As educators, we stand at the forefront of a paradigm shift in teaching and learning methodologies. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has not only revolutionized the tools at our disposal but also the very fabric of educational engagement. This blog post is an invitation to my fellow educators to journey from the initial stages of understanding AI’s capabilities to actively integrating AI into our curricula to enrich the learning process. We’ll delve into practical strategies for using AI with students to not enhance student engagement but tranform the whole learning experience. Coupling AI with what educators do best — inspiring and guiding the next generation — is a recipe for stand out learning. Join me as we navigate the exciting possibilities that AI brings to the world of education.
Pedagogy
Stephanie Holt, the Director of Learning and Teaching at DSB Mumbai, uses Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guiding lens through which we can integrate Generative AI tools into our teaching methodologies. She explores how each level of Bloom’s taxonomy can be enriched with AI in mind:
Knowledge: Gathering and Recall – streamline the process of gathering and recalling factual information
Comprehension: Understanding and Interpretation – assist in summarizing texts, translating languages, or even explaining complex ideas in simpler terms
Application: Practical Use of Knowledge – applying learned concepts in practical scenarios, i.e. AI simulations for scientific experiments
Analysis: Dissecting and Questioning – help students learn to analyze data, recognize patterns, and critically assess information
Synthesis: Integration and Creation – help students in synthesizing information and presenting that information in creative ways
Evaluation: Critical Thinking and Judgement – teach students about bias in data, the importance of ethical considerations, and the limitations of AI itself, encourage critical thinking and foster a deeper understanding of the technology’s impact on society, use AI tools for feedback for improvement
by Stephanie Holt
Considering AI’s capabilities in this way, opens many doors to the creation of engaging, interactive, and effective learning experiences where AI is not the enemy, but an integral part of relevant, rich learning.
Embracing AI doesn’t dilute the essence of our studies. Instead, it offers another lens through which we can refine and understand our craft. But like any tool, it’s most effective when used responsibly and ethically.
Safety
It is always paramount to consider the safety and privacy of ourselves and students before we launch into using any new educational technology and AI is no different, so here are a few things to note when selecting AI platforms and what to look for:
- ChatGPT requires parental permission for 13-18 year old users; Microsoft Copilot does not.
- ChatGPT can give away any data collected to “affiliates,” including, if requested, to federal authorities: How Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies Are Buying Your Data from Brokers.
- Microsoft Copilot & Google’s Gemini have more data privacy protections for users (thank you GDPR!).
- Google Gemini tracks user location, OpenAI collects IP address, Microsoft CoPilot doesn’t seem to collect any location data.
- Don’t let students put in any sensitive or identifying information into any of these tools!
- Don’t put any sensitive information in these tools (e.g., asking ChatGPT to write an email to a student about their grade – this is FERPA violation).
- Any information input into these tools (e.g., any prompts they write) is data that can be used by the companies that made the tools.
From “AI & Ethics” slide deck by Torrey Trust, Ph.D., licensed under CC BY NC 4.0.
Innovative Uses
There are countless innovative uses of AI in education. The following list represents some great ideas and following the list, I have curated sample lessons and further descriptions of these uses.
- Visual Storytelling
- Art & Design Projects
- Visual Communication i.e. infographics
- Research/Discovery Quest
- Writing Coach
- Think/Pair/Share partner
- Advisor/Tutor
- Grade the AI
- Science Lab
- Debate the AI
- Learn About Voice From Imitations of Famous Authors
- Chat With Historical Figures
- Speak With AI in a Foreign Language
- Critically examining AI in its many aspects i.e. Bias, Erasing Identity, Hallucinations, Human Labour, Environmental Impact, and Spreading Misinformation
Poetry and AI
Why not try a poem generator, or how about two or three?
Short Stories and AI
Barbara Zielonka shared this task which aims to introduce high school students to the use of AI to create visual representations of literary texts. By completing this task,students will improve their critical thinking and analytical skills while learning about the possibilities of AI/prompt writing.
Three Slide Challenge By Michelle Kassorla
Michelle Kassorla shared this innovative way to have students show what they know about a short story.
Students make three slides based on a reading they are working on using an AI image generator. The original lesson uses Ramayana but could be adapted to almost work.
SLIDE ONE is the title slide and should illustrate the story and include at least three important elements of the story in this image. Also include your name and an original interesting title for the slide.
SLIDE TWO focuses on one particular element or character from the story. Begin with an interesting and original subheading. It must contain a great picture to illustrate the element or character. Try to be as accurate as possible. Give the element’s name, what they are like, special weapons, and/or powers. Put your sources in the speaker’s notes.
SLIDE THREE focuses on a heroic character. Begin with an interesting and original subheading. It must contain a great picture to illustrate the hero. Try to be as accurate as possible with the descriptions of this particular hero. Name the hero, who they are, and what they are like. Put your sources in the speaker’s notes.
You will present these slides to the class at the end of the activity, or video your presentation if this is an online project.
Immersive Story Writer By Darren Coxon
I really loved Darren Coxon’s use of AI to immerse students in the story writing experience.
Writing from inside a story world using John Truby’s “Anatomy of a Story” – start with building the character with all their flaws and build a story around their journey.
Think/Pair/Share
AI can be a great think/pair/share partner!
- Students think or write silently about a topic.
- Students share their thoughts with an AI chat bot like Byte or Perplexity, asking for feedback or other ideas.
- Student shares what their Think-Pair-Share revealed with a partner.
AI can highlight similarities and differences between bot and human conversations.
AI can also be used in pair shares to provide prompts, suggest discussion points, and summarize key points from the discussions.
The Prompt
In this simulation, you are my think-pair-share partner. Start by asking me to share my idea. After I have responded, share an initial response to my idea. Next, ask me a reason for my thinking. Then, respond to my thinking, share an alternative perspective, and ask me what I think about that idea. Finally, in response to my response, ask me a final question to help me think more deeply, then give me some constructive feedback on my idea. Review these two instructions carefully: Proceed with the simulation instructions one step at a time, ask one question, and wait for a response. Do not give me answers; be a positive and supportive conversation partner who aims to make meaning through conversation.
Advisor/Tutor
Another great idea from Active Learning with AI, in this scenario students use a chatbot to advise them on visualizing a series of steps, processes, phases, or practices.
The AI tool helps students think about how to visualize and sequence information while reviewing review key course concepts.
For example, in a marketing course, AI could provide ideas for a visualization that students create or could be used to create those visualizations.
The Prompt
In this simulation, you are an expert in XXX. You are also my tutor. My goal is to XXXX with your help. Your task is to lead me through a series of steps to complete a XXX. Please lead me through questions one at a time. Do not proceed to the next step until I answer the question. Give me ideas and guidance, but do not give me the answers. If I am having trouble, continue to ask me questions to support me. If I do not have an answer, please point me to some resources to assist me with the answer. Please review this instruction carefully: As a tutor, do not provide the answers for me. After I have answered a sufficient number of questions, create my SWOT analysis so I may download it.
Debate the AI
Debates have always been a hit with my students. The competetive atmosphere is engaging, so using AI to assist students in practicing their debating skills is a win-win.
- AI Debate – The AI Debater will hold a intelligent debate with you on nearly any topic. Test your debating skills against the AI!
- DebateAI.org – here’s another platform that is primed and ready for the challenge.
Art and Design
Bring Drawings to Life:
Students love to sketch, and AI can animate their sketches—and introduce them to the power of the technology in the process.
- Simply take a photo of a sketch and upload it to the site, and the AI can quickly have it perform dozens of different actions—walking, dancing, throwing out some boxing jabs, and more.
- Encourage students to craft a story around the animations. Why, for example, is their drawing running wildly across the room? What is it running from?
- For the tool to work, the drawing must be vaguely humanoid, so be sure to guide students toward drawing humanlike figures.
Grade the AI
In a digital age where AI tools increasingly assist in content creation, understanding the nuances, strengths, and weaknesses of such content is vital. This lesson empowers students to critically evaluate AI-written essays, refining their analytical skills and deepening their understanding of effective essay writing.
- Students will be able to critique the AI-generated essay and suggest specific improvements.
- Students will be able to dissect and analyze each sentence’s contribution to the essay’s overall message.
- Students will be able to reflect on the analysis process and articulate new learnings about AI’s writing capabilities.
Writing Coach
When teaching writing concepts like tone and voice, have students use an AI chatbot to show how prompts like “revise this writing to have a more casual tone” or “revise this writing in the voice of Dr. Seuss” impact the text. Make sure to discuss the limitations of the tool. Compare a beautifully-written text from an author you are studying to AI-generated text, and point out to the learners that AI text typically sounds more generic.
More ideas:
- Suggestions for AI-Based Assignments & Activities from Writing Across the Curriculum by Carleton University
Real or Fake Text?
Gamify the learning and help students recognize the limitations of AI.
How good are you at knowing when text has been written by a computer? How many sentences can a computer write before it no longer has you fooled?
Play one of the categories: short story, recipes, New York Times, or Presidential Speeches, or play random categories.
Find out for yourself at this website: Real or Fake Text
Chat with Historical Figures
There are a few platforms out there that will allow you to “talk” to historical figures (I’ve listed some below), but many are for a fee. Technically, you could do this yourself using a generative AI platform.
Set up your own:
You can set up an AI chat tool to draw on all the information that’s been published about a historical figure and ask it to pretend that they are that person.
Pick an AI assistant:
ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity AI and any others. Pick your character. It could be a character from history such as a politician, explorer or scientist or maybe a character from a book.
The Prompt:
Role: Let the AI know what it is going to do. Explain that it is going to play the role of a character from history and answer your questions.
Who: Let the chatbot know who it is they are going to play. Give their name and any additional information about that person.
Scenario: Describe the setting or context for the conversation. This could be a specific moment in time or a historical event that you’re interested in.
How: How do you want the character to respond? Should this be light-hearted or serious? Are there things they should emphasize or topics to avoid? Should you dictate the tone of speech? If you’re using this with a particular age range of children you could explain that here.
More platforms with history in mind:
- SchoolAI
- Hello History
- Text with History – free app
Research with AI
Neuro Mermaid AI Chat guides you through information, generating a structured mindmap for efficient research – ask it to research a topic and it will guide you through the deep sea of information.
It is designed to assist individuals, particularly those who are neurodivergent, in overcoming information overload and enhancing their learning experience. Neuro Mermaid is currently connected to the internet and will cite the resources.
AI in the Science Classroom
Code.org is a treasure trove of lesson ideas for using AI with their AI Lab. In this example, students dive into the AI Lab tool from Code.org where they select features to train a model that predicts a given label.
- Explore AI Lab and train a model to recognize shapes.
- Pretend they have been hired by several restaurants who would like to make recommendations to new customers based on survey data they’re collected
- Go through each dataset
- Use data visualization tools to identify features with high relationships in the data.
Question of the Day: How can we use machine learning to make recommendations?
More ideas:
AI in the Math Classroom
Algorithms are important to understanind AI, so diving into how algorithms work is a great lesson in Math class.
- Most Likely Machine – Wise up to algorithms: Algorithms power the world, but they can make mistakes. Build your own algorithm and see how it impacts the future – for good and for bad.
- Predictive Text Algorithm from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics – a lesson in which students learn how conditional probability is the crux of many machine learning algorithms, including predictive text applications.
More Resources:
The Algorithmic Justice League (AJL)
AI and Erasing Identity
Jean Darnell, @AwakenLibrarian, developed an intriguing lesson and collection of resources to tackle the idea of AI erasing identity. The following articles from the Pulitzer Center Articles of Reference on Erasing Identity are eye-opening and will have your students see the impact and ramifications of AI.
- Beyond Bias – Investigate the effects of implicit biases, gender roles & AI.
- There Is No Standard: Investigators Find AI Algorithm Objectify Women’s Bodies – AI tools rate photos of women as more sexually suggestive than men, even during medical exams.
- Tech Tools Offer Police Mass Surveillance on a Budget – Officers bypass search warrants to track people by their phones.
- Are AI Hiring Tools Racists & Ableist? – Using AI in hiring shows evidence of discrimination via speech-to-text.
- South Florida Police Widely Use Facial Recognition, Yet Resists Policies to Curb Abuse. That’s a Problem for People of Color -A technology that federal studies have shown misidentifies African Americans at higher rates is being used more often on people who are Black.
- Tracked: How Colleges Use AI to Monitor Student Protest – Students discovered they were being monitored by AI without their consent
- The Perils of How AI Constructs Human Identity to Their Detriment
ISTE: Hands-On AI Projects
ISTE is always a great resource for all things edTech, so it is not surprising that they have developed lessons for hands-on AI projects for both Secondary and Elementary students.
The secondary guide includes complete lessons on AI Chatbots, Developing a Critical Edge, Using AI to Solve Environmental Problems, and Laws for AI.
The elementary guide includes lessons on what AI does well and not do well, training data and machine learning, senses vs. sensors, and navigation and AI.
Both guides include an appendix unpacking Artificial Intelligence.
Generative AI Idea Pack for English Language Teachers
Cambridge English has developed this idea pack and has designed it to help you become more confident when using generative AI tools in your teaching practice. It offers research-based, practical suggestions that will aid you in navigating the exciting yet occasionally daunting field of generative AI. Some of these ideas are ideas for activities in the classroom, others are for you to consider and perhaps embed in your professional development goals.
On some of the cards, you will see specific GenAI tools mentioned. We have tried as far as possible to recommend specific tools that are accessible for free.
Obviously, the resources and ideas are endless. The best way to learn is to experiment. It’s amazing the ideas that you can come up with!
More Resources:
- Byte from CodeBreaker EDU
- Blob Opera — Google Arts & Culture
- FreddieMeter
- https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach
- Assisted Melody — Google Arts & Culture
- SemiConductor
- Incredibox
- BeastBox
- Paint With Music
- Drum Machine
- Experiments: Body Synth
- Instrument Playground
- Remove BG
- Unscreen
- AI grades 9-12 from Western University
- Craiyon
- ISTE’s Elementary Educator’s Guide to Hands-On AI Projects
- ISTE’s Guide to Hands-On AI Projects for Electives Teachers
- Teachable Machine
- Most Likely Machine
- Quick, Draw!
- AutoDrawCraiyon
- Scribble Diffusion
- Animated Drawings
- Stable Diffusion
- Canva AI Image Generator
- Say What You See — Google Arts & Culture
- AI Text Generator
- Day of AI from MIT
- AI Education from Western University