if I can “Google” such facts, I don’t focus as much on the memorization. Instead, we will focus our efforts on learning other information. Instead of focusing on memorizing the exact years and which number president, Woodrow Wilson was, we instead will spend time on trying to decide why he was aiding the Allied forces in WWI long before the US got involved and what all took place for him to decide that the US should enter the war. AI could then be used to “interview” President Wilson, and the interview would get fact-checked by the student.
AI provides the opportunity for students to be more creative and accomplish things in the classroom that would have once been too time-consuming. On a separate note, as an educator, you should also be making use of AI. AI can help make your job more efficient as well. It can aid in lesson planning, help provide feedback to students and so much more. Resources such as Magic School AI is great for educators to explore and use. You have a YouTube video clip you plan to show in class and want a worksheet to go with that to be sure students are paying attention and following along? Plug in the link, tell AI the type of questions you want or any other specifics you have, and it can create the worksheet for you and save you time.
AI is a resource that is going to be around a while. Don’t shy away from it. Embrace it and focus on how you and your students can make the best use of it. If done properly, it is another way that you will be setting your students up for success after their school days are over.
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