At first glance, generative ai technology, with its potential to boost individualized learning, lends itself well to the flipped learning teaching model, say Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, co-authors of Flip your classroom, which helped launch the flipped learning movement. However, they also have concerns.
Bergmann says he has yet to see tools that truly enable the technology's one-on-one mentoring potential. Meanwhile, Sams is concerned about potential bias in the technology and lack of transparency around the algorithms governing some of the most popular generative ai tools.
<h2 id="ai-and-flipped-learning-potential”>Flipped Learning Potential and ai
When it comes to the potential of ai to assist in flipped learning, it doesn't take much imagination to see how the technology could help.
“In flipped learning, we talk about group space-time and individual space-time,” says Bergmann, who teaches chemistry at Houston Christian High School when he's not helping other educators implement flipped learning and mastery in your classrooms. Advanced ai chatbots could help students progress through material when the teacher works with other students during group space-time and enhance learning that occurs in individual space-time.
“I don't think this tool exists, but I would love for it to exist. (When) students watch a video, there's kind of a message that says, 'What's confusing you about this video?'” Bergmann says. Suggest that the student respond that he does not understand how to solve x in this type of problem, or that he is confused about who the protagonist of the story is. The chatbot could help with specific student questions.
Similar tools could also help during group space (class time), especially when combined with the mastery learning techniques, which Bergmann now uses in his classes. Bergmann would also like to see an artificial intelligence tool that would give the teacher the power to guide students toward the correct answers.
“I would love to have tools where I could say, 'This is the kind of question and this is the answer that I would like,'” Bergmann says. Although he has not yet seen tools with these capabilities, he believes those technological obstacles will soon be resolved.
<h2 id="ai-bias-concerns”>Concerns about ai bias
More concerning than the technical limitations of generative ai is its potential for bias. This is concerning in any classroom, whether it's flipped or not, says Sams, an education professor at Saint Vincent College.
Unfortunately, you don't have to look too hard to find this bias. ai-generator-gemini-misses-the-mark#:~:text=Google%20races%20to%20find%20a,Gemini%20misses%20the%20mark%20%3A%20NPR&text=Hourly%20News-,Google%20races%20to%20find%20a%20solution%20after%20AI%20generator%20Gemini,images%20went%20viral%2C%20embarrassing%20Google.” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://www.npr.org/2024/03/18/1239107313/google-races-to-find-a-solution-after-ai-generator-gemini-misses-the-mark#:~:text=Google%20races%20to%20find%20a,Gemini%20misses%20the%20mark%20%3A%20NPR&text=Hourly%20News-,Google%20races%20to%20find%20a%20solution%20after%20AI%20generator%20Gemini,images%20went%20viral%2C%20embarrassing%20Google.” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” data-hl-processed=”none”>Google recently stopped its ai image generator after he described Nazi soldiers as black, and ai-works” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://www.foxnews.com/media/google-ceo-admits-experts-dont-fully-understand-ai-works” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” data-hl-processed=”none”>Google CEO admitted to Google engineers We don't always fully understand why ai models do what they do.
These issues cause Sams, who is typically an early adopter of new technologies in education, to oppose the use of generative ai in schools for the time being.
“Bias is ingrained and we don't know where it is, what it is, why it's there, how it got there and what we can do about it,” she says. “And then we're using that in our educational tools, that scares me to death, and I don't think we should go down that path until all of these things are available for the public to see and we know what it is.” doing and how he is doing it.”
<h2 id="the-future-of-ai-and-flipped-learning”>The future of ai and flipped learning
Although it is still early, there has been some research looking at the impact of ai on flipped learning. A mini review of Initial studies on ai chatbots used in flipped classrooms was published in May 2023. The study concluded that combining ai chatbots with flipped learning “could lead to benefits such as greater student interaction with learning content, better lesson preparation, and based teaching and learning.” in data. However, potential challenges included limited technical functionality, lack of authenticity, and insufficient student motivation.”
Even if ai is more fully integrated into flipped classrooms, teachers will have nothing to worry about, Bergmann says. He compares this to a similar concern in the early days of flipped learning.
“I've said this for a long time about investing: it changes the role of the teacher. But the teacher is more valuable because in flipped and mastery learning classrooms we can work at the highest cognitive levels because students receive the introductory material ahead of time,” she says.
Bergmann adds that anyone can submit material. “There's a video on YouTube about everything I teach,” he says. “So the dissemination of information is not so much the teacher's job. He is helping them wrestle with more difficult concepts and I think ai could be a partner in that as time goes on.”
