LIBE477B - Reading Review Part C: Refining my Inquiry Focus

While driving home the other day, I listened to the AI in Education Conversation podcast. I scrolled through the different episodes and landed on Episode 18: “AI is coming to your classroom/school. Here’s what you should do.” Daniel Lopez opened with an analogy from an article from George Dillard titled “AI Is Coming to My Classroom. I Have No Idea What to Do.” He compared the use of AI by students as the famous Marshmallow Experiment. A child was left in a room with a marshmallow and were told that if they if they showed self-control and didn't eat the marshmallow within a given time period, they would receive two marshmallows. I love this comparison. Students should be able to utilize AI for their success, but there should be parameters in place.

I continued to listen to the podcast episode and heard Daniel Lopez give some great suggestions for implementing AI in the classroom. This helped me reflect on my initial inquiry foci and I realized that my initial ideas were too broad. AI has many different applications in the classroom, both positive and negative, but it is too much to explore during one LIBE course. Driving along, I began to think, what do I want my focus to be? What is most important to me? What will serve my students the most? How can I use AI positively?

When I got home, I watched Sal Khan’s Ted Talk, “How AI could Save (Not Destroy) Education”. In his presentation, he shows KhanAcademy’s ability (through their AI interface, Khanmigo) to personally tutor students and provide them with prompts and hints to help support their understanding. It was clear then, that I wanted to utilize AI to help differentiate for my students. There is a wide spectrum of ability in my class and I want to use this new technology to tailor my lessons and activities to their needs.

 

I have dabbled in the ideas from Peter Liljedahl's Building Thinking Classrooms. In these math classrooms, students in random groupings use non-permanent vertical surfaces to solve problems. I spend a lot of time on the hunt for quality questions and I want to inquire into how I can use language-based AI to help me create differentiated questions for thin-slicing. I hope it can also support creating check your understanding questions where students can choose a mild, medium, or spicy question. I tried ChatGPT out to see its capabilities. I noticed that I need to be very specific with my requests and want to keep experimenting and fine-tuning.

(ChatGPT, 2023)

Also, during Sal Khan’s TedTalk, he showed Khanmigo’s capabilities of supporting students’ comprehension skills. A passage is given to the students, and they respond to questions that the AI provides. The AI has a conversation with the user to ensure they are answering properly. This would be great for our weekly literacy centres and support our English Language Learners. Unfortunately, Khanmigo is not available in Canada yet, so I want to explore alternatives. 

 

Circling back to the marshmallow experiment, it is very enticing to use AI, especially when there are no parameters in place. Currently our school doesn’t have an AI use policy, so I have asked to sit in on the conversations about adding some language about AI to our Academic Integrity policy. I want to explore the positive possibilities of AI in the classroom rather than the negative, so we need to regulate its use in a way that it can support student success.

AI is a relatively new topic in education, I did find it somewhat difficult to find quality peer-reviewed sources to support my research. Many of the articles spoke about the readiness of teachers to use AI, data privacy rights, factors influencing its uses in schools, etc. which were not applicable. I wanted to find sources that had practical ideas that could be implemented in my classroom. I found the podcast episodes and articles/blogs such as Edutopia, We Are Teachers, Medium, and Classpoint to be much more helpful.

 

Teacher librarians are information specialists so it is so important that I share this learning with other educators. I think creating a video or a website explaining my journey in experimenting with AI. This will hopefully inspire other educators to try it in their own classrooms.

 

Here is a list of resources I plan to use going forward in my inquiry:

 

References:

AI Educator Tools. (2023). https://aieducator.tools/

 

Arora, V. (2022). Artificial Intelligence in schools: A guide for teachers, leaders, and technology administrators. Routledge. 

Bennett, M. (2019, April 4). Using AI for Differentiated Learning - QMIND Technology Review - Medium. Medium; QMIND Technology Review. https://medium.com/qmind-ai/using-ai-for-differentiated-learning-69395c1861ac

Chen, L., Chen, P., & Lin, Z. (2020). Artificial Intelligence in education: A Review. IEEE Access, 8, 75264–75278. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2988510 

Dillard, G. (2023, May 17). AI Is Coming to My Classroom. I Have No Idea What to Do. Medium; Age of Awareness. https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/ai-is-coming-to-my-classroom-i-have-no-idea-what-to-do-e498e98da0b6#id_token=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IjZmNzI1NDEwMWY1NmU0MWNmMzVjOTkyNmRlODRhMmQ1NTJiNGM2ZjEiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.PDPFxIZqQsI3bMShhBZRGH2LFKg4qnxtG75qX4BNX3n79-1NupuXWZ2S07PKVpLmc9O9kmlcUbLLfFwlfQeBFdNBxIl0psn4JksaPMufXi1w8bZVqawAulGH8-9vVJ-dLZeVbihHiWB7DQ_VNp4YRQeKbpf1-KVmCmtZy4jZ3gnIvpihFwZ6AgFdUgpTtOV9ByZ59SINdzORhZw_iktY1UMMfFYNOi89ItPu7kiZKTYJLNW_gY3If5eSNtJ5_PEvn7Bs3gAvGzlYsSG9ZOeAQfXeKfT9VMZKIREKG5SqVgQ2lF2M5hc1y9eGwgxcxbFkj1j1F-UF9tuZBXlIMguDiw

Kikalishvili, S. (2023). Unlocking the potential of GPT-3 in education: Opportunities, limitations, and recommendations for Effective Integration. Interactive Learning Environments, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2023.2220401 

Krause, B. (2023). How to Enact an AI Policy in Your K–12 Schools. Technology Solutions That Drive Education. https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2023/07/how-enact-ai-policy-your-k-12-schools

Lopez, D. (Host) (2023). Various Podcast Episodes. The AI Education Conversation. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ai-education-conversation/id1667322389

Morris, A. (2023, August 21). Adapting Academic Integrity Policies in the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence - ManageBac. ManageBac. https://www.managebac.com/subject-support/adapting-academic-integrity-policies-in-the-advent-of-generative-artificial-intelligence

Nieves, K. (2023, June 6). 5 Ways to Use AI Tools to Meet Students’ Needs. Edutopia; George Lucas Educational Foundation. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-ai-tools-differentiated-instruction/

Puntillo, P. (2023, May 9). How Ai Is Used In Education & 10 Ways You Can Too - ClassPoint Blog. ClassPoint. https://blog.classpoint.io/10-ways-how-ai-is-used-in-education/

TED. (2023). How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education | Sal Khan | TED [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJP5GqnTrNo&ab_channel=TED

We Are Teachers Staff. (2023, July 28). How To Write an AI Policy for Schools: Examples and Resources. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/ai-policy-for-schools/#:~:text=It%20should%20include%20safety%20cautions,and%20even%20present%20incorrect%20information.