- This week, we discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and how it might be best applied in education. In my personal opinion, GenAI is a fad for education, and we are facing a shift in how we teach and learn.
- What are some of the major limitations of GenAI?
- GenAI is often limited to what it has been trained on, which can lead to major bias in terms of ideology and language. For example asking about a world event like the Vietnam War, GenAI would give a Western, Global North perspective. This can lead to blind-spots in GenAI’s reasoning. GenAI is also quite vague if not used properly and will not be able to give specific and reliable information. There are also cases of GenAI hallucinating and making up sources and quotations to suit a particular prompt, regardless of the truth.
- Describe possible use cases for GenAI in school settings at the grade level you would like to teach or describe why it would not be appropriate for your grade level.
- I would like to teach grade 9 Social Studies. I think GenAi would not be appropriate for this grade level as GenAI would be taking away students’ opportunities to think critically and develop their research skills. These skills are crucial in many facets of life, and not developing these skills will harm their chances of success later in education, employment and life. That being said, there might be some opportunities to use GenAI as a way to critically evaluate and critique the prompts and responses.
- Talk about how you’ve found GenAI useful or not for educational purposes.
- I have found GenAI is useful for formatting notes into lesson plans and presentations. GenAI can also provide some inspiration for activities which can help with the “teacher block” of having to come up with new or exciting activities.
- All this being said, GenAI is not a replacement for a teacher or a student in the room or knowing a class on a human level. Education is an interpersonal relationship first and foremost, so it is the duty of all those involved to put themselves into that relationship.
- What are some of the issues around the responsible use of GenAI in education including, the environment, property rights, and learning-related issues
- GenAI uses lots of energy and water to generate its prompts. This can create environmental damage of areas that have water shortages and/or energy insecurity
- GenAI also uses user data as part of its training and can lead to data privacy breaches.
- Foisting educational tasks on GenAI leads to students not developing those skills like critical thinking, writing or researching. This will lead to students not having those skills and not learning for themselves. This is counter to the goal of education which is to develop and “better” the human mind and prepare students for the challenges of the world.
- Lastly GenAI can create an inequity as those with the infrastructure and resources to access AI. Those without the resources to harness AI will be left out. This post from the Center for Global Development describes some of the challenges and inequalities AI presents on a global economic level.