How one Richland County teacher embraced AI in the classroom

MANSFIELD — Beatrice Jones sat on the floor of her father’s classroom, her eyes and nose dwarfed by a chunky white virtual reality (VR) headset.

A projector screen at the front of the classroom revealed what she saw — worktables, chairs and a Lego set that wasn’t actually there. Jones’ hand entered the frame. She grabbed a small red block and continued building.

As technologies like VR and artificial intelligence (AI) are advancing at a breakneck speed, educators have to decide if and how to integrate them in the classroom.

Dan Jones, a middle social studies teacher in Mansfield, has embraced them.

During school hours, Jones uses the VR set and Google Earth to show his students different parts of the world. They can walk around historic Jamestown and the Colosseum in Rome, all with the push of a button.

“To actually be able to look around, turn side to side and see it, is a totally different experience,” said Jones, a teacher at the Richland School of Academic Arts.

“I could put them in Florence, Italy and they could see where the Medici lived and what the city looked like, which is very different than just reading about it.”

After ChatGPT took the internet by storm, Jones began exploring how AI could create more meaningful, engaging educational experiences for his students.

“The more I played with the tool, the more potential I could see for its use within a classroom,” Jones said. “Then a lot of educational AI tools started to pop up.”

Now, Jones regularly uses a school-specific platform called SchoolAI in his classroom.

Teachers can use the site to generate lesson plans, multiple choice quizzes and Individualized Education Plans. Students can access AI tutors, career exploration tools and interactive games.

From pop quiz to bot quiz

Jones said one of his favorite tools is a custom chatbot feature.

“I told it what questions were covered throughout the unit and that I did not want it to answer any of those questions completely,” he said. “It could provide a couple of details and then follow up with a question.”

Jones said it takes him mere minutes to create a chatbot. He simply inputs the topic, a student’s age level and some parameters. Then the bot will prompt students with a question.

Jones said even if a student doesn’t know anything, the chatbot can be a helpful tool.

“It’ll follow up with a couple pieces of information about the decline of feudalism and then ask them a question,” Jones said. “It develops critical thinking skills as they’re using it, instead of just providing them with answers so that they don’t have to think anymore.”

Jones said SchoolAI’s chatbot is designed to be distraction-proof. Once, to test it out, Jones asked a student to try to get the chatbot to order a pizza.

“The AI responded, ‘it seems like you’re a little off task. Let’s get back to the decline of feudalism,’” he said.

Teachers are able to see the “conversations” between students and chatbots. Jones said SchoolAI can also tell him if a particular student is giving short responses, trying to derail the conversation or seems otherwise disengaged.

“There are plenty of times when students are working on a computer and they look like they’re working, but they’re really not,” Jones said.

“As a teacher, that’s hard to see because students have mastered the trickery behind looking like they’re working. You can’t trick the AI.”

From game maker to grammar coach

Students can also use the software as a writing tutor. The program can offer immediate feedback on topic sentences or entire paragraphs.

Depending on what students write, Jones said, it may suggest adding more details or deleting redundancies.

Jones said the tool allows him more time with students who need extra help. It also makes better use of a student’s time.

“We do a lot of writing in social studies,” he said. “They don’t have to wait on me to process all of the different grammatical things. It’s able to guide them through the writing process immediately.”

The platform also allows teachers to build their own adventure games that incorporate historical facts and critical reasoning.

In one example, eighth grade students play a simulation of the Battle of New York. Students pick a role — spy or solider — then try to survive the battle.

“It goes through the whole storyline, giving them options, and they actually love the stories,” Jones said. “I’ve had kids ask — can I do it again and do different things?”

“Any time students ask if they can continue to engage with the content you’re teaching, that’s a win.”

Data accuracy, student privacy crucial considerations

Despite the wide breadth of possibilities that AI presents, educators and experts have voiced concerns about its shortcomings and potential for misuse.

“A lot of districts out there in the state of Ohio are scrambling right now, trying to figure out how they want to direct this new tool,” said Daryl Hartzler, technology coordinator for Upper Sandusky Exempted Village Schools.

“There are dangers behind it, too. We all know that anytime there’s new technology out there, kids can get really curious and try to find ways to misuse it.”

The arrival of generative AI ushered in concerns about cheating. Even AI tools designed to combat cheating have been called into question. Some students claim their essays have been falsely flagged as AI-generated.

Jones is aware of these issue. But in his view, AI isn’t going anywhere — so educators need to teach students how to properly use it.

“We can either teach them how to use it well, or they will end up using it for the wrong purposes,” he said.

“That’s always been one of the concerns is that students are going to use it to cheat. We have to teach them how to use AI constructively or we have to start to change the types of assessments that we’re having students do.”

Clint Knight is the director of workforce development for the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce. He believes the ability to use AI constructively will become a crucial employability skill, not just in the tech sector, but for workers in general.

“AI is not only going to be utilized our workforce, it’s going to be utilized in everyday life within the next 12 months,” Knight said.

“So understanding it — understanding what it does, how it gets its information and what it can do — is going to be key to just about anyone in the workforce.”

Another major consideration for schools is student privacy.

Hartzler advised schools to carefully examine the fine print on any new AI tool.

“Anytime we get a new tool in or we are using a new piece of software, I’m always making sure I’m checking the privacy policy, terms of use, those kinds of things, to see if they’re in compliance with certain national laws that we have to follow,” he said.

AI tools like ChatGPT have also made headlines for generating biased information and falsehoods — often referred to as “hallucinations.”

Even SchoolAI relies on a version of ChatGPT and thus, may produce false information from time to time.

“We can either teach them how to use (AI) well, or they will end up using it for the wrong purposes.”

— Dan Jones, Richland School of Academic Arts

“It will tell you that right on the site,” Jones said. “But the majority of the information is pretty rock-solid.”

While it’s far from ideal, Jones said any false info that does pop up can become a learning opportunity.

“Just about any website you go to, you have to evaluate, ‘Is this factual? Is this accurate?’” he said. “So you’re teaching students anyways how to evaluate the accuracy of information.”

Will AI replace teachers?

Other common fears surrounding any new technology is the potential to displace human relationships and eliminate jobs.

SchoolAI founder Caleb Hicks said his company’s goal isn’t to replace teachers. In fact, he hopes SchoolAI can allow teachers to have more face time with students.

“The goal is making teachers jobs easier, so that they can spend more time focused on students,” Hicks said.

“How do you put AI to work on the stuff that humans can’t do, so that people can do the things that only people can do together — connection and conversation and motivation?”

Hartzler thinks it will be a while before AI comes close to replicating the connection teachers have with their students.

“I think a lot of what teachers do in the classroom is relational. AI does not do a good job of that right now. It’s more informational,” he said.

“When it comes to relational things, teachers are always going to outclass artificial intelligence, as far as I’m concerned. Maybe in 100 years we might get there, but we’re not anywhere close to it now.”

But in an increasingly digital world, Jones said teachers have a bigger responsibility than ever before to teach students how to interact on a human level.

“Will (AI) hinder their interactions with one another? I would like to say no. But we’ve seen that even with social media, interactions have not been as kind or compassionate as we would want them to be,” he said.

“It’s a skill that we have to continue to foster in the classroom. We have to give kids opportunities to talk.”

“Part of that has to do with teachers doing less talking. Because if we’re dominating the conversation, students aren’t learning how to interact. We have to give students opportunities to talk in class and interact with their peers.”

Source: https://www.richlandsource.com/2024/08/20/ai-in-the-classroom-schools-dan-jones/