Recently, upon discovering my profession as an educator, individuals frequently pose a common query: “How do you discern if students are utilizing AI to cheat?” Teaching adolescents aged 12 and 13, the disparity between their authentic work and that produced by ChatGPT is stark, akin to substituting a purple grape with a purple Skittle. Nevertheless, during a recent discussion with a college Dean, I was enlightened about the challenges faced by online instructors in higher education in detecting AI-generated content, which is becoming increasingly indiscernible.
Valuable insights on integrating AI into education were shared in an article by essayist Hollis Robbins in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Robbins aptly notes, “AI possesses extensive knowledge beyond any individual, yet each person harbors insights that AI lacks.” She anticipates that localized, cultural, and experiential knowledge will hold greater significance in the future, emphasizing the role of education in imparting skills to access and transform information into knowledge.
Optimistically, I choose to concentrate on the beneficial aspects of AI in enriching my teaching methods and efficiency. Here are some recommended tools for educators seeking to leverage AI in their teaching practices:
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ANIMATE STUDENT ARTWORK EFFORTLESSLY Animated Drawings By Meta AI Research: Utilize this tool to animate student drawings swiftly, breathing life into their artwork by instructing figures to dance, walk, or jump, yielding instant and captivating results.
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SIMPLIFY PERSONALIZED LEARNING GPT Quiz Generator For Google Forms: As a school librarian, I reinvigorated the “Pizza Hut Book It” challenge with a modern twist. Leveraging the GPT plug-in, I crafted reading assessments for over 40 student-selected titles from our collection. While the quizzes required refinement through student feedback, the process of critiquing AI-generated assessments proved to be a valuable learning experience, culminating in a repository of 40 high-quality quizzes for engaging novels.
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ENGAGE WITH HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL FIGURES Hello History: Explore the Humy library enabling students to interact with a diverse array of bots embodying historical and cultural icons, from Curt Kobain to Charlemagne. Engaging with these figures offers unique insights and perspectives, fostering a deeper understanding of various personalities and eras.
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SEAMLESS ALIGNMENT WITH EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS Magic School: Embrace the data analysis provided by Magic School to align lesson plans with state standards efficiently. This tool not only aids in identifying teaching gaps but also offers interventions tailored to specific standards. Additionally, the joke generator, albeit with mixed results, injects humor into the classroom, albeit some jokes may fall flat.
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VISUALIZE STUDENTS’ WRITING Canva AI Image Generator: Enhance students’ creative writing by generating images that capture the mood and tone of their work using Canva’s AI image generator. By inputting a poem, the tool generates four corresponding images for students to select from, enriching their creative expression.
