What is AI? AI stands for Artificial Intelligence and is generally defined as a machine/computer processing system that mimics human intelligence through information acquisition, reasoning, and self-correction. It has slowly become a growing part of our lives in that a lot of websites and programs we use have some sort of AI component. A great short video from ISTE.org (International Society for Technology in Education) offers a nice explanation:
If you use Amazon, Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest), Gmail, Netflix, Siri, Alexa, Hey Google, or Google Maps, then you are using AI within its recommendations, facial detection, path or decision-making processes.
Beneficial Uses of AI in the Classroom
A great learning experience can be created by teaching about the different components of AI. Dian Schaffhauser (2019), from The Journal, described some excellent educational experiences dealing with students learning about the decision tree aspects of AI and even having students create their own chatbots (experiential learning). More and more research is also showing the feasibility and benefits of AI systems within the classroom ( Aljohani, 2019; Cui, Xue, & Thai, 2019; Holstein, McLaren, & Aleven, 2018). The following are some specific ways/programs to use AI directly within a class to enhance different educational processes.
Turnitin is an online AI powered service that checks for text originality and plagiarism. It additionally looks for errors in citation and provides feedback for correction: https://www.turnitin.com
PEG Writing (Mi) is an online automated grading software system that uses AI to read, understand, process, grade and provide feedback on submitted essay documents: https://www.measurementinc.com/products-services/automated-essay-scoring
Microsoft Translator for Education is a free plugin for PowerPoint that creates real-time subtitles of instructors’ speech (displayed below the presentation). Using the Azure Cognitive Services, AI-powered speech recognition, and translation allows students to hear/read what is being said in their own native language: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator/education
Thinkster is a math tutoring platform that uses AI and machine learning to assist math coaches with student performance tracking. AI is used to visualize a student’s thought process as they work on a math problem: https://hellothinkster.com
There are also some other interesting examples of AI online such as the Chatbot from Elbot available at https://www.elbot.com or the Akinator guessing program from https://en.akinator.com. Google also has multiple AI “experiments” to check out on their site.
Please post a comment and share any AI experiences you have had with using it in the classroom.
Additional AI Resources
- ISTE offers a great number of videos and resources regarding AI
- Googles free AI/Machine Learning online course
- Coursera also offers a free AI/Machine Learning online course
Reference
Aljohani, N. (2019). Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Educational Process: Using AI to Enhance Student Performance in Content Skills. In Kansas State University Khbrat SUMMIT. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy in the College of Education and the English Language Program.
Cui, W., Xue, Z., & Thai, K. P. (2019). Performance comparison of an AI-based Adaptive Learning System in China. In 2018 Chinese Automation Congress (CAC) (pp. 3170-3175). IEEE.
Holstein, K., McLaren, B. M., & Aleven, V. (2018). Student learning benefits of a mixed-reality teacher awareness tool in AI-enhanced classrooms. In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (pp. 154-168). Springer, Cham.
Schaffhauser, D. (2019). Why it’s time to transform your classroom with AI. The Journal. Retrieved from https://thejournal.com/Articles/2019/06/12/Why-Its-Time-to-Transform-Your-Classroom-with-AI.aspx?Page=1
It helped me very much
Great post! I must say and thanks for the information.
Thank you for your comment.
We are talking about working with students in 2020 to create a chatbot for student support services. Will be checking out the reference Schaffhauser, D. (2019). Why it’s time to transform your classroom with AI. The Journal, so thanks for that. The akinator did better than I thought it would and I am glad they show how many others tried the same item as you, which was a surprisingly large number. Thanks for the article.
No problem Scott, glad I could help. Yes, more and more universities are using AI chatbots to help meet the needs of their students. Here are a few more articles dealing with that:
Universities Use AI Chatbots to Improve Student Services, from EdTech: https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2019/10/universities-use-ai-chatbots-improve-student-services
Chatbot for University — 4 Challenges Facing Higher Education and How Chatbots Can Solve Them, from Medium: https://chatbotslife.com/chatbot-for-university-4-challenges-facing-higher-education-and-how-chatbots-can-solve-them-90f9dcb34822
Also, just as a personal data point for you. Just today I had to contact a bank because I had a question for them. They had live chat available so I started chatting and they were upfront and told me they were a chatbot. The bot was pretty helpful but as soon as my questioning became too complicated it knew/understood and said, “that is a very specific question. I will get a live operator to answer that for you.” That level of AI was great because it preemptively addressed the issue of getting me the information I needed without me having to get frustrated. I was very impressed with that.