Category Archives: artificial-intelligence

I, Robot?

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AI has been a fun experiment or toy for me to play with until the last few months. Generative AI came across my TikTok feed last school year and I quickly realized that my students were already ahead of me. They were using ChatGPT. I instantly tried ChatGPT and several other AI sites to see how they worked, but also how we could teach our students to use them ethically. It was clear to me this tool was not going away!

The first assignment we gave our students was to use an image generator using descriptive language to illustrate a story they had written. Our students loved this assignment, for a variety of reasons: they were allowed to use AI in the classroom; the images created were spectacular; and they were learning something new!

We also showed our students a few drawbacks of AI, such as, the information it relies on is often wrong and stereotypical; therefore, this is not a good way to research. Secondly, using it as a writing tool is unethical. 

In my own teaching practice, I have used AI in several ways. EDUAIDE.AI offers a variety of different ways to help teachers including “Lesson Seeds”. When I was struggling to plan Health within the new parameters set out by our government this year (and within a strict timeline), I used this tool. While it gave very specific ideas, I used it as a jumping off point and made the unit my own. I have also used AI to create rubrics and offer feedback for writing. It should be noted that I still need to read the writing, the feedback was for grammar only. 

AI can save us so much time if employed properly. But we still need a human connection. I do not think that people will be replaced. While humans make mistakes, AI makes more mistakes. And it learns from us.

This a prompt I gave ChatGPT to write blog post about AI.

In an instant the ChatGPT gave me three paragraph blog post! I could have used it; but is that ethical? Cheating? I will include it below with the prompt for you to read…

You

Write a blog post the pros and cons of generative AI. Make this post three paragraphs long.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT

Generative AI, with its ability to create content autonomously, has brought about a paradigm shift in various industries, from art and entertainment to healthcare and finance. One of its most significant advantages is its capacity to streamline creative processes, enabling artists, writers, and designers to generate ideas and prototypes swiftly. This acceleration in creativity can lead to increased productivity and innovation, as individuals and businesses can explore a broader range of possibilities without being hindered by traditional constraints. Additionally, generative AI has the potential to democratize creativity, making it more accessible to a wider audience by automating certain aspects of content creation.

However, with its promises of efficiency and accessibility come several challenges and ethical considerations. One major concern is the potential for misuse or abuse of generative AI, particularly in the realm of misinformation and fake content generation. As generative models become more advanced, there’s a growing risk of deepfake videos, forged documents, and other forms of deceptive content being produced at scale. This poses a threat to trust and authenticity in digital media and highlights the importance of implementing robust safeguards and regulations to mitigate these risks.

Furthermore, generative AI raises questions about the role of human creativity and expertise in a world increasingly driven by algorithms. While AI can assist in the creative process, some argue that it lacks the depth and emotional intelligence that humans bring to their work. There’s also the concern that widespread adoption of generative AI could lead to job displacement in certain industries, as tasks traditionally performed by humans are automated. Balancing the benefits of generative AI with these potential drawbacks requires careful consideration and a proactive approach to addressing the associated challenges. Ultimately, while generative AI holds immense promise for enhancing creativity and productivity, its implementation must be guided by principles of responsibility, transparency, and ethical use.

Revolutions: Agriculture, Industrial then and now AI (Artificial Intelligence) Revolution

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The last presentation during my EC&I 833 class was about Generative AI. The presenters’ content took the audience on a journey of mixed emotions. Some were dazed, others (like me) confused or scared and some were thrilled, others were inquisitive…. Woah…..what a subject!!

I have always found the name – “Faustian Bargain” so apt for the computer technology- so whether it is AI, WWW…..  You gain some and you lose some. Ideally I look at AI as transformative  and has the caliber to transport us into a “qualitatively different future”. Therefore the title- Agriculture, Industrial and then AI revolution.

How many of us can imagine living in a world without AI- how comfortable would it be to survive without Siri waking you up, the GPS system and maps helping navigate, the smart software and apps that are favs in the workplace or finding the best tickets for travel, ordering food, grocery, or for that matter shopping online? If we narrow down to education: it’s a whirlwind of AI in education? how many of us could have imagined the kind of learning platform that exist now; adjusting the lessons personally for every one!! That’s what DreamBox and Knewton are doing. They use AI to tweak learning materials in real-time, making sure each student gets the most out of their lessons. In my EC & I sessions my class mates introduced me to some outstanding educational tools like like Socrative, Mentimeter, Padlet, Quizlet, Kahoot etc  that make assessment and student engagement effortless. Thus making the learning process more engaging, personalized and interactive. They give detailed feedback, letting teachers focus more on teaching and less on grading. So, AI isn’t just a buzzword; it surely has worthwhile substance and has made education more personalized, efficient, and interactive. How cool is that?

AI has entered everyone’s life; so be it; student, elders, professionals( all professions that you can think of) at all levels, industry etc: it looks difficult to subtract AI out of the whole system. However, the damage can also be potentially great. The systems can be corrupted, it can be trained to affect the physical, mental, emotional security at any level. The video that was shared in one of our classes on AI also mentioned Elon Musk calling it “Catastrophic” and worldwide people talking about regulating it so that it does not become a Faustian bargain.

Very recently I saw a bolly wood movie and here is the clip where the main character is a Robot and it is disturbing to see and imagine: if something like this will ever happen in the future.:

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxLNiUs7TDM7M6YqK1jf90WDuu-3O_GUwp

It is disturbing to see and imagine: if something like this will ever happen in the future.

One famous quote on AI is by Stephen Hawking, a renowned theoretical physicist:

“Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.” – Stephen Hawking

Will humans Devolve? – Generative AI

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When I think of artificial intelligence, I think of robots talking to you, self driving vehicles and the Jetsons. But it isn’t futuristic, it is now and we have been using it for a long time. According to the Alan Turing Institute an “AI system means any computational system (or a combination of such systems) that uses methods derived from statistics or other mathematical techniques to carry out tasks that are commonly associated with, or would otherwise require, human intelligence and that either assists or replaces the judgment of human decision makers in carrying out those tasks.”

As I was doing my research I did not realize how many things I used that is AI. The first tasks for humans I remember being replaced by a machine was thinking of your next word when texting on your block of a phone. Predictive text is AI.  Shout out to my millennials, who remembers T9 texting! Search engines uses artificial intelligence to locate information faster. Siri is AI task manager and researcher summoned by your voice; this technology was inputted on the iPhone in 2011. I use google home to shut my lights off, lock my doors, turn on tunes, and tell me the weather. I know Netflix and other apps give me recommendations which is are all AI algorithms. Generative AI is a category of AI which is defined as programs that learn and train to be able to create products for humans based on the prompts given. Not only can they do tasks, but now they can construct new products.

An industry that has been taken over by generative AI is customer service and it sucks. I feel like the old person that just wants to talk to a real person for help. A lot of the AI I have experienced does not think outside of the box quite yet and the training they get is very black and white. If there isn’t an option given they cannot help you.

Due to EC&I 833, I have been diving into new programs to help make my job easier. I have been using Brisk Teaching Chrome Extension to give feedback, MagicSchoolai to create questions from YouTube videos, showed kids how to use Quilbot paraphrasing tool, used ChatGPT to locate research for myself and used Arlinear to create quiz questions.

The benefit to these tools is they all save us time or make things more convenient. In regard to teaching, generative AI tools gives teachers time to give more thorough feedback, or differentiate lessons quicker and adapt for our students better so students can participate in meaningful ways. My EAL students can watch the videos I have assigned in their own language or translate documents or help them paraphrase. These are all assistive technologies to help them be successful.

In other realms of our world generative AI has helped to detect fraud, identify diseases efficiently in healthcare and facial recognition for security purposes.

The idea that AI can support my career, my students learning, and make the world a safer and more efficient, convenient place is great but there are problems. We need to critically analyze this technology. The training that some AI has raises concerns such as bias, prejudices and discrimination. Also most generative AI does not exhibit emotion, interpersonal skills and morality. Humans have emotions which play a role in doing a job well in my opinion. Considering other emotions is critical. With that said, AI’s ability to understand humour and emotions is advancing. I experienced this recently when the AI DJ on spotify used humour by playing a song they thought was a summary of all my favourite music this year and it was a yodelling song. If artificial intelligence can do a task with consideration of all societal constructs, law, feelings and without bias and discrimination that would be amazing, right? Maybe yes, but machines doing all tasks better than humans, I don’t think is great either, some yes, but not all. Humans bring value to some tasks and those tasks also bring value to humans. Interaction between people is important and I think AI might slowly take this away. We will only have relationships with machines. I don’t think that would help our economy or benefit society for machines to be doing everything. Humans will lose their knowledge and livelihood.

I understand this is a bold statement and maybe far in the future, hopefully, but I think it is something to think about.

It is important to be weary of new technology. We have seen already what search engines, and social media apps have done to our society. This technology with these AI algorithms has created a confirmation bias with in our society. In history I am unsure if we have ever seen such divide between people among what is right and wrong. Social Media apps use AI to manipulate you into using their apps to make money. How is that a good thing? So this generative AI that creates a paraphrased piece of work for a student, is this beneficial? It is assisting them to help them be successful, but it also does not help them learn to critically think on their own. They will lose the skill of using a thesaurus and finding new words and to create their own work. Is this a pointless skill to have because the machine will do it for you?  As Ted Talk explains humans knowing how to do the task or having the knowledge how to do it can be beneficial. I think machines doing some tasks to make our lives easier is great but we need to keep the enhancing our skills of connecting, constructing, evaluating, and critiquing to be functioning intelligent beings. We need to stay smarter than the machines! If we don’t machines will pass on knowledge to machines and humans won’t have a purpose.  For now I am still going to be cautious about generative AI but I do believe we should embrace it as well and adapt our education accordingly because this is where the future is going.

ECI833 – Are Productivity Suites Taking Over Education?

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Now, if you are asking yourself what a “productivity suite” is, look no further, follow the link here to find out more, and for further understanding watch this video of an exemplar of a company productivity suite.

Even in the root word of this concept, it focuses on productivity and efficiency. It appears the major two companies that education relies on for productivity suites are Microsoft 365, and Google Suites. Both of these programs create a collaborative method for connecting and communicating with a team in an efficient way. Personally, Google Suite has become a critical aspect of organizing my classroom material, content, and lessons in a straightforward yet methodical manner to maximize efficiency. I really love it when I can easily access previous years’ content and see my own professional growth and development. However, as much as I thoroughly enjoy my experience with Google programs, it is the students who should be the focus of this discussion. , I have noticed that there is a disparity among students and their access to Google programs and technology at home. Some of the reoccurring thoughts and questions this semester are triggered about productivity suites in education and those revolve around:

  • Who benefits because of these products?
  • Do these programs offer deeper learning opportunities for all students?
  • What type of knowledge are we valuing utilizing these programs?
  • What are the implicit messages that we are conveying to students by using these programs?

I certainly do not have an answer or solution to these questions, but I do think there is value in being cognizant of their impact in the classroom, and awareness that we as educators need to have as we often make decisions for the sake of “advancement” in educational technology. I am reminded of a quote by John F. Kennedy that eloquently states the importance of education and how that may contrast key notions of productivity suites in the classroom.

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth”

— John F. Kennedy

In reflecting on that quote, and examining the use of various productivity programs in the classroom, it is challenging to have a concrete answer there. It is convicting to think about how the answer to some of those questions above only really benefits the students who do not need it, thus broadening the inequity gap. However, some key takeaways from the quote reveal what type of knowledge are we aiming for students to aspire towards, and what our own understanding of truth and its validity will inherently be transcended to students through osmosis.

I do think that the varying productivity suites that are utilized in the classroom are designed with the focus and efficiency of the teacher (Teacher Centric), yet these tools are to aid in learning, and not become the main vehicle of learning. Therefore, I think it is critical to examine how we use these programs, their positive and negative impact, and reflect on whether the ends justify the means.

EC&I 833 – Ms. Cailen Tribier 2024-01-22 02:04:00

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Educational Technology – Critical Analysis to Continue being a Reflective Educator

Hello, and welcome to my blog for my ECI 833 course where I will explore the foundations of educational technology. Educational technology is a tool, invention computer hardware or software, manipulative or theory that helps facilitate learning. Personally, I view it as any tool that helps me teach in an innovative way to increase engagement and learning or a tool to help support my students more efficiently in their journey of education. What I realized was in my first few years of teaching the tools or assessments I chose were solely to engage and benefit my students learning, which is great but I did not focus at all on how to save time for myself. Most days began working at 8 am and finishing work at 10 pm. I had no work life balance.

In my tenth year of teaching, I am slowly trying to balance making my classroom a fun place to learn but as well finding educational technology that can adapt my content more efficiently for differentiation and assessing more quickly to have a personal life. I have become very interested in instant feedback assessment. Jiajun Zou from Emory University explains self marking programs have helped teachers gain their lives back with the growing responsibilities they have these days, as well as aiding students in the learning process. With out timely feedback “students can easily forget what they just wrote, and their brain instantly switches to other important tasks or seeks a drink as a reward for their hard work. Without instant feedback, ideas fade”.  I have experienced students telling me that they don’t remember this assessment. So it feels pointless to review it; it feels like reteaching without a purpose. Instant feedback is especially important in formative assessment so students can improve before summative assessment time. Automated mediums Audience Response Systems such as mentimeter and blooket are a great way to help students know how they are doing and facilitate fun and enjoyment in the classroom.

https://education.clickdo.co.uk/what-is-blooket-and-how-to-use-blooket-play/

There are some issues with some of the instant marking or feedback programs I have been using for summative assessment. I first started using google forms with multiple choice questions and zip grade. I am becoming aware that these tools benefit me but not my students when it comes to higher level or deeper learning. My questioning in the assessments became more knowledge and recall based rather than analyzation of the content.  I can’t seem to find assessment technology that benefits both the teacher and the students quite yet. Neil Postman explains how only certain groups will benefit from new technological tools or advances in certain industries. It even goes onto say about how some groups could be harmed. My students are being “harmed” in sense of not being assessed in a way that helps them be critical thinkers and on the flip side it takes me hours to assess high level of analyzation questions which in turn keeps me working many long hours.

Hack education explained in regards to automated essay grading, they disagreed with the idea that instant feedback benefits learning.  Even though I disagree in some aspects, I see the importance of the critiquing these automated feedback tools.

Neil Postman confirmed for me that it is very important to be critical of new technology. There will be some people that will benefit and some that won’t. There will be advantages but also detriments to people. When new technology becomes the norm and is no longer looked at with a critical lens, this is dangerous. I will keep researching and reflecting on technology I choose and hopefully someday I will discover educational tools that develop student learning and help me do my job efficiently and yet thoroughly.