Noticing AI pop up now more than ever before? Let’s discuss this new AI world we are heading towards and how it relates to education and child programing, what it all means, and the impacts there might be both positive and negative.
So—what is AI? Well, AI, or artificial intelligence, is a lot of different things. AI technology is used in machine learning, robotics, gaming, chatbots, language processing, and much more. Here we’ll focus on chatbot AI technologies like ChatGPT because these types of AI tools are really what have created all of this new attention.
Okay so what exactly is ChatGPT? We have an idea, let’s ask ChatGPT itself.
Did you get all that? Another way to put it is, you can ask ChatGPT to tell you something, write you something, suggest something, or really any other type of question you can think of.
For example, we asked an AI chatbot to write a poem about Peachjar:
“Peachjar, a platform so fine,
Uniting schools and parents in line,
With community resources to share,
Supporting the next generation with care.
Superintendents love it, that's for sure,
Connecting families to resources pure,
Building life skills and social-emotional health,
Improving student outcomes with stealth.
Communication departments love it too,
Streamlining their process, saving time anew,
Providing families with easy access,
To district, school, and community resources no less.
Community organizations love it as well,
Reaching parents electronically, oh so swell,
Increasing registrations for programs and events,
Peachjar truly represents.
Parents love it, that's no lie,
Accessing important information on the fly,
Clicking to take action with ease,
Peachjar aims to please.
So here's to Peachjar, oh so grand,
Delivering flyers across the land,
To school parents and children too,
Spreading news and joy anew.”
We suggest trying it out for yourself to get a better idea of what we mean. Also, a quick note, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Even just in the past few weeks Snapchat, an app heavily used by students, released an AI chatbot in their app powered by ChatGPT.
So what does this all mean for education and child programming? Are students going to have this thing write their essays for them?
Yes, students could potentially use AI tools like ChatGPT to complete their assignments for them. Would this mean open-ended homework assignments end up being a thing of the past? Academic integrity is at a vital crossroad and this is clearly something that needs to be avoided.
This is why it is important to start having an understanding of this technology now in order to create appropriate boundaries for the future. The reality is that AI is going to revolutionize many different fields and sectors in the coming years, and education is going to be one of them.
The good news is that there are AI detection tools out there and available already that can help teachers detect whether students are copying and pasting ChatGPT responses into their answers. Now these tools aren’t perfect, and shouldn’t be the only thing considered when analyzing submitted content, but they can be helpful as a part of a larger strategy.
Also, according to The New York Times, Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT, is exploring creating a digital watermark feature. This watermark would be undetectable to the human eye but it would attach itself to AI generated content making it much easier to detect and identify that content as being AI generated.
This is all to say that this technology, which is currently burgeoning, is all very new still and likely to keep changing. It is important to stay up to the date to have a full understanding of the environment in order to help create proper boundaries and educational policies as these changes keep coming.
Ultimately, even with their drawbacks, AI tools such as ChatGPT are going to be used more and more in educational and program settings. They will help enhance learning outcomes and provide students with new and engaging ways to interact with course content. Let's put a lens to what some of these ways will be.
AI tools are going to help create personalized learning experiences for each student in real time. AI tools have the ability to analyze a student’s strengths, weaknesses, and learning style that will help create appropriate course content and activities for the student. This may help students learn more efficiently and effectively as they won’t be held back by material they have already mastered or overwhelmed by material that is too challenging.
AI tools such as ChatGPT can make learning more engaging and interactive for students. For example, it can provide students with immediate feedback on their writing assignments, helping them improve their writing skills in real-time. It can also just be as simple as asking ChatGPT a question just like you would Google if there were no teacher around, or a student was too shy to speak up in class.
ChatGPT could also be a useful tool for a student at home who needs help on a homework question but does not have people in their home to help them. It could help a student organize their notes or create study materials. There are many different ways, when used in a healthy manner, that ChatGPT could benefit and enhance a child’s learning experience.
Benefits don’t just stop with students though, program providers can use AI to help them with their program planning as well. Program providers can use AI to suggest resources such as videos, articles, and books that align with the learning goals they are aiming for. It can also help program providers develop engaging activities that help achieve these learning goals as well.
There is also work being done in classrooms and programs across the country to use AI to increase student-teacher engagement using the real time feedback and modifications that AI can provide. It is a widely accepted idea that students take a hold of concepts and learn more efficiently when they are engaged in non-conventional ways.
The world is changing and its best to prepare. If all the right considerations are made when it comes to the use of AI in education, then there is potential for an amazing tool that will allow students to enhance their learning experience. The key is learning, preparing, and being ready to make sure this type of technology is harnessed the right way!
For more info, check out one of our YouTube videos on this same subject!