AI Tools Won’t Make Your Kids Dumber
How new technology could bring about a Golden Age in education
To this day, I still experience stress dreams where I have to write a 5-page essay on a book I haven’t read and it is due tomorrow morning (and meanwhile my teeth are falling out and a tidal wave is crashing into my front porch!). If only I could tell my dream self to upload a copy of the essay prompt into ChatGPT, present the tool with a few copies of my old essays as a stylistic reference, and prompt the AI to produce a 5-page essay at the snap of my fingers. Essay completed and nightmare solved.
When I started thinking deeply and researching the intersection of AI and education, especially in middle and high schools (about ages 12–18), I came up with the following two hypotheses:
Case 1: AI will empower teachers and students to build innovative and experiential projects that will engage students to dig deeper into topics and promote meaningful learning outcomes.
Case 2: AI-powered language and logic tools will enable less motivated students to complete comprehensive assignments and research papers with minimal effort and engagement, leading to a drastic decline in meaningful learning outcomes.
The key question:
How can educators design a curriculum and leverage AI in a meaningful way to promote Case 1 of engaging students and enhancing the learning experience, while minimizing the risk of Case 2, where students are no longer achieving meaningful learning outcomes?
When I talk to teachers on the topic of AI in the classroom, the fear of students using the tools as a shortcut to completing assignments without putting in the work to achieve meaningful learning outcomes is almost always front of mind. So how do we stop this? The initial reaction I’ve seen in schools across the US is to limit the usability of and access to the tool, but what if I told you there might be a better way?
Encouraging Teachers AND Students to Use AI
In order to implement meaningful AI usage in the classroom, teachers need to familiarize themselves with the tools first. Ultimately, no one should be left out of the efficiency gains AI is bringing to business around the world.
In my conversations with professionals, I understand the uncomfortable feeling of leveraging AI to accomplish tasks like crafting an email or writing reports for students.
Many times I have heard the feedback that “I don’t like using AI to write for me because I don’t want to be perceived as lazy or impersonal”. A great counter I recently heard to this point goes as follows:
Imagine crafting an email response takes 10 minutes, but with ChatGPT the same email can be written in 2 minutes. What if we use those 8 minutes saved to do something nice for that person or doing good for the world?
I find the following workflow best when writing personal messages with the tool:
Formulate WHAT you want to say — the user should always be responsible for content
Ask ChatGPT HOW to say it. (Bonus: You can upload examples of your own writing for style continuity)
READ the response ChatGPT replies and make any necessary EDITS
Ask ChatGPT for a final PROOFREAD for typos
While there are plenty of situations when a personal touch is necessary to convey appropriate care and meaning, I believe those situations should be the exception and not the rule.
When it comes to teacher-specific tasks, I see a wide breadth of opportunity for leveraging the tools in an administrative capacity.
Take the example of a teacher grading math homework. He or she can take photos or scans of completed math assignments and ask AI to review the outcome. Ask where this child is struggling and to send suggestions on how to best engage the student to get meaningful improvement. Then, aggregate the results from the entire class and see which topics should be revisited in class and which issues should be addressed on an individual level.
In the same way teachers can leverage the tool, I encourage students to find ways to improve their productivity in ways that are allowed within their school’s honor code and AI policies.
Building Creative Projects for Students
While researching the topic I found countless out-of-the-box AI tools for the classroom, but I want to argue that with clearly defined outcome goals, clever prompting, and a willingness to experiment, anyone can create engaging educational experiences directly in the ChatGPT application.
I ultimately came up with the three increasingly dynamic and engaging categories of exercises:
I. The Interactive Textbook
At the highest level, ChatGPT can be used by students to explore learnings from class in an interactive format. The student can send into the AI tool a historical era they are learning about, key events from the syllabus, and big-picture learning goals, and the AI will be able to compile comprehensive study guides and answer questions students may have on the topic.
I am working on a study guide to prepare for a test on the causes of the First World War, can you create me a study guide with important figures and events that can be used to prepare for the test…
This concept can be built upon further to create more dynamic and engaging ways to interact with a textbook that were previously impossible:
“Hi Chat, can you pretend to be George Washington in the year 1785? You have led the American colonies to victory over the British and are now helping to shape the Constitution on your path to becoming the first President. Would you be willing to talk with me to help me prepare for my history test on this topic?”
With the above prompt, I was able to explore all aspects of life in the 1700’s and answer my curiosities on his experiences during the Revolutionary War. ChatGPT gives quite the captivating performance when imitating historical figures.
II. Scenario Building and Decision Making for Outcome Based Learning
While dynamically engaging with facts and figures is a great way to build foundational knowledge, I believe the true unlock of AI in the classroom is its ability to foster critical thinking by building scenarios and working with students to make decisions and solve problems.
AI can place a student at the center of historical crises and force them to ask questions and weigh their options, following in the footsteps of great leaders of the past.
A prompt that will initiate the game may look something like this:
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Historical Decision-Making Game
In this game, you’ll take on the role of a real historical decision-maker. I’ll start by giving you an accurate historical scenario, and you’ll make decisions that can either follow history or take events in a new direction.
How it works: I present you with a historical situation where you step in as the decision-maker. I will provide a list of options or you can provide your own creative choices. You make a choice about what to do next. I describe the consequences of your decision and give you a new challenge based on it. We continue until the scenario reaches a natural conclusion.
At the end, you will provide a summary of my choices, explain the reasoning behind historical outcomes, and discuss whether my decisions led to better or worse results.
Please let me know if there are any clarifying questions you would like to ask me about the game.
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Below is an example of me playing through a couple scenarios. First I play as Cortez landing in Mexico and moving inland, and then I flip the script and play as Montezuma making decisions on how to deal with the arrival of strangers on our shores:
Historical Decision-Making Game with ChatGPT
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The above game yielded hours of fun as I attemppted to win the Space Race as the USSR and tried to bring peace and stability to China after the Mongol Invasion.
These learning tools are not just limited to historical scenarios either. I experimented with using ChatGPT as a writing aid for creating fiction stories. ChatGPT is brilliant at dynamic writing exploration and allows users to experiment with character development and world building to enhance their creative writing journey.
With desired learning outcomes at the starting point, teachers can design engaging activities that naturally guide students toward these goals, blending foundational knowledge with critical thinking in a fun and immersive way.
III. Peer-to-Peer Created Games and Learnings
Providing students with creative prompts to engage with and augment the learning experience is really only the beginning of unlocking AI in the classroom.
I believe the ultimate goal will be encouraging students to discover their own opportunities to build using AI.
I imagine an awesome future where students are encouraged to build elaborate puzzle games in which they need to use the laws of physics to solve interesting situations. The student then shares the prompts with his or her friends, who provide feedback and help iterate on the idea in a constructive and positive way. The ability of ChatGPT to help build prototypes, share with others, iterate, and continue improving is its true superpower.
Refocusing on New Skills for the AI World
While AI can enhance the learning outcomes of students in meaningful ways, it is also critical that we begin to deeply understand which skills will be highly valued in the changing world.
Emotional Intelligence — Understanding and connecting with people remains irreplaceable. In a time where smartphones have replaced meaningful social interactions, understanding one’s values and building meaningful relationships is critical to success.
Creativity — As I hoped to have conveyed in this article, the possibilities of AI are primarily limited by our own creativity. With clever prompting and the ability to recognize opportunities in creative ways, the future is exciting.
Public Speaking — Clear, persuasive communication will set people apart in a world where information and knowledge will be easily accessible by all. The power of storytelling is essential to building confidence and credibility.
Arts & Music — AI can generate art, but human imagination gives it meaning. In a fast-paced and ever changing world, music has always served as a powerful experience that provides energy and joy in my life.
Nature — In our fast-paced, tech-driven world, we often overlook our planet’s beauty and wisdom. Deepening our connection with the outdoors not only grounds us but also inspires the next generation to be mindful stewards of our planet.
Finding new and engaging ways to build foundations in these areas will set students up for success as they progress into the world.
Final Thoughts
AI is a disruptive technology, and educational organizations need to think deeply about how to best prepare students for the changing world.
My primary goal of this article was to reframe the fear of AI into an opportunity to transcend previous limitations in education.
I am not here to suggest schools immediately uproot their curricula and crank the AI treadmill to 100, but I am here to advocate that a nuanced and thoughtful introduction of these tools into the classroom can have truly impactful positive outcomes. School administrators and teachers need to work together to craft innovative and ethical guidelines on the technology.
I encourage anyone reading this to tinker with some of the ideas and prompts provided here, and discover your own use cases for the technology.
With creativity, experimentation, and an open-minded approach, the possibilities for building a better educational experience are limitless.
