Blended Learning Journey

Balancing AI and human ingenuity in education

This is the 3rd part of a series about the use and impact of AI in the classroom. As promised, in this installment we will explore ways to purposefully integrate technology so that it serves as an aid, rather than a replacement for human creativity and understanding.

Here’s what I have learned about designing lessons that both leverage the power of AI AND the power of human thinking.

The Power of AI

In the book “AI For Educators”, Matt Miller shares some of his favorite strategies for incorporating AI technology into the classroom. Here are some of my favorites:

Debate the Bot: Help students hone their debate skills and practice evaluating multiple perspectives by “debating the bot.” Assign students to one side of the debate and “assign” the AI bot to the other side of the debate. Ask the students to develop their talking points before engaging with AI. Once they have their argument outlined ask them to pose it to the bot. They can then use the rebuttal points provided by the bot to strengthen their own argument. Not sure which AI tool to use? I’d suggest either ChatGPT or Bard. Both are generative platforms with large data sets. I do think Bard is more student-friendly.

Grade the Bot: Give a writing prompt to AI and ask the students to assess it using a rubric. For example, in AP Psychology students are required to complete (2) free-response questions on their AP exams. To best prepare them for this, we practice writing FRQs throughout the year. I want them to be familiar with the style of writing and how it is assessed. I do a lot of scaffolding when I teach this skill. We practice in groups, with partners, individually, self-grade, and peer grade — all before it is assessed on a summative exam. You can see an example of what this might look like below.

Grade the Bot: Free Response Question Assignment (Google Drive)

Grade the Bot: Free Response Question Assessment (PDF)

Think, Pair, Bot, and Share: This is a fun twist on the traditional Think-Pair-Share. First, provide the students with a question, problem, or scenario to think about individually. Second, partner the students and ask them to share their thoughts, ideas, and responses with each other. Third, direct them to Bard and have them ask the bot the same question. Throughout this process, they should record the differences between their individual response and the other responses. Lastly, ask each pair to share what they discussed with the entire class.

Make a Bot Better: Provide the students with multiple AI-generated responses to a question or problem. Ask the students to synthesize the information from the different responses to create the best response possible. This requires them to critically analyze the accuracy of the information provided and identify the most important elements of a concept.

While these AI-based strategies offer exciting possibilities for enriching our classroom experiences, we also need to consider approaches that are resistant to AI technology. Let’s take a look at the power of human thinking.

The Power of Human Thinking

There are ways to structure assignments that make them less AI-friendly. Here are some suggestions:

• Focus on the process, not the product. Design opportunities for students to show and explain their work. For example, consider adding side-by-side grading to your lesson design. This provides time for you to meet briefly with individual students throughout the learning process.
• Include a metacognitive component. Metacognition means thinking about how you think. Ask students to explain how they learned, formed an opinion, or made something.
• Leverage the power of elaboration. Elaboration is a cognitive process that involves adding additional information or details to information being remembered. One way to do this is personalization. Ask students to relate the concept to their personal experiences. This makes the information more meaningful and the learning more durable. Plus, AI cannot produce products based on individual experiences. It’s just not in their data set!
• Make it course-specific. Ask the students to make specific references to your course materials — videos, activities, field trips, guest speakers, etc. I have found that one of the big red flags that I see that alerts me that a student used AI to generate work is that it references content that we haven’t covered in class.
• Eliminate the high-stakes nature of the assessment. High-stakes tests are, well, high-stakes. They can carry significant consequences ranging from eligibility to graduation to scholarship opportunities. The pressure to perform well on these assessments can create a strong incentive for some students to cheat. Shifting my focus to mastery learning has reduced the likelihood of this happening.
• Keep it recent and keep it local. Design your assignment around a local issue or concern. This limits the data that AI has to work with and makes it more personally meaningful for your students. Or, you can extend their learning and ask them to predict an outcome of a current event! AI struggles with questions of a speculative nature.
• Give it a trial run. Run your assignment prompt through an AI like ChatGPT or Bard before assigning it. If it does a really good job answering the question, change it. You can even ask AI how to change it. It will offer suggestions!

A Time and a Place

There is a time and a place for AI in the classroom. Our goal should not be to banish AI. It should be to guide our students in how to use it ethically and effectively. I hope that you learned something new from this article that you can use in your classroom! Please drop a comment with any questions that you would like to have addressed in future articles — or I would love it if you shared how you have incorporated AI into your classroom!

In my next post, we will explore how AI can give teachers more of the one thing they need most — TIME! Thanks for joining me.

Be Well,

Cori

Previous articles in this series:

101. The Transformative Power of AI

103. Navigating the Ethical Landscape of AI in Education

This article was originally posted of Medium. If you are a member of Medium, please give me a follow @https://medium.com/@corischwarzrock

Arendt-Bunds, A. (2023, July 27). 8 ways to use generative AI for student assessment. Faculty Club. https://faculty-club.com/teaching-with-technology/8-ways-to-use-generative-ai-for-student-assessment/

Jimenez, L., & Boser, U. (2023, July 18). Future of testing in education: Artificial intelligence. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/future-testing-education-artificial-intelligence/

Luckin, R. (2023, July 14). Yes, Ai could profoundly disrupt education. but maybe that’s not a bad thing | Rose LuckinRo. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/14/ai-artificial-intelligence-disrupt-education-creativity-critical-thinking

Mah, C. (2023, February 26). How to use CHATGPT as an example machine. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/chatgpt-example-machine/

Miller, M. (2023). AI for Educators Learning Strategies, teacher efficiencies, and a vision for an artificial intelligence future. Dave Burgess Consulting.

Phillips, V. (2023, June 8). Intelligent classrooms: What AI means for the future of Education. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/vickiphillips/2023/06/07/intelligent-classrooms-what-ai-means-for-the-future-of-education/