Artificial Intelligence, commonly known as AI, has prompted significant transformations in various aspects of our lives, with education being no exception. The rapid advancements in technology have empowered educators to leverage the potential of AI, allowing teachers to enrich teaching and learning experiences like never before.
It is important to acknowledge that not all AI models are the same; they possess distinct specializations. For instance, some chatbots are strong at generating content and providing feedback, but it may not always be entirely accurate in terms of facts. Therefore, when incorporating AI into student activities, it is necessary to begin with a fundamental lesson on digital literacy. AI serves as an exceptional tool, but it is not flawless. Nevertheless, it can serve as a valuable teaching aid, helping students to cultivate essential skills like information analysis and fact-checking.
In this blog, we aim to explore some of the ways AI can assist teachers in preparing for the upcoming school year. By leaning on AI, educators can equip themselves with valuable resources and strategies to enhance teaching in new ways. But remember, it is always important to review and edit the output generated from AI!
Help With Lesson Plans
Certain AI models can help teachers save time when developing lesson plans. AI can be used to help with day-to-day tasks like:
- checking grammar
- brainstorming discussion questions
- creating rubrics
- integrating standards into new or existing lesson plans
- differentiating instruction
- presenting feedback on activities or assessments by inputting them into an AI model and asking it for feedback
By integrating these tools into the planning process, teachers can create more effective and personalized lesson plans. For instance, an English teacher could have an AI-enhanced lesson plan that suggests focusing more on grammar after analyzing students’ essay submissions.
Some AI models like those listed here leverage AI to assist in lesson planning by offering suggestions based on curriculum standards and student performance data. Classcraft uses machine learning techniques to engage in dialogues, access information, and provide helpful responses to users’ inquiries. Trello helps to streamline workflows, and provides automation and insights based on data in Trello boards.
Generate Ideas
AI models can be great for helping teachers generate new activity or lesson ideas, and even creating center activities.
For example, one teacher developed a project-based learning unit, and the major student product was a class mural. The teacher did not have experience in mural design, but after they input their queries, the chatbot produced fantastic and reliable feedback. They now have a course of action for enhancing their existing lessons.
Create Text Prompts
AI models like those listed below can rewrite and strengthen texts by paraphrasing content while keeping the original meaning. AI can also provide feedback and analyze the tone, structure, grammar, and other elements of a draft text in order to make revisions that enhance clarity, flow, and impact. Additionally, these tools allow teachers to generate a variety of text prompts quickly.
Note: As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is critical that a person reviews and checks AI content. Recently, a text prompt was provided to CSA that was partially inaccurate. It was likely generated by AI. Our writer did their due diligence, pointed out the errors, and they did not carry over into the newly (human-)written text.
AI and the Socratic Method
The Socratic method encourages critical thinking and active engagement. AI is actually a great tool that can support this method, but the key is training AI to ask questions that prompt students to think more critically, not just testing knowledge recall. Here are a few ways AI models can be used by teachers for the Socratic method:
- Certain AI language models can have a back-and-forth dialogue with students, asking probing questions to get them to think more deeply and critically about a topic. The AI can take on the role of the teacher in a Socratic dialogue.
- AI tutors and virtual learning assistants can be programmed with question banks and logic to ask targeted questions that get students to reflect, analyze their own thinking, and construct their own knowledge.
- Intelligent tutoring systems can adapt questions and follow-up queries based on a student’s responses, pushing them to consider perspectives they have not thought of before.
- AI can analyze a text or video and generate potential Socratic questions for teachers to use with students. This saves teachers time designing high-quality discussion questions.
- AI models can provide feedback to teachers on the types of Socratic questions they are asking students—if they are too simple or complex, open-ended, thought-provoking, etc. This helps teachers improve their techniques.
- Natural language processing can help AI assistants analyze and summarize a Socratic dialogue between students, providing insights to the teacher on the effectiveness of the discussions.
Used thoughtfully, AI has the potential to enhance the Socratic method in education.
Use AI Models to Search
Google pulls information from all over the Internet, but users can condition AI models to retrieve data they are trained with, allowing them to get smarter over time. That means we can train the AI model to personalize our search requests.
In a classroom setting, teachers can use AI models as an alternative to Google when they need quick responses to questions. This could be particularly useful when explaining complex concepts or facilitating classroom discussions. For example, during a science class discussion on climate change, AI could fetch real-time data on global warming trends. Note: Some AI models were trained on a fixed dataset, so they have a cutoff date. This is important to be aware of when searching for real-time data.
Create Presentations
There are a number of text-to-presentation tools that use AI algorithms to design visually appealing slides based on the content provided. You simply input your text or data, and the software generates a presentation that is both visually appealing and informative.
Examples of prompts you could use:
- “Create a presentation on the solar system.”
- “Design slides discussing Shakespeare’s Macbeth.”
Text-to-presentation tools like the following allow users to quickly build presentations without having advanced design skills. These AI models auto-generate slides using natural language processing and access to templates, graphics, icons, and images, to quickly build presentations. Tools like Curipod allow users to input a topic along with a grade level and standards, and it will output interactive elements like polls and word clouds.
Conclusion
The integration of AI in classrooms provides teachers with tools that make lesson planning, content creation, and student engagement more efficient and effective. As we continue to embrace technology in education, it is important for teachers to explore and experiment with integrating AI into their teaching methods.
The CSA Education team is trained in using AI as a tool. While CSA considers generative AI a valuable tool, we do not consider it a substitute for the authentic, high-quality human-generated content we create. CSA is confident in our ability to provide quality products with the support of AI, when approved by the client.
Additional Reading
For further reading and exploration on this topic: