The recent hype seems to have died down over the use of AI following the revelation that China’s Deep Seek can do all that Chat GPT does but much more efficiently. This lull has allowed businesses and individuals to take time to assess how AI can help them in their daily lives.
Many of us will find a mass of emails in our inboxes from companies promising to help you make the most of AI but, rather than be pushed into an AI controlled life, it’s far more effective if we just take a moment to identify where AI can help us and slowly integrate it into our daily lives. We’ve got to step away from ‘AI will take over the world and turn us into dummies’ and into ‘How can AI free up time for me by getting it to undertake low level tasks. A recent example of this was when I needed to contact the admissions departments of ten Canadian universities. I could have visited each of their websites, clicked through several pages to find the addresses then copied them into a Word document taking maybe 15 – 20 minutes. Asking Co-Pilot to undertake the task took around 20 seconds.
As educators, one of our greatest fears is student use of AI to complete assignments and homework. We’ve already seen examples of a completely AI written response which was identified when run through an AI checker. The student hadn’t grasped that, whilst AI had saved him an hour of his time for homework, it did nothing for his understanding of the question and the elements of the required response. Whilst teachers are wary of their own reliance on AI to help with lesson planning, assessment and resourcing, we have the maturity to recognise when we might be close to devolving too much of our professional skills to AI and setting the profession up for a future where teachers may become unnecessary. Many students on the other hand have yet to recognise the parameters within which they can use AI to help them succeed without stepping out of the learning process.
So how can students use AI to support their learning rather than taking it over?
We’ve begun experimenting with using AI as a ‘Classroom Assistant’ so a student may have a project to complete and can refine questions asked of AI as follows:
‘What is the question asking me to do?’
‘What have I not included in my answer that I should have done?’
‘How can I improve the structure of my answer?’
‘Compared to the mark scheme, what grade would I receive for my response?’
Additionally, AI can be used to as an improved internet search tool, for example:
‘Find me a video that explains the Anti-Comintern pact’
‘Please would you explain how I use the quadratic formula with examples’
Training students to refine their use of AI towards the assistant approach rather than the slave approach will help teachers to cover the curriculum more effectively, help students to gain instant feedback on their work and still leave the critical thinking in their hands.
So, don’t be scared of what AI can do. With a little thought, it can supercharge the education process and help us achieve improved student outcomes.