AI in Education: Getting Started with Generative Tools
Whether you’re teaching in a K-12 classroom, lecturing at a university, or working as an educational administrator, the buzz around generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, has been hard to ignore.
While there's concern about students using AI to do their assignments, we should also look at its potential to improve education. In professional development sessions I’ve helped facilitate, teachers have found AI tools can assist with the time-consuming work of thinking of lesson plan ideas, extension activities, and quiz questions. Students have shared how AI tools help them focus on key concepts in complex readings and improve their writing.
This first post will provide some basic information about ChatGPT, an AI tool that generates text. Future posts will dive into other AI tools, their potential uses in education, and some of the challenges of AI-generated content.
The Basics
Interacting with text-based Generative AI tools like ChatGPT consist of entering 'prompts' and receiving 'responses.' Prompts are the questions or instructions you type into ChatGPT. The tool then provides a response to your prompt. Below are a few examples.
Question Prompt
The most basic prompt type is a question. In this example, I asked a question about the cause of lightning and the ChatGPT response appears below it. Note that the actual response is much longer than what appears here.
Instruction Prompt
We can also give ChatGPT instructions. In this example, I asked ChatGPT to create a lesson plan and it generated a 45 minute lesson that included objectives, activities, assessment, etc.
Response
Unlike a typical Google search that lists websites, ChatGPT offers a response that feels more like a conversation or a summarized answer.
Training Data
Why does ChatGPT seem so knowledgeable? Like other AI tools, it's been "trained" using vast amounts of data, mostly from the internet. These tools then use intricate algorithms to analyze this data and generate responses that mimic human-like conversation.
Caution: Using AI Responsibly
Since AI tools derive their knowledge from the vast amount of information on the internet, the AI responses aren’t always accurate or unbiased. Therefore, we must:
Scrutinize AI responses for potential inaccuracies or biases.
Be cautious with personal information and intellectual property. Anything you enter can potentially be added to the AI's ever-growing knowledge pool. Some tools, like ChatGPT, offer options to prevent this.
First Steps with Generative AI
If you’ve never used an AI tool, I encourage you to set aside just 15 minutes and try out ChatGPT. It is one of the more popular generative AI tools and it’s free. Just go to OpenAI.com, click “Try ChatGPT” in the upper right corner, provide the required info, and then type in your first prompt.
During our professional development sessions, the real "ah-ha moment" comes when educators use AI for the first time themselves. Here are a few suggestions to help get you started.
Copy one of the writing assignments from your current course and ask the AI to complete the assignment.
Ask the AI to create content for a lecture about a specific topic in your course.
My Process
I used GPT-4 (the paid version of ChatGPT) to assist with the writing of this post. Starting with a raw stream-of-consciousness draft in Google Docs, I copied it to GPT-4, which organized my thoughts and made it more concise. This evolved into a continuous back-and-forth between me and GPT-4, refining and tweaking all or portions of the text. Throughout, my voice and ideas remained, but GPT-4's suggestions gave me the confidence to share. Finally, I asked for light feedback from a few trusted humans before I actually hit the publish button.
What’s Next?
My plan for upcoming topics includes looking at other AI tools that can help educators and students, tips for improving AI responses, and ethical considerations for AI use. Use the comments below to share your ideas for future posts.