Week 6- AI Is On The Rise!

I have mixed feelings about AI, and I loved the discussion and learning that occurred this week. Last year was the first time that AI was brought to my attention and started making a large wave in the news, specifically with chatGPT. I was in my last year of my undergrad and there were always conversations about chatGPT and using it etc etc because it was this new tool that made school so much easier. The topic made me quite mad because as someone who did their undergrad in history, the process of writing a 10 page history paper is somewhat of a craft (as it is for any discipline).  When I would write my papers I had a process where I would start with days of research looking at books from the library, or the archives and  physically turning the pages and gathering my information. I loved it because you don’t really get to do that anymore in this technology-filled world. And then I would  narrow it down and form my own story from the information given to me. I take a lot of pride in the papers I wrote because they are personal and quite the process filled with hard work. So when I overheard conversations that some of my other classmates were having about them using chatGPT to write their papers in seconds and then refine it a bit, it took the art of crafting a paper away from the discipline of history and that made me sad and frustrated. It then got me thinking about the students in my future classroom, and if they are going to use AI to write papers, and never get to experience the knowledge that comes out of the process of writing a paper. Because of this I am weary of AI, and was never really a friend of it, but this class somewhat changed my opinion.

At the beginning of the class, my opinions on AI stayed the same when we were introduced to the idea that AI is now able to create videos. I thought to myself, “holy, it really can do anything, and that’s scary.” Like Andrew said, It took 30 years to get access to the internet and in a year we went from AI photos to AI videos. This is pretty crazy and  makes me curious about what the future holds in AI, but also terrifies me. My idea about AI started to shift when we did the little experiment on creating a flower. First Andrew got us to try and copy a flower by using tools such as Canva (computer assisted). I enjoyed doing this because I didn’t know Canva had this feature, and it was also fun to physically try and copy the drawing while also giving me a new tool I can use in my future classroom. Then Andrew told us to go onto the site Craiyon and try and get as close as possible to the original flower (computer generated). The lesson that came out of this is that AI can be very useful in saving time. By using computer generated, I didn’t have to sign into an account, and take time to try and physically draw the flower like I had to with computer assisted. Instead the AI platform allowed me to create a flower in 60 seconds after I gave it a prompt  and it gave me options too! My ideas towards AI started to shift after this because I realized that it can be a very helpful tool that can help to cut down on time. However you have to be okay with the AI not giving you EXACTLY what you pictured. (see below of my AI generated flower, I tried many times to change it but it wasn’t giving me the cartoon-y hand drawn image I wanted).

Image created by Ashley Hall licensed underCC BY 4.0

Screenshot from Craiyon of the flower images generated from my prompt, “Make me a cartoon image that looks like it was drawn of a white daisy with a yellow middle and have it on a pink circle for the background.” Image created by Ashley Hall licensed under CC BY 4.0

Our guest speaker Chris Du then amplified my move towards using AI in a positive way by suggesting AI can be like an assistant, but it can’t take over yours or your students’ jobs. Mr.Du had lots of insights on AI and how it can be helpful to teachers, considering he did create the AI tool TimleyGrader. I like the idea of this tool as it can be an assistant to a teacher because it cuts down on time and can help with teacher burnout, but again, it can’t do the job completely and that’s the way it should be. There should still be that human-ness to our world, but having AI tools can help amplify our lives and the business of it. Because of that, I am one step closer to becoming friends with AI. I still don’t know what my future classroom will look like in regards to students’ work and AI, but I now know there are tools out there to help me as the teacher, and I am happy about that.  

I leave this blog today with a question to my fellow readers; How do you think students will be using AI in the classroom by the time we become teachers? Will it be prominent in the classroom and encouraged, or will we not be on that level yet?