Teach your secondary students about AI! Why?
(1) Because it is a part of the creation God has given us stewardship over, and it is a tool that can help us exercise more effective stewardship and flourish as God’s image bearers.
(2) Because it is a part of our current world and will be an ever-increasing part of the future world, the one we are preparing students for.
(3) Because it can act as an assistant, saving us time so we can focus on priorities that AI can’t do and catalyzing our best efforts.
(4) Because our students are learning about it and formulating their own responses—if we aren’t modeling responsible, ethical, creative, just responses, they may be fumbling on their own or falling under influences that are irresponsible, unethical, deadening, and unjust.
(5) Because teaching our secondary students about AI is a best practice. In AI for Educators: Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future, Matt Miller says, “For our students’ sake, to prepare them for the future, we can’t look at the world through ‘today glasses.’ We must use our ‘tomorrow glasses’” (Loc 96).
Where do we start? I started out by thinking deeply about ChatGPT when it first came out (see my blog posts here and here). Then I experimented with ChatGPT (you can sign up for a free account here). Think of ChatGPT as having your own research assistant. Here are some ways I’ve used it recently:
(A) For I-need-to-know-questions: The bread package was left open and the bread got hard. How can I soften it again?
(B) For answers to questions kids ask: Why do we call it a garbage can when it is much bigger than a can? (After I got the answer, I asked my AI assistant to level the answer for a 5-year-old. It did it!)
(C) For examples that can be used in blog posts: What are 10 examples of collaboration in important scientific advances?
(D) For support for students with learning needs at a small school without a specialist: Write a social story for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder illustrating the importance of coming into the classroom quietly. (I learned about social stories while discussing the book Decoding Autism with another teacher, and we were really impressed with their effectiveness, but wondered where we’d get them. Then I had this brainstorm!)
Image by Freepik
You might be thinking, “Okay–I can see why and how I could start to explore using AI. But I have questions:
- Why be the one to introduce kids to all the potential harm and cheating AI can generate?
- Even if I wanted to, just how do I get started?
- Why use it in my classroom?
- What does using AI look like?
- How will using it help me personally?”
All good questions. Let me respond to each:
Question 1: “Why be the one to introduce kids to all the potential harm and cheating AI can generate?” Please keep in mind that we’re not the ones introducing students to AI. I’m pretty sure that most students have heard of it. If not yet, then soon. The tech savvy ones are using it. Shouldn’t we be part of that? Giving them information, examples, and a model of how intelligent, godly, faithful adults deal with new technology? Otherwise we’ll just be putting out fires, handing out punishments for misuses when we haven’t given guidance on proper uses.
Question 2: “Even if I wanted to, just how do I get started?” You can get started with AI by…
- Helping students understand what AI is and how it helps us grow, create, love our neighbors, and steward creation—and how it could also threaten and stunt all those things.
- Using 1 or more of these 8 short (20 minutes or less) AI literacy lessons for grades 6-12 from Common Sense.
- Using the 12-step continuum below from Matt Miller’s book and website to generate student discussion:
AI in the Classroom: What’s Cheating? What’s OK? (Ditch That Textbook)
Question 3: “Why use it in my classroom?” Use AI in the classroom to further student learning and better prepare students for their future. Imagine graduating students with no experience of using AI into a workforce where even entry-level workers have an AI research assistant and secretary at their service. I don’t remember the source for this statement, but it really resonated with me as a writer: AI will not take jobs away from writers, but writers who use AI will take jobs away from writers who don’t use AI.
Question 4: “What does using AI look like?” Miller shares frequent examples, and one of my favorites is adding it to the “Think-Pair-Share” protocol:
- Students think about a question on their own (in a quick write or in their minds), discuss with a partner (pair) what they’ve thought about.
- Then, before sharing out to the whole group, they add the steps of individually going to AI with additional questions and coming back together to discuss what they’ve discovered.
Here are more examples Miller gives:
(A) Ask AI for advice: What are good ways to study for the test tomorrow?
(B) Anticipate AI’s response: How do you think AI will answer, “How did World War 2 shape the world today?” Then generate the answer, and note anything the AI omitted or added.
(C) Take several AI responses and make a better product: Give me 3 definitions of Krebs cycle. Then create your own.)
(D) Get a different perspective with AI: Ask AI what someone from a different place, time, or group would think of an argument, issue, or topic you’ve been studying.
(E) Deepen learning by using AI to reformulate your answer to a question you’ve been studying: Write a rap using given vocabulary words or concepts.
Note: When you start having your students use AI in the classroom, you will want to develop with them classroom rules for ethical use. For example, check out the poster for Classroom AI Rules that Vicki Davis uses. Miller models this kind of transparency in his book, ending each chapter with a disclosure of the percentage that was generated by himself vs AI, and then giving the portions that were AI generated–usually definitions and lists, which AI brainstormed and Miller chose from, added to, and expanded on.
Image by pch.vector on Freepik
Question 5: “How will using it help me personally?” Using ChatGPT can save you time. Who doesn’t want more time? ChatGPT has saved me time by generating sentences for student practice, summarizing texts for English language learners, and generating model writing. Miller notes other ways ChatGPT can save you time, including:
- Creating lesson plans, discussion prompts, and review questions and activities.
- Helping you with writing report card comments, parent emails, letters of recommendation.
You can use the time ChatGPT saves you to plan that really cool unit you’ve been wanting to work on, get some regular exercise, subscribe to a professional journal, go on a date with your spouse, and read a book. Why not buy yourself back that time?
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
If you’re interested in learning more about AI (how to think about it and how to use it for yourself and for your students), check out the website for Matt Miller’s book, AI for Educators: Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future. On the website you’ll find a summary and support materials for each chapter of the book. If you find that helpful, consider reading the book. And here are some more related resources:
(1) 2 Reasons to Write in an AI World: What I taught middle school student writers.
(2) 5 Fun, Ethical Uses of AI I’ve Shared with Students: An article with some good specific ideas you might want to try.
(3) 9 Questions for English Teachers in a World with AI: My reflections on ChatGPT.
(4) AI Literacy Lessons for Grades 6-12: 8 short, basic lessons, less than 20 minutes long each.
(5) The Cool Cat Teacher Blog, by Vicki Davis, IT teacher, Christian, winner of educational awards. Her whole blog is full of good articles (the classroom poster is hers).
(6) Navigating a World of Generative AI: Suggestions for Educators, Next Level Lab, Harvard School of Education.
Bottom line: Teach your secondary students about AI!
Get flourishing!
Kim
Get Flourishing 
