Over the past few weeks, I have introduced you to all the different aspects of SchoolAI and how you can use it for your own productivity as well as how you can use it to enhance your students' learning experiences.
I know I've spent a lot of time talking about how great AI can be...but of course I am also aware of the "dangers" of AI. After vacation, I will dive into the subject of academic dishonesty. But today I want to talk about the accuracy of information derived from AI.
One of the cooler features of SchoolAI is the ability to chat with a historical figure and essentially interview them about their life. Imagine a US History student interviewing Neil Armstrong about the moon landing or a Physics class interviewing Albert Einstein or a Foods class interviewing Julia Child. It sounds incredible - and it is! But...how do we know the information is even accurate? Where is the information coming from?
That is a question that you MUST pose to your students if you start incorporating AI into your classroom. Because AI is just a tool - it spits out information based on its training. It is no different from students doing a quick Google search or finding information on Wikipedia. It is just being presented to them in a human-like manner.
You can even compare it to a calculator in math class - I remember my teachers allowing us to use calculators, but begging us to think about the results rather than just taking them as truth. What if I forget to hit the clear button before I enter 5*13 and I get 473? I should be able to see that and think...hmm...that doesn't seem right.
This type of questioning is not new and it is not specific to AI. We've all seen things like this:
(When I was a yearbook advisor, someone put this as their senior quote, and when I mentioned it to the staff, they said they looked it up online and confirmed that it was Lincoln's quote.)
So what can you do as a teacher to help build digital citizenship and critical thinking skills with your students?
Well, if we are talking about having students chat with a historical figure...you could keep it as simple as giving an introduction stating that the "figure" was created out of research from all around the internet - and that some of the information may not be true. You could also dive more deeply into research and validation by asking students to verify the information they gather from the historical figure using academically reliable sources.
It is so easy now to spread false information through AI generated content and photo/document editing capabilities. We all need to be on board with preparing students to be critical consumers of information.
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