Unit 5 Blog

 Many fear the development of AI will be the end of humanity.  Even Stephen Hawkins feared the evolution of artificial intelligence as in that it would redesign itself and supersede humans (Cellan-Jones, 2014).   Considering Hawkins accomplishments, I don't know what to think about his fears concerning AI. They seem a bit off considering that he was assisted by a very sophisticated form of AI that enabled him to communicate.   

OK, so I digress.  Back to the topic I am really here to discuss. 

Great video to watch as intro to the topic of my blog. 

You just have to get passed the cheezy robot voice. 

Artificial Intelligence in Education!                                

Artificial Intelligence is one of my areas of interest, and has been since I first came upon the topic of AI in education. There are so many ways that AI assists in education, so I will only tackle a fraction that just happen to be the ones that most interest me.  

1. Adaptive Learning 

2. Assistive Technology

3. Data and Learning Analytics

4. Writing

5. Gamification

Adaptive Learning

I absolutely endorse the use of adaptive learning. I am not saying that it should be the sole source of learning, of course not.  Nevertheless, it does have it's place in student learning.  Adaptive learning is when a software can adapt to the current skill level of the student and progress from that point.  It continuously evaluates the student's skills so that it goes at the learning pace of the student.  It does checking for understanding and formative assessments, all of which are part of good teaching  (University of San Diego, 2021). FastBridge is an assessment that we use that is adaptive.  It increases or decreases rigor as the student is testing to gage where the student is for the skill it is testing.  

Warning: Not all software are the same.  For those districts wishing to use this type of assessment, they must research and ask others who use the software questions so that they purchase the one that will do what the district is looking for it to do.

Assistive Technology

I have several situations with students that were overcome by the assistive technology included in their Chromebooks. For example, I have a student who cannot read or write at grade level.  He writes and reads at a first grade level, yet his critical thinking skills are beyond junior high.  It came to me one day that perhaps text-to-speech and speech-to-text would over come his issue with reading and writing.  It did and now it is on his 504 plan.  

There is also a feature that will tell students what they are hovering over with their cursor.  For my students who do not speak English, this is very helpful because it can be set to the language that they speak.  

I have one student who has very poor vision.  She uses the screen magnifying feature.  It has helped her tremendously. 

I have heard teachers comment on their dislike for students to use assistive technology especially when it comes to knowledge or language. However, I disagree.  Communication and connection are the catalyst for learning a second language (Krashen, 1982). Without it, a student becomes isolated and withdrawn.  

Warning: While most digital devices provide assistive technology, not all have the same features, and some can be glitchy.  It is best to do research on the one accessibility that you require to find the device that does the best at providing that assistance. 

Data and Learning Analytics

Here are examples of the many ways that FastBridge can 
analyze the scores it gathers as students test. 

As a teacher, I collect and analyze student data often.  In fact, at this moment, I am buried in data that I must make sense of in order to organize small group instruction to target skills needed by individual students.  My students are preparing for the English Language Proficiency Assessment of California, otherwise known as the ELPAC.  The ability for assessments to collect the data for me and allow me to choose how to organize it saves time and energy.  Data analysis enables teachers to make data driven decisions so as to target specific needs and individualize learning as much as possible instead of teaching to the whole class (Sousa et al., 2021). FastBridge is an amazing tool that allows me to make sense of the data it collects (students scores and how they did in each standard that it tests) in various ways (Illuminate Education Inc., 2021).  I can choose to see one students data or groups of students, by standard, strand, or composite scores.  

Writing

Word has outdone itself with how it uses AI to assist in writing (Eoanou, 2022). EDITOR is amazing. It flags not just incorrect grammar and spelling, but also flags the use of passive verbs and weak words.  In addition, it will suggest better ways to express a thought as it flags areas where there may be a lack of clarity, conciseness, and the level of formality,  It keeps track of the number of flags for each category and as you make corrections or additions, iit will change the number to reflect how many you still have left.  One more thing it enables a writer to do is to check for plagiarism.  This is not its best feature though.  It gives you a percentage of similarity and will point out where it thinks you lack a reference, but it is not as aggressive as Citation Machine's plagiarism check (Instant Plagiarism Checker Tool from Citation Machine Plus, n.d.).  I would recommend using Citation Machine.  

Again, some teachers are not proponents of allowing AI to flag errors in students' writing.  Personally, I would

Citation Machine

rather they use their time developing their critical thinking, than to be floundering and stuck on something that AI can correct or flag quickly.

NOTE: Citation machine will not just flag where you are in danger of plagiarizing, but when you hover over it, it will show the source and how it appears in that source.  You can then decide if it truly is plagiarism.  How powerful is that? 

Gamification

I saved the best for last. Learning new vocabulary can be one of the most tedious and boring task for a student to do.  However, thanks to AI, there are games that make learning a fun task.  Two of my favorite educational games, though there are many more, are Quizlet and Gamkit.  

Better than me explaining how to use Quizlet, watch the video.  

Quizlet turns learning vocabulary into games, but also creates study sets of vocabulary (Quizlet, n.d.).  Though students can choose to do the activities out of order, I instruct my students to first take quiz. The quiz will remember which ones the student missed and will focus on those when the student engages with the other activities - you have to love the power of AI.  I purchased the teacher version so my students will not see ads and it also gathers their data and analyzes it.  I have various options for reports that I use to guide my lessons. 

The other game I use when memorization is required or practice such as with grammar, is Gimkit (Gimkit, n.d.).
Once I input the vocabulary and/or questions along with the correct answers, I can choose which game to use to learn the content.  Students get points for each correct answer.  After they gather a certain number of points they can go to the shop and purchase powerups.  This feature gives the students a familiar game feel to the learning.  

How AI makes this game so effective is that remembers the incorrect answers and will ask that question more often than the others.  It also provides them with the ability to see the correct answer for the ones they get incorrect. 

The only downside I see to using GamKit is students do not take advantage of viewing the correct answer before moving on to the next question.  While students will still manage to memorize the information, it just takes longer for them to do so.  Some may get frustrated with how long it is taking them to reach the end of the game.  I hope that some day they add AI bots to level out some of the games.  This would enable students who missed the game to play against an AI player to add rigor to the game.  

Resources

Cellan-Jones, R. (2014). Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540

Eoanou, A. (2022). Introducing new AI enhancements in Microsoft 365: New features coming to Microsoft Editor and more! Microsoft. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-new-ai-enhancements-in-microsoft-365-new-features/ba-p/3643499

Gimkit. (n.d.). South Texas College. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from https://et.southtexascollege.edu/gimkit/

Illuminate Education Inc. (2021). Psychometric Evidence of FastBridge Universal Screening & Progress Monitoring System.

Instant plagiarism checker tool from Citation Machine plus. (n.d.). Citation Machine. https://www.citationmachine.net/grammar-and-plagiarism/

Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 67(2). https://doi.org/10.2307/328293

Quizlet. (n.d.). Stages. In Quizlet.com. https://o.quizlet.com/8rzjJXFK8ufhdd4yHECL7g.png

Sousa, E. B. G. de, Alexandre, B., Ferreira Mello, R., Pontual Falcão, T., Vesin, B., & Gašević, D. (2021). Applications of learning analytics in high schools: A systematic literature review. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.737891

University of San Diego. (2021). 43 examples of artificial intelligence in education. University of San Diego. https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/artificial-intelligence-education/