Fitting Artificial Intelligence Into a Traditional and Flexible Classroom

My Experience with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Through the Years

The first experience I remember with AI was Microsoft Office's Clippit, commonly known as Clippy. This semi-useful, comical, and regularly frustrating virtual assistant would definitely have been helped by the progression in computing, machine learning, and other AI progress of the past two decades. 
 
Image Credit: Microsoft Developer, recovered from 
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-life-death-microsoft-clippy-paper-clip-loved-hate  

Outside of Clippy, most of my experience with AI was masked inside of the functionality of their programming. Until watching this video I never considered that Google Maps utilized AI processing, which after it being pointed out seems like a no-brainer. The real time data and machine learning that Maps uses are key aspects of AI. Other AI aspects that I remember pre-dating ChatGPT and the current AI revolution are chat windows on websites, autocomplete, Grammarly, and spelling and grammar check functions in word processors.  
Image Credit: Screenshot Duke University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0m6yaGlZh4&t=49s 

AI has now become such a normal part of life while engaging with technology that sometimes I do not even realize AI is being used. This new development is here to stay and we will each need to address its use and the impact it has on us both as global, technology using, citizens and as educators. While exploring AI this week I confirmed that I did not have a high level of understanding of its direct and indirect impact on education. Researching AI led me to some new tools to use as a teacher, resources for teaching students about AI, and a lot more cool things that AI can do. 

AI in the Classroom and/or for the Teacher

There are many pre-existing technology tools that are introducing new A.I. features. For example, EdPuzzle has added a feature that will generate questions for a video. This is a great feature that can help save teachers time as they try and embed checks for learning inside of a video lesson/activity. Quizizz is another tool many teachers are already using that has added generative A.I. technology. This tool for generating questions for the Quizizz platform is something I am very excited to investigate further. 

A new teacher AI tool which I look forward to exploring is Brisk Teaching. This tool seems to have many options from presentation creation and augmentation to changing the reading level of materials for students and even helping in the feedback process to students. 

Student Focused AI

While taking a break from researching AI I was scrolling Facebook and of course, numerous AI posts are flooding my feed. One such tool, Scite, seems very intriguing from a student perspective. It seems as though this program helps facilitate literature searches and a number of comments about the platform mention how much faster it is than a traditional data base search. However, you still need access to the data bases in order to access the full article for all the details. 

Concerns with AI 

Chat GPT spans between students and teachers as a resource. This is one of the tools that I feel most conflicted about for its potential abuse by students. The ability of this platform to follow a set of criteria to create a response is impressive, it also means some students may try to take the answer written by Chat GPT and pass it off as their own original work, breaking academic integrity guidelines. 

I have a number of friends who are visual artists and they continually are reminding people on social media that AI generated art is infringing on peoples livelihoods, which is true. This brings up one of the ideas of a technological revolution, jobs change and the role of a human in society also shifts. There are certain technologies that are infringing on other jobs as well such as shopping technology that allows customers to check out by scanning as they shop and not needing a cashier. I do not know how far and into what industries this infringement will go but one thing we all probably need is better education on AI and its applicable laws and regulations. As something new, laws and guidelines are needing to be create while the things (AI tools) they are trying to control already exist and users have applied these tools to a number of situations already. I need to continue learning more about AI ] and to teach students about AI. aiEDU is a resource that I plan to use when teaching students more about AI. 

What to do with AI

For now, I am excited to try the various teacher tools that I addressed in this blog. Brisk will be a fully new tool for me so it will have the largest learning curve but it is also the most flexible. AI is certainly here to stay and it may cause industry disruptions in the process. I am hopeful that we as a society can see AI as a tool and impose situationally appropriate limitations to its use. For example, it may be appropriate to have Chat GPT write an email for you if you are struggling with how to respond. However, it would not be appropriate to submit an academic essay written by Chat GPT (or another person) and claim it as their own work. As with so many things with technology, it will be about balance and the correct, intentional, use of these new AI tools. 

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