Tips for Using AI—and for Talking to Students About It

AI isn’t coming—it’s already here. It has been embedded in the various educational platforms we use and the assessments we give. It’s likely involved in both the professional development we participate in and the writing and work that our students are doing.

As an educator, speaker, and advocate for technology integration, I’ve spent a lot of time researching, using, and teaching with AI so that I can prepare students and other educators. In my classroom, from using a variety of AI tools that help me save time so I can spend it working with students to integrating chatbots to support student learning, I see the value and impact of leveraging this technology. If we want our students to be ready for their future careers, we must start teaching them about AI. They need to move beyond being consumers of content and instead become creators and innovators.

Where Do We See AI?

For educators, many AI-powered platforms help us to target instruction, assess students, and find resources for our lessons.

Confidence building: Encouraging students to speak in class can be a challenge. At the end of 2023, I started to use SchoolAI with my students and created a “Sidekick” for them to have conversations in Spanish based on the content that I used for the prompt. They loved it—it not only helped them build language skills and confidence but also showed how AI can support their learning. MagicSchool AI is another great option, with a tutor function that helps students in areas where they need support. Both of these tools also have historical characters that students can chat with and other features to enhance learning. I love that I can monitor student responses, provide additional support, and adjust instruction as needed.

Using Eduaide, teachers can kick off a class debate with pros and cons and an outline to quickly get started, and they can also develop other collaborative and engaging activities for students.

For language learners, confidence matters. Snorkl allows students to practice speaking and receive AI and teacher feedback, in real time. The AI gives real-time feedback on fluency and pronunciation, helping students grow as communicators and build confidence. Snorkl can be used with students starting in kindergarten, and it has a library full of ready-to-use activities. In all the times I have used Snorkl or one of the chatbots, the feedback provided has been specific to each student’s responses and offered insights and examples to support their learning.

Each of these tools also provides schools with assurance that student safety and data privacy are important and keeps their information updated on their sites.

Content creation and scaffolding: I have used tools such as Brisk Teaching and Diffit to create materials for my classroom. Whether I generate an activity for students, use it to change the reading level, or make presentations, these types of tools help me to save time, but more important, they help me to provide more personalized experiences for students and teach them about AI in the process. Brisk also has Brisk Boost to create activities for students.

I have used tools such as Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizlet for generating quick game-based learning activities and lessons, or Formative for generating assessments. These have enabled me to personalize learning even more for my students by providing prompts to create more personalized resources that provide us with valuable and immediately available data to adjust our instruction in real time. With Quizizz, you can analyze with AI to gain insights into concepts that students may be struggling with and find additional practice resources.

Interactive presentations: When preparing a new presentation for students or professional development, there are a few tools that I use a lot. Almanack has a variety of options for creating assessments and other lesson materials. I use it the most for the professional slides that it quickly generates. I also rely heavily on Curipod for interactive lessons that involve students more in learning through discussion questions, drawing activities, polls, word clouds, and more. These help educators save time and create engaging lessons for students.

How to Talk About AI with Students

To get started talking with students about AI, I recommend asking questions. Ask students if they know what AI is, how it works, where they see it, and any benefits or concerns they can identify. Asking these initial questions helps students develop an understanding of AI. Then you can connect it to higher-level thinking skills and building digital awareness. Here are some example questions that I have used:

• How do you think Spotify knows what song you might like or Amazon can recommend products for you?
• How do you know whether an answer from AI is accurate?
• Should students be allowed to use tools like ChatGPT to help with writing? Why or why not?
• What is something that AI can help people do more easily?
• What concerns do you have about AI in education?

Getting started with conversations is easy to do, and it always leads to a deeper discussion and greater understanding. Then, you can start some activities and lessons by using AI tools with students. I’ve created AI scavenger hunts and asked students to identify where they encounter AI in their daily lives—apps, games, smart devices, or websites. Another fun activity is deciding whether it is or is not AI by showing examples of images or videos generated by AI and some by humans, and have students analyze them to decide if they are real or fake and how they can tell.

Students as Leaders

We know that many students are using AI outside of school. Even if we ask them not to, they still can, and so we need to give them guidance on how to explore it responsibly. I have learned a lot from my students while teaching them about AI. They come up with ideas for what AI could be used for and what its benefits are. They express concerns about AI and the impact it can have if not used responsibly.

Beyond conversations and brainstorming ideas, the students can be the creators of AI-powered apps. My students have designed their own mock-ups of chatbots for mental health, for nutrition advice, and for pollution control. I recently met with an 11th-grade student, Ronil Dubal, who created an app called Studysnap because he wanted to help students learn how to study better.

It’s not about being an expert or using all of the tools available. It’s about starting and being willing to explore so that we are preparing our students. We have a responsibility to ask the right questions about the tools we are using, explore the possibilities, and empower all students to be prepared for the future.