There are a lot of mixed feelings in education in regards to the use of AI. But its time for the conversation to move beyond "kids use it to cheat," and "it might replace teachers!" We need to move on towards discussing and finding ways to best implement it. Love it or hate it, AI is here and it's here to stay. From the Teacher Lens Approach with Caution The Cons - AI is still in its beginning stages and it is flawed. From the perspective of using it as a professional and through the lens of allowing students access to it considering the following.
The Pros-Overall, AI can be used as a tool to save time on tasks that can be automated to then move focus to student engagement, interaction, and building lessons that are both authentic and engaging to student learning. Align to the Science of Reading For many teaching professionals, the Science of Reading has created a strong shift in their teaching. A shift that requires materials that sometimes, at least in upper grades, are not engaging, not relevant, or simply non existence. AI provides teachers with a tool to quickly provide resources to use in the classroom. Need a list of words that match the morpheme you are teaching? Done.
From the Student Lens Cons
Explicitly Teach Critical Literacy and Being a Critical Consumer of Information In today's world, we have to teach students how to be critical consumers of information, and why that is so crucial in today's world. This of course goes beyond just AI, but in its current state is especially critical to the use of AI by students. With a tool that is known to amplify bias, they must be taught to question what biases might be present and what perspective is truly being represented. This again is crucial in any type of reading they do. Currently there are many reading curriculum on the market being adopted by districts for their supposed alignment to the science of reading but at the same time, the curriculum have been evaluated as being culturally destructive. Biases are present in most of the information we consume and we gave to proceed from a lens of teaching students how to critically analyze any information they are given. Preventing Cognitive Atrophy If used inappropriately without explicitly teaching how to use it as a tool to harness creativity and expression, students could easily develop what is known as cognitive atrophy. If we present it as something that will only help a kid spit out an essay without thought, we will be on quite the slippery slope. However, if presented in ways that will help strengthen their cognitive muscles, we can ensure that we prevent over reliance on it. We can sure that students are using it to enhance the way they think about and see the world. If we stop and reflect, who wouldn't use a tool that could bust out a well written five paragraph essay in five seconds? We need to stop, reflect, and ensure our students are experiencing AI in ways that enhance their reading, writing, and critical thinking. Re-frame Purpose of Assignments There are so many opportunities to simply have fun. In the past, I have had kids write songs to display their learning in content area (for example, a rap about Plate Tectonics) to be blunt, the level of skill this requires is immense and often too much for 4th grade. After years of teaching it became an option or an extension and not something I did whole group until... AI. Now the song can be created with prompting. Students still must use their knowledge in the prompt if they want the song to truly display their learning. The assignment then becomes a practice in building fluency for whoever needs it, continuing to practice and memorize the content, creativity, public speaking and enjoyment. Enhance Writing Students absolutely need to be good writers in order to properly prompt AI. A wonderful example activity is having students create a fictional animal. Students must use their descriptive writing skills to then prompt AI to generate a picture of their animal. This can and will lead to many revisions and often to the realization that AI is imperfect. AI can also be used (with caution) to provide instant feedback to students. The issue here is you must explicitly teach how to analyze the advice as it may not always be valid. Focus on Creativity, Expression and Communication Students will be given so many chances to simply create. In situations where they are prompted to create their own business, they can now easily prompt AI to create their own logo. They will be able to use their voices to animate cartoons, write scripts that can be brought to life with background images they create with descriptive prompts... its an exciting world out there. And I personally cannot wait to jump farther into it all.... with caution.
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July 2024
"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." - Alexandra K. Trenfor |