Remember when “big data” was the buzzword in education a decade ago? Books about big data were published, but what exactly was it?
Big data described the large and growing masses of data and the process of analyzing student performance. This became complicated and big data was often just that: too big. In fact, shorter data sets were shown to be effective, and I have written about them The power of small victories.Track microsteps in student progress.
In a strange and disturbing way, we face a similar challenge with the flood of artificial intelligence. A flurry of ai platforms and products are coming to educators in this pioneering stage, which can be exciting and exhausting. How can we bypass the irrelevant, the overly complicated, the too expensive, or whatever, and figure out how to leverage innovative ai concepts and tools?
I have been fortunate to practice addressing the challenges of ai through my extensive experience presenting and writing about it in education. During that time, I have silenced all the noise by identifying three components of ai that provide the foundation for effectively and efficiently capturing your notably imperfect potential and productivity.
To keep it simple for educators, here are the three main facets they need to understand before using ai in classrooms:
- Ethics
- Incitement
- Resource Tools
That's all! I could end here, but I guess that would be a cliffhanger. . . so I'll explain it to you.
<h2 id="1-simplifying-ai-for-educators-ethics”>1. Simplifying ai for educators: ethics
I recently presented to high school English teachers about ai. Ethics were important and I took the time to break down the subcategories within it.
First, plagiarism: If generative ai can produce unique passages, won't students use it to cheat more? A legitimate concern. Historically, plagiarism and the broader context of cheating have caused understandable alarm on the part of teachers charged with assessing student learning and mastery. If ai makes it easier, won't student cheating increase?
Here's the good news. Surprisingly, a ai-chatgpt-homework-help-detector/14178700/” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://abc7news.com/ai-chatgpt-homework-help-detector/14178700/”>study in which thousands of students participated that were surveyed anonymously showed that plagiarism remained unchanged from prior access and use of ai. ai detectors have had mixed success, despite the claims, and like all good teaching, some of the best methods involve good old-fashioned detection, like these. Seven ways to detect the use of ai in student writing..
I discovered an additional technique to detect ai. After completing a written response, have students write three level three DOK questions based on their essay (in class, upon request after writing the essay). This will indicate if they wrote it, revised it, or copied and pasted it because this process will allow them to demonstrate their thought processes.
Providing safeguards helps comfort teachers, and letting students know that these techniques are in play increases the likelihood that they will stay on the high moral ground.
Another ethical issue is the problem of ai hallucinations, such as recently when ai was asked to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl. Google's Gemini and Microsoft's Copilot chatbots answered questions about the ai-chatbots-fabricate-super-bowl-stats-hallucinates-data.htm” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://www.techtimes.com/articles/301535/20240211/google-microsoft-ai-chatbots-fabricate-super-bowl-stats-hallucinates-data.htm”>game with completely made up statistics and results.
This highlights the continuing struggles of large linguistic models (LLMs) to separate fact from fiction. Sharing this and other ai hallucinations, along with well defined videos, further encourages students to proceed with caution, even if using ai as a source. Students can adequately ai%3Futm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dcpc%26utm_campaign%3D19962285088%26utm_content%3D654566133016%26utm_term%3D%26target%3D%26targetid%3Ddsa-1994941341094%26adgroup%3D154778979344%26device%3Dc%26matchtype%3D%26placement%3D%26network%3Dg%26extension%3D%26clickid%3DCj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB%26gad_source%3D1%26gclid%3DCj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB%26gclsrc%3Daw.ds” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://www.grammarly.com/citations/apa/generative-ai?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=19962285088&utm_content=654566133016&utm_term=&target=&targetid=dsa-1994941341094&adgroup=154778979344&device=c&matchtype=&placement=&network=g&extension=&clickid=Cj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds” data-hl-processed=”hawklinks” data-placeholder-url=”https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=19962285088&utm_content=654566133016&utm_term=&target=&targetid=dsa-1994941341094&adgroup=154778979344&device=c&matchtype=&placement=&network=g&extension=&clickid=Cj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&b=864277&u=1338591&m=26748&afftrack=hawk-custom-tracking&urllink=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.grammarly.com%2Fcitations%2Fapa%2Fgenerative-ai%3Futm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dcpc%26utm_campaign%3D19962285088%26utm_content%3D654566133016%26utm_term%3D%26target%3D%26targetid%3Ddsa-1994941341094%26adgroup%3D154778979344%26device%3Dc%26matchtype%3D%26placement%3D%26network%3Dg%26extension%3D%26clickid%3DCj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB%26gad_source%3D1%26gclid%3DCj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14FibM7oHo3v14Nyaj_ExVqEopEWZNJa8Q2yCG1qIRDRpWnjb01WA9caAhMREALw_wcB%26gclsrc%3Daw.ds” rel=”sponsored noopener” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” data-google-interstitial=”false” data-merchant-name=”grammarly.com” data-merchant-id=”29339″ data-merchant-url=”grammarly.com” data-merchant-network=”Generic”>quote generative ai for transparency, using smart plug-and-play tools.
I am often asked if ai is biased. My answer is no, but the huge internet ecosystem from which you get information is. I demonstrate this by using an image generator to expose natural images. tendencies to produce biases, like when I urge you to create images of successful businesspeople and a clear stereotype emerges. Importantly, I explain how to fix these biases, which is a valuable lesson to teach students.
Educators must be aware of the inevitable inequalities that persist in the case of ai as well. Unfortunately, marginalized students already face the risk of inequalities, just as they did during the pandemic. Knowing inequalities can help educators and school communities alternative solution these.
2. Incite
With prompts we learn about strategic ways we can get information to educators. LLM as ChatGPT, The Microsoft Copilotand Google Geminiall offer a variation of ability to generate information based on the power of their cues.
Prompts can be most closely compared to a good old-fashioned Google search. However, within ai, there is more power in both the production and the risks associated with this power (e.g. hallucinations). Therefore, the greatest thought and practice that goes into incitingbest result.
The good news is that LLMs have the ability to provide continuous, interactive prompt-based chats, so you can start broad and refine as you wish. I even told the chatbot: “No, I mean this…” to clarify when it misunderstands if I don't provide a sufficiently qualitative initial message.
Knowing this can free a fearful user from worrying about prompts, and in my workshops, educators discover this.
This is the widest net because all the edtech companies are trying to get into the ai game. While some opportunities for tech geeks like me make this fun, it can be overwhelming. Most of the best resources are freemium models, which force you to pay after a trial period or limit your capacity beyond a number of uses, or offer more sophisticated options if you upgrade.
Both Microsoft and Google are eager to enter the educational ai landscape and are big enough to offer premium features, whether free or cheap. The new Copilot looks impressive and provides 4.0 access to anyone, while ChatGPT (from OpenAI) still offers level 3.5 for free, which has some benefits, although you have to pay to upgrade to 4.0. Google's Gemini is similar to Copilot, but like everything Google, it's hard to pinpoint what changes are being made: for example, Google has already renamed its ai from Bard to Gemini!
Many other ai tools are available and I offer a simplistic library of resources for educators, but remember that most want you to pay eventually. For now, stick with the LLMs that come from big companies like Microsoft and thank capitalism for the pretty solid free versions. I also like ai/” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://www.perplexity.ai/”>Perplexityanother promising artificial intelligence tool.
There you have it. Ethics, directions and resource tools. Those are the tangible, sustained components you need to know about artificial intelligence in schools. The ebb and flow of everything else is just noise. Stick to these components and Big ai will be manageable, even advantageous!
