Post and discuss your response to the reflection question - What are you most concerned about in the age of AI in education, and what benefit of AI are you most excited about?
I’m concern about over-reliance on AI and loss of critical thinking skills. I’m excited about how AI might support my most struggling students
I am also concerned about students overly relying on AI and loss of critical thinking skills. As a math and programming teacher, I want my students to use AI to help them understand and clear up their questions and issues. However, if presented with a similar issue or problem, I would hope they would be able to take what they learned from AI to solve that problem. I don’t want them constantly typing in problems to just get the answer. I also think it is similar to the introduction of the calculator. In advanced math topics, am I teaching them how to multiply or divide or how solve a sytem of three equations.
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My main concern is the overreliance and loss of critical thinking when using AI. If left unchecked, these two would hinder the growth potential of the students, encourage haphazard work, dull the mind instead of creating new ideas and finding new solutions to problems new and old.
On the flip-side, AI when used responsibly and with output verification, is a great learning tool that can help give teachers more time teaching and guiding students on a one-on-one capacity. That’s what I’m excited about.
Although calculators are wonderful, every math teacher mourns the students’ ability to quickly solve basic problems in their head. I worry about a similar result for AI. If students are overly reliant upon it, they could lose basic abilities and even just the sense of challenge and adventure that comes in trying something new, even if that effort fails at first. We learn from struggle and failure. I am excited about AI handling those types of tasks that don’t really require thinking. Maybe, if AI can handle busywork, people who give others busywork will realize it and either eliminate the task or change it up.
This includes tasks such as essay writing, in which you could have AI compose a whole essay without even really researching a topic or knowing the main points of an argument.
I am most excited about AI replacing repetitive tasks for teachers such as writing lesson plans and creating schedules. Writing lesson plans and creating schedules takes up a lot of time, which could be better used for other tasks that would have a more direct impact on students.
I am most worried about plagiarism and academic dishonesty with AI because there has not be enough exposure to AI. As teachers we do not have the experience we need yet to truly understand this tool. Most students also do not have a lot of training regarding how to properly use AI tools ethnically and effectively. The benefit I am most excited about os using AI tools to complete the busy work teachers have to do so that I can spend more time helping students face to face.
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This is a great extension of the AI/calculator comparison, we’ve all heard!
I am most concerned about plagiarism and academic dishonesty when using AI. I think, personally, I am hesitant to use AI because it feels like I am “cheating” on my task since I am not doing all the work on my own or citing that I used AI. However, I feel that I need to overcome the idea that I am “cheating” on my work by utilizing AI as a springboard to create products that I will then add my own spin to. I am excited to use AI to reduce my workload on things that could be automated or done with the assistance of AI.
I’m concerned that students will rely heavily on AI for answers and not use critical thinking skills. The same can be said for the internet in general, though. I think we’ll have to change what we’re asking students to do with information they get online or from AI. I’m looking forward to being able to use AI to help me with planning lessons, center activities, etc.
I am most concerned about the loss of critical thinking for both students and teachers. At the same time, I am interested in the improvements AI can bring to differentiation and assessments.
My main concern has always been plagiarism and students attempting to make it write essays and short essay answers on assignments. Teaching English class, most plagiarism was a bit more difficult. You had to google up essays and find them written online to copy and use them as your own if they wanted to cheat. Now, you can just type the whole essay prompt in and it will write a generally good essay. Luckily it is easy to discern from one written by a student in class, but AI will get better and will make it more difficult to figure out in the future, which worries me. The benefit I’m most excited over though is how I can get it to write up little things I’m always required to write and not have to spend my time making it sound perfect. It shaves off hours of my content prep for classes sometimes.
Mi principal preocupación es el plagio en los trabajos de los estudiantes. Me entusiasma más la reducción de carga de trabajo para docentes.
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My students already plagiarize written work from the internet. I know a few have turned in AI written essays that they did not write. My own son did it last year in his English class and got caught. But I also believe that this could potentially take away their creativity and accountability. On the other hand, if students have integrity, it could be a great tool to help them get started on an assignment.
I am most concerned about the loss of critical thinking skills. I am an elementary teacher and my friend is a university teacher. We were discussing how attention around AI in higher education is often about grading and authenticity, but something that seems overlooked are the skills around tasks like essay-writing. I graduated with an English degree, which seriously emphasized abstraction (such as the organization of a term paper or abstracting essential information from research articles) and evaluation (particularly about discursive theory and society as it is or as it is represented). There are also executive skills that greatly improved my life, like prioritization and perseverance through long, multi-step projects requiring de/composition. Sometimes I think we look at tasks AI can automate for us without thinking of the loss of critical thinking in that process. Some of my best ideas have come through iterating imperfect practices or making new discoveries in the midst of an iteration cycle. If AI automates an input directly to the output, then the learning and experience that comes through the experience of being in-process is lost.
What are you most concerned about in the topic you selected in the previous level? I am concerned about the loss of critical thinking skills with the more students rely on technology/ AI. Throughout my years in kindergarten, I have seen my students entering kindergarten with lower skills due to the use of technology. Example, I have seen a loss in fine motor skills due to the overuse of iPads, tablets, etc… It is great that they know how to work a computer or tablet, but at the expense of their fine motor skills. Especially since kindergarten standards are very rigorous and we do not have a lot of opportunities to help with their fine motor skills. As I look around, I see that little ones are playing on technology at the dinner table versus the coloring the menu I had when I was growing up. Technology has a lot of benefits, but I wish parents also understood that their needs to be a balance. Especially, since our school district is micromanaging our instruction (at least in the school I teach) and we only have 7 mins. to help with fine motor skills. I also worry that it will impact critical skills the more we rely on it to solve problems instead of critical thinking skills. Example, the engineering standard is harder and harder to teach each year as little ones build/design less and less in their play time so they can sit in front of a screen.
I am the most excited about the idea that AI could help with pulling differentiated level texts on a skill/concept or theme. I think that would be great for research projects. Also, the thought that it could cut down on paperwork that I find does not help my students but just the politics of school would be a huge relief.
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There are so many possibilities with AI that will allow for more creativity and ideas that many learners will improve upon when using, but I am concerned that some will “think” that AI will do their work for them and not utilize the full potential of AI to enhance/challenge their thinking. I agree with another’s comment that for those struggling learners, AI has the potential to change/improve their ability to grow as a learner more personally.
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What I am currently most concerned about is plagiarism and academic dishonesty. I understand the limits of AI and how to use it reliably. My students, however, I am not sure they understand the impact plagiarism and academic dishonesty has. At the middle school level and my school, they are not big offenses like they would be in college or even in a job. I understand as a teacher I would need to teach them how to use it responsibly. I am just not sure how to introduce it to students without it becoming an issue in the long run.
What I am most excited about as a benefit of AI is using it to lower my workload. I feel like I am constantly on the go at work and sometimes the mundane paperwork tasks that I have to complete as part of my job could easily be simplified by AI. Things that would take me hours to complete may take me less than an hour with a “virtual assistant” as they said in the videos.
I am most concerned about plagiarism and academic dishonesty. I am most excited to learn how to use it to differentiate lessons/topics to reach all of my learners.
There is more retention of information when you have to research a topic. All the time spent going through materials and reading though different sources to get the right information. This all helps retain or remember the information you were researching. With AI, it will do all this research for you, in turn, you will be less likely to remember this information in the long run. I find this to be concerning. But how timesaving AI is would be something to be excited about.