Edtech Throwdown

Episode 185: How to Teach Students about AI

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown.  This is Episode 185 called How to Teach Students about AI.   Have you ever tried to teach your students about AI, what it is, and what role it can serve in education and their future lives?  This is a tall task and in this episode, we’ll discuss how we go about this complex process.  This is another episode you don’t want to miss.  Check it out.

Segment 1: 

For years now we’ve been involved in trying to get our district to adopt a formal AI policy.  Now that this is happening, we’re being asked to put together an education program for students.

• What is AI?
• What can it do?  What can’t it do?
• How can it be used to benefit you while in school?  In your future lives?
• How can it hurt you in school?  In your future lives?

Segment 2: The Perfect AI Lesson for Students

What is AI?

• Ask students what they think AI is?  Share their thoughts in a digital space like Padlet.  Facilitate some discussion.
• Show a video that explains what it REALLY is.  There are tons of good ones, here are a couple we like
• For older students:  https://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_suleyman_what_is_an_ai_anyway
• For younger students:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttIOdAdQaUE

What can AI do?

• Choose an AI tool to demo (we use ChatGPT).  Show three prompts:
• A bad prompt, something very vague that gives a general and bland response.
• A better prompt, something that includes lots of detail and specific requests.  Show that this yields a much better response from the AI tool.
• A prompt that gets untrue results.  Students need to know that AI tools can give incorrect information, sometimes that it just “makes up” due to lack of other information.
• ACTIVITY:  Have students play with prompts:  Ask them to try a bad, vague prompt on purpose.  Then ask them to try it again but with more specificity, comparing the results.  They share out what they notice.
• Provide a prompt library as a resource.  Here is a great one from AI for Education.
• ACTIVITY:  Ask them to head to TwinPic and try and complete the challenge there.  Give a prize to the most accurate recreation.

What Can’t AI Do?

• Hallucinations:  LLMs can generate plausible but inaccurate information, also known as "hallucinations".  This can mislead users into believing that the generated content is factual and reliable.
• Bias:  LLMs can exhibit biases in their responses, often generating stereotypical or prejudiced content.  This bias stems from the large datasets they are trained on, which may contain biased information.
• Exhibit True Creativity:  Since LLM’s can only repurpose old information, they can’t exhibit creativity like a human can.  After reading enough AI responses, you can start to tell a sample of writing is AI generated.
• ACTIVITY:  Have students ask ChatGPT to write a brief biography of themselves.  Try the prompt:  "write a brief biography of [insert name here], a student in [insert town here]” but have them sub in their own names.  Have them share the results as accurate or inaccurate.

How AI Can be Used to Help Learning

• Intro Video:  https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_gruber_how_ai_can_enhance_our_memory_work_and_social_lives
• Yes AI can write essays for you.  But this hurts you long term because then you never learn to write yourself.
• Better prompts that help learning, not hurt it:
• "Proofread my writing above. Fix grammar and spelling mistakes. And make suggestions that will improve the clarity of my writing"
• "I want to learn about [insert topic]. Identify and share the most important 20% of learnings from this topic that will help me understand 80% of it."
• “Give me a step by step guide for solving the following problem.  I am a complete beginner.”
• "I am currently learning about [insert topic]. Ask me a series of questions that will test my knowledge. Identify knowledge gaps in my answers and give me better answers to fill those gaps."
• Tools like Khanmigo Writing Coach are tailor made for students and use AI to help you learn, not get around learning

How can AI Hurt Learning and Future

• Using AI to do work for you is academic dishonesty and will be treated as such if suspected?
• AI can save you lots of time, but what are you replacing that time with?  If the replacement is scrolling through IG, this is really bad for your brain.
• New research shows that over-reliance on AI results in cognitive decline.
• Tip sheet for battling over-reliance
• Research on the topic as of 2025:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/larsdaniel/2025/02/14/your-brain-on-ai-atrophied-and-unprepared-warns-microsoft-study

Fun Wrap-Up Activities:

• Debate about AI and if it’s good or not
• Ask students to create a story about a robot that helps a lost puppy find its way home using facial recognition. After the story, discuss how AI can recognize faces, make decisions, and help people.
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