How are you thinking about AI and critical thinking in your classroom?

I have struggled with students using AI, in particular with state mandated PBA. It can be hard to prove though. I've had to clamp down and go more paper/pencil to prevent this from happening.

With my AVID classes we have played around with good use of AI. Checking essays for errors, creating resumes, finding better words to describe tasks. I've even had college students say they have asked AI to create study guides for classes based on notes and readings. My district has it blocked for students though. 

I liked the sunset analogy, students ultimately have to use it. It is just a new frontier and I want students to have critical thinking skills. AI makes a lot of mistakes and sometimes creates sentences that don't make sense or are not accurate.

What really resonated with me was that standalone AI Literacy isn't going to get the students to the level of literacy we want...just like all skills, students are able to build them stronger when practiced in authentic ways.  So finding ways to guide students on HOW to use AI as part of class activities and projects makes the most sense.  

In my own class, I see students immediately go to AI when given questions or asked to summarize sources.  I definitely see this amongst my MLL population and many of my lower-level learners, but also with some of my highest achieving learners.  Their motives differ...my MLL are using it as a crutch, my high achievers as a time-saver.  In both cases, they are substituting whatever AI spits out for actual thinking, so I've generally banned its use...but I see why I should be more open to showing them how to utilize it appropriately and giving them chances to practice it because it is here to stay and students will continue to use it, and rigor and AI are not mutually exclusive.

I also really enjoyed the sunset analogy and the idea of teaching students the ethical vs. unethical use of AI, though in practicality the teenage brain doesn't always seem to care about long-term consequences and ethics (as evidence by the amount of cheating we see daily), but laying the foundation is important as they are growing and developing

I found the session more interesting than I expected and I liked how we did get two activities that could be used in the classroom. However, I am curious about Allard's email where he wrote "all AI tools are blocked" on the student laptops.  Before I saw that, I was thinking if I could modify the NC teacher's assignment to use in my DE World History class.  I am curious what the seniors could create, plus the timing would be good since they are heading to college/real life in the fall.  I do think that I can use the sentence stem sheet that the NY teacher shared with us. I did very much like the sunset activity and the match to the tool box.  It seems to me that is a clear connection for the students.  I also wrote down two quotes: "students need to stay the author" and use AI as a "coach".  I do plan to check out the "autopsy of an empire" OER assignment mentioned to see if I can use that in an upcoming lesson.

I was impressed by the presenters because they all shared usable ideas and lessons for the classroom. The problem is FCPS because they have no system in place to guide teachers on how to use AI. Teachers are not allowed to use AI detection to help us understand what parts of the essay is human and what parts are AI. As mentioned before, students are not allowed to access AI on their school computer during school hours. The frustration for me comes from the failure of FCPS to allow teachers to use and manage AI in our classrooms.

My students all hand write their essays (unless accommodations) because of AI. The students do use AI to try to take the easy way out of using AI to write their essays for them which they admit it is out of laziness than need. Instead of reading, they would put the whole source into AI to have it summarize. 

I am very against AI in classrooms. While I feel like the presenters tried to make good points, they still showed that the students are using AI to do work for them (minus the thesis one, I liked that one). If the students need to use AI to make a website, why have them make the website in the first place? The students are capable of hard work so we should encourage that critical thinking and creativity skills.

Also the environment  

I agree with your thoughts on AI. Schools want students to use AI because the goal of schools is to pass students. No longer is hard work and struggling a part of the culture of schools. Why can I say that? All leaders cares about is the number of students who are failing your class. Never mind that those students who are failing never come to class and have learned that they will pass no matter their effort level (learned behavior from being in the school system). I am amazed how students in other class have an A and they have missed 30 classes. As long as you pass students, no administrator will have a problem with your teaching. AI allows a large percentage of failing students to pass without requiring them to do work.

While this session on AI was incredibly interesting and helpful, it also created a lot of frustration for me.  I thought that Julie and Drew's presentations on how they've incorporated AI into their classrooms gave excellent examples of how teachers can use this tool in a way that guides students to navigate the moral and ethical aspects of it.  Julie's question "Should AI do this for me?" especially resonated with me.  I also applaud Julie for leaning into the technology, rather than going back to paper and pencil like most of us have.  If/when I'm able to introduce AI into the classroom for students (it's currently prohibited on FCPS student devices), I'll definitely use Julie's "sunset" activity first.

There were two points of frustration that resulted from this session.  First, Aaron talked about equity issues that are already emerging.  The students I work with, MLs, are already at a disadvantage because they often don't have internet at home nor do they have family members who are fluent with the current technology.  Most of the lessons/ideas that the presenters shared relied on both of these factors being part of a student's life.  I'm not sure how to address these critical success factors, but I can see my students being further disadvantaged, even if they become AI literate at school.

The second point of frustration was the lack of acknowledgment about the environmental impact of AI.  I realize that all technology has a "dark side" to it, but the incredibly negative impact AI is already having on our environment was dismissed by the presenters.  I was disappointed, to say the least.  This seems like a great opportunity to have students do a cost-benefit analysis when deciding "should AI do this for me?", in my opinion.

Hi Mike,

I also dislike that we aren't able to use AI detectors, no matter how ineffective they have proven to be.  I understand that students' rights and privacy need to be respected, but this policy is preventing us from helping students use AI properly.  

I think that the school board is aware of the AI issue and are at least discussing the creation of a policy.  The issue I have with this is that very few (if any) are in the classroom on a regular basis.  They also seem to listen to parents over teachers, which could be concerning in situations like this.  I guess we will see what happens next!

I have been moving more and more toward paper and pencil for writing when it is reasonable. With how easy it is access and how willing some students are to access it, its just easier to get an accurate understanding of where they are with writing. I really like the idea of idea of giving them prompt examples to work with an AI to get feedback on their writing. It can help them get real time feedback instead of having the teacher run around everywhere trying to answer everyone's questions or if the student is just too shy to ask the teacher. 

Really not impressed by the other two ideas. I don't think it is helpful or useful to use the AI in researching regardless of how fast he was able to get through content. Also, we've all done the those lesson ideas before without the AI, I did not really see what the benefit was by adding it to the AI, especially when we have so many good databases the county pays for. 

I agree about AI and not using it in the classroom, although I allow my students to write on the computer, I have them write in class with lightspeed turned on and we have focued on writing using primary sources. They have to use the sources given, so most don't go outside of those sources or ask AI because that would not provide them answers given the sources. I have only had one student blatantly use AI this year and it was obvious. I also explain and give examples of a thesis statement and how to explain if students ask since the idea is that they learn to use a thesis, evidence, and explain the evidence.  They are 12 and need a lot of guidance. 

Students cannot use AI on school computers at school and I prefer that this continues.  I don't like FCPS pusing AI at teachers.