I know A LOT of instructors who are terrified of AI, specifically student use of ChatGPT. But in reality, these can be such huge teaching tools, it is best to incorporate them and ensure students know what they are, then to ignore they exist and let students think they can get away with something.

By incorporating AI use in various ways, we can get better responses, not just by that usage, but also because students know we are willing to learn along with them. Face it, it is new to us too.   Students know that, and count on it!

Simulations Can Feel More Real

Companies build more realistic simulations every day, using AI. I use these in my classes because they show the real-time results of my students’ decisions. This is very impactful and leads to such significant questions and input, that I will not go back to a “regular” lecture. Students get to actually DO. And by doing, they learn more and it sticks. The use of AI within simulations allows more adaptability and true response within the systems, giving a more real-life feel to the work being done.

Brainstorming

I use Generative AI in my classes to help build prompts and show students how to build their own questions and scenarios. When I have a class that feels like a perpetual Monday morning, I have students pull out their computers to ask me a question. I give a topic, and I instruct my students to ask AI to generate a question to ask me. Usually the question is very basic, at which time I have my students tell me what is missing or what is wrong with the question.

I also use it in teams to promote brainstorming. I have each person in the team put their questions together and come up with a scenario that might reflect those questions. I may also have them build better scenarios with that starting point. Using AI to create scenarios and build off them is an excellent exercise.

In showing this use of AI, I also instill the need for ethical use of AI, in both the classroom and in the workplace. I frame it as a starting point, one for them to build off, much like the idea of building critical thinking, I use them to say, “Here is what you are given. Identify the flaws and tell me how you personally would make it better, and more relevant to answers you might be seeking.”  This also wakes up students to the fact that we know it, and we can actually help them with it. Framed as a starting point, and practiced as such, has been very successful.

Practice Lessons

I use my son as an example in my classrooms. He recently went through a QC certification, and when I taught him how to frame a question, he realized he could use this to create questions for his own certification to study from.  From my perspective, it was an extreme time saver, as he did not have to ask me for that help! From his perspective it was two-fold, as he learned how to make AI work for him, and he was able to study at his pace, but in a way that was tech-forward, which he liked and responded to.

He was able to make the content relevant very quickly, which made it less of a “task” and more of a true learning opportunity, which in turn meant more engagement.

The Caution in AI Use

What I tell my students is: AI isn’t perfect. More often than not, it is wrong, biased, or just goes all over the place. You MUST adjust, proofread, determine the correctness, and don’t expect it to be the end-all answer to whatever you have asked. As I tell my students, “AI is a language model, not a knowledge model.”  AI doesn’t check to make sure it is correct; it simply regurgitates what has been said in the past. That does not make it correct.

However, it can be a fantastic tool if used properly. Use it as a starting point; gather thoughts and ideas; throw some things out there; and see what it comes up with, because maybe it will give you some even better ideas.