Some teachers embrace, others ban generative AI in the classroom. Here's why there's a divide.

Summary

The use of generative AI in classrooms is sparking debate among educators. While 59% of teachers believe students have used AI for schoolwork, approaches to AI in education differ greatly. Amanda Baker, CEO of AI Education, supports AI integration for teaching AI literacy and responsible use. On the other hand, Professor James Taylor has banned AI in his philosophy classes, emphasizing the need for students to develop critical thinking skills independently. This discussion highlights differing perspectives on balancing technological advancement with foundational educational skills.

Highlights

• The rise of AI in education has led to a split in teaching approaches. 🎓
• Amanda Baker advocates for AI integration to prepare students for a tech-driven future. 🌐
• James Taylor highlights the need for spaces free from AI to encourage critical reasoning. 🧠
• Effective use of AI requires an understanding of prompting techniques and critical thinking. ⚙️
• Both approaches aim for well-rounded, critical thinkers ready for the future. 🔮

Key Takeaways

• Generative AI in schools is a hot topic, with many educators divided. 📚
• Amanda Baker supports AI for teaching future-proof skills, while James Taylor promotes AI-free zones to enhance critical thinking. 🤔
• Promoting AI literacy involves teaching students critical and reflective skills for effective AI use. ✍️
• Philosophically, AI tool prompts might become a modern skill akin to asking the right philosophical questions. 🤯
• Ensuring students are prepared for future AI-driven environments is crucial yet challenging. 🚀

Overview

In the realm of education, there's a big debate brewing about the inclusion of generative AI in classrooms. Amanda Baker, spearheading AI Education, argues for a balanced approach that embraces AI as it's becoming ubiquitous across devices and platforms. She emphasizes the importance of AI literacy, teaching students to understand and responsibly use AI tools instead of banning them entirely. Meanwhile, Professor James Taylor has taken a different path, banning AI in his philosophy courses to promote critical thinking and independent reasoning.

Baker makes a solid point, insisting that learning to interact with AI effectively requires critical skills equivalent to traditional writing and thinking. She suggests that using AI tools demands a mastery of prompting - a skill set aligned with evaluating, reflecting, and crafting thoughtful responses. In one instance, students found creating an AI-generated essay required more skill and effort than traditional methods.

On the flip side, Taylor, while acknowledging the benefits, stresses that some educational spaces should remain AI-free to focus on developing intrinsic abilities like critical reasoning without external aids. He envisions that the art of prompting AI could become a subfield of philosophical inquiry, yet insists it starts with learning to think critically without AI's assistance. Both educators seek to prepare students for a technologically advanced world but with differing methods to achieve this.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter "Introduction" delves into the growing concern regarding the use of generative AI, particularly in educational settings. It highlights a noticeable divide being caused by this technology in classrooms across the country. A study by the Center for Democracy and Technology reveals that 59% of teachers suspect at least one student in their classroom has used generative AI for school-related tasks. The text illustrates how students can easily use tools like ChatGPT to complete assignments almost instantaneously, and notes that some teachers are also adopting this technology for educational purposes.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Perspectives on AI in Education This chapter explores the diverging perspectives on the use of AI in education, featuring interviews with two educators. Amanda Baker, CEO of AI Education, supports incorporating AI into the classroom, while Professor James Taylor, Philosophy Professor at the College of New Jersey, opposes its use in his classes. The dialogue delves into the philosophical implications and administrative decisions concerning AI's role in academic environments.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Amanda's Perspective on AI Amanda believes AI is an essential tool for education, emphasizing a balanced approach. She acknowledges that generative AI is here to stay, marking an unprecedented inflection point. AI is becoming ubiquitous in tools, social media, and devices, with even the latest iPhones containing generative AI models.
• 02:00 - 03:30: Professor James' Perspective on AI In this chapter, Professor James discusses the importance of preparing students for a future where AI is prevalent, starting in the next 2 to 5 years. He argues that instead of banning AI, educational systems should focus on teaching AI literacy. This includes understanding what AI, specifically generative AI, is and learning to use these tools responsibly. Banning AI could lead to misuse or harm, as restricted access often increases curiosity and misuse among students.
• 03:30 - 05:00: Challenges and Skills with AI The chapter titled 'Challenges and Skills with AI' discusses a philosophical perspective on the use of AI, particularly in educational settings. A professor shares his experience and reasoning behind banning AI in his classroom, advocating for spaces where AI is prohibited to encourage deeper thinking. The discussion emphasizes the importance of learning responsible use of AI, aligning with a view that while AI should not be universally banned, there must be environments that foster independent thought without AI intervention.
• 05:00 - 06:00: The Future of AI in Education The chapter discusses the role of a philosopher in education, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking. Students are encouraged to formulate their own views, analyze other people's arguments, and determine the validity of those arguments. The chapter highlights the importance of standing by one's conclusions and understanding diverse perspectives through thorough analysis.

Some teachers embrace, others ban generative AI in the classroom. Here's why there's a divide. Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 those of us who have kids are worried about this stuff even people are worried about this in in the work in the workplace so the use of generative AI in schools in particular is causing a divide in classrooms across the country a report last year from the center for democracy and Technology says 59% of teachers believe one or more of their students have used generative AI for school purposes so how does it work students can drop an assignment into something like chat GPT click a button and their homework is done in seconds some teachers are even using it to
• 00:30 - 01:00 detect kids that are actually cheating and have used it themselves so some are Banning AI completely in the classroom others are actually encouraging its use joining us now are two Educators with very different approaches for AI education CEO Amanda Baker staff she is the CEO of AI education and Professor James Taylor from the College of New Jersey who has banned the use of AI in his philosophy classes uh this is a philosophical question professor and I'm so glad both of you are here to discuss
• 01:00 - 01:30 it let's first get both sides of the story for you Amanda why do you think AI is a good tool for Education well I think that a balanced approach is important so I don't know how far it's going to be a debate but I think that for us uh generative AI is not going away we're living through an inflection point unlike anything we've ever lived before uh generative AI is becoming ubiquitous and a lot of our tools and social media and devices if you have a new iPhone then you already have generative AI models that are in your hands and so for us I think that we have
• 01:30 - 02:00 to prepare students for a future that's not just 15 20 years away but it's happening the next 2 to 5 years and so for us we believe very strongly that AI literacy actually teaching kids in developmentally appropriate ways what AI is and is it specifically what generative AI is and is it and then how to use those tools responsibly is a better approach than just outright Banning because as soon as it's banned it's forbidden fruit if you have a kid you know oh you can't use this and then they're going to be using these tools potentially in ways that could actually harm them especially around thinking
• 02:00 - 02:30 professor your rebuttal please I'm pausing which I know is a big no no on television I'm a philosopher and so we tend to think about things quite deeply and I have banned AI in my classroom but I'm not in favor of banning AI across the board I agree with Amanda but learning how to use it responsibly is important but I think for there has to be some classroom spaces where it's prohibited and its use is eliminated and the reason for that is
• 02:30 - 03:00 fairly straightforward as a philosopher my job is to get students to engage in critical thinking to work out what their views are to analyze the arguments of other people to see if you can come to a consensus or and my students hate this to see maybe somebody else is just wrong and you're right and I like it when students stick to their guns and say this but to be able to do this what you have to do is to actually read other people's arguments think about what they're trying to say work out out what
• 03:00 - 03:30 the reasons they're given in support of their views are assess them and then work out your own response so what I do AI can do this if you type in a prompt boom there's the answer but that means that the student has now outsourced all of their thinking to a machine they haven't worked out and developed the skills themselves it's critical that students develop the critical reasoning skills so that they can actually assess AR products and also the products of other human writers so that's why I ban
• 03:30 - 04:00 AI in my classrooms so Amanda to to James's Point how do you ensure that students still have the rigor rigorous intellectual Foundation to think and write clearly while also giving them access to AI which does the thinking and the writing for them well I think that if you've used generative AI you know that prompting techniques actually require some of those same skills to use generative AI more than just generically it requires critical thinking it requires grit resilience reflection evaluation so even with students that
• 04:00 - 04:30 are let's say in high school teaching them how to prompt effectively can be just as hard as writing you do you really think that Amanda because honestly that's potentially a viral the idea that prompting is equivalent to writing really well no I think that so let me give you can I give an example that we did a panel with two young girls that were going to trick their teacher they were asked to trick their teacher to but they had to create an essay and the essay had to be fully AI generated and they had to feel confident to turn it in and so what the girls did is they first wrote the essay and it took them a
• 04:30 - 05:00 couple hours and they felt really confident you know how long it took them to create a fully AI generated essay that they liked meaning they could not touch it outside of the AI system a week and it actually they said it was harder it required them to learn how to actually use the tools effectively to evaluate their voice and what they were trying to say and to edit fully within the tool I'm not like these are new skills for the future critical thinking is something that we have to teach and I think that elementary school is going to be more important than ever actually working with young people to start
• 05:00 - 05:30 building foundational skills that we haven't historically done very well over the last two decades if you look at the nape scores that just came out reading is at an all-time low in terms of like how the US is doing so it's not that I'm saying that those skills aren't important but I promise you to really learn how to use gener AI to the highest level of efficacy requires a lot of skills students don't have and that can be effective that that kid going to to your classroom and having those conversations could be better suited to actually have and test and try out those
• 05:30 - 06:00 same Socratic dialogues with an AI tool and then now take those new found skills and then go into your classroom and fill more prepared and more confident it makes me think of and do you have a something you'd like to add Professor um yes I think that Amanda's point is well taken and that writing good prompts does actually require you to have Mastery of the subject that you're addressing and know how to answer ask the questions one of the things in philosophy we often say is we don't give you the answers we ask we train you how to ask the right
• 06:00 - 06:30 questions so I see generative AI is a wonderful opportunity for philosophers because what we've been doing for literally Millennia is getting people to ask the right questions and to work out how to get the answers you're after before you even know what those answers are so I see essentially the prompting is going to be a branch of philosophy but to get there you have to actually work out how to do this without for crutch of AI well we all agree where
• 06:30 - 07:00 we'd like to be we would like our children to grow up and be educated with a foundation where they can have a conversation like this which is complex and subtle and and have a back and forth um I hope that they can I hope that we all win Amanda biera and James tayor thank you very much appreciate it