Let’s take a minute to talk about artificial intelligence (AI). The Terminator, Blade Runner, and The Matrix warned everyone about the dangers of AI, but it’s been unleashed on an unsuspecting world, and we need to navigate it. At first, we struggled to keep it in check: students turned in horrific AI-generated essays, and teachers lamented the loss of writing skills that AI would inevitably cause. But, like every excellent horror story, there is hope. The release of AI is akin to the beginning of the internet—teachers then had similar misgivings as we do now. And just like the internet, if we teach students how to use AI appropriately, we can thwart the technology apocalypse—at least for a while. So, how do we ensure Neo will take the red pill? Well, Morpheus, you need to teach.
Facing Your Fear of the AI
The unknown is terrifying, but it’s not so scary once we explore the tools and learn how to use them correctly. If we educate ourselves about how to use AI, we can teach students how to use it appropriately and empower them to use it correctly. Teaching students to use AI is the same as teaching them how to conduct research online. Yes, there is still the possibility that students could use AI for nefarious purposes—but they can do the same thing with a Google search. We can’t ignore an important tool that will help shape our students’ future careers because of our fear of the unknown or the potential for misuse. We need to prepare them to face an AI-powered future.
Another fear is data privacy. How can we ensure our students’ information stays safe and secure using AI? Easy: the free versions of many of the most popular AI tools can be used without login (so no email or other personal information). With that in mind, let’s examine how we can shine some light on how high school students can use AI in research and writing.
AI For Research
We always need to teach students research, and AI allows for a more defined search. With sites like Perplexity (reviewed here), students can ask a broad or specific research question, and the AI will not only supply an answer, but also cite and provide links to the sources. This is a game-changer, as it opens up a world of information that students might not have known how to access. With further prompting, the AI can also make suggestions on related research questions, further enhancing the student’s learning experience.
Starting research with AI has opened students to sources of information other than YouTube and TikTok (which have their place, but are usually notnot usually in academic essays). Yes, the AI will bring up Wikipedia as a source, but it will also find articles, databases, studies, and data students would not even know to look at. You can even specify that you are looking for peer-reviewed academic articles, and the program will deliver them.
Using AI as a research assistant gives you a great opportunity to discuss primary and secondary sources, research validity, biased material, and source credibility. Given appropriate guidance, students can use AI chatbots to contribute to their media literacy. Using well constructed prompts a chatbot can guide students in discerning credible sources from biased or unreliable ones. Suppose you ask Perplexity about a conspiracy theory (like, say, the reptilian theory), fake news, or the like. In that case, it may supply information about the conspiracy while informing you that “while there is no credible evidence supporting the existence of ‘lizard people’ […], the theory reflects broader societal fears and has become a notable aspect of contemporary conspiracy culture.” In short, we can leverage AI to help our students develop media literacy skills, a key aspect of their education in the digital age.
AI For Writing
Once the research is complete, students generally write an essay. AI is an excellent tool for revising. Students should not use AI to write it for them, but utilizing this tool to give feedback as you would a peer is an invaluable classroom strategy. Peer revising, while helpful, has many drawbacks, from lackluster feedback that hinders growth to fear of the vulnerable act of sharing work. Using AI takes the fear out of revising. Students learn how to ask the correct questions of the AI (through teacher instruction) and create targeted questions for the writing task. For example, if your 11th graders write a satirical narrative essay in the style of Jonathon Swift’s A Modest Proposal, students can ask the AI questions like “Does this paragraph match the satirical style of Swift’s A Modest Proposal?” and “How strong is my thesis statement?” to elicit specific feedback. Students feel more in control of AI when they know how to work with it, so there is less fear and less misuse of the tool.
You can use most AI platforms for revision, but if you still have trepidation about sending students into the AI abyss, try Brisk Teaching (reviewed here), a free AI specifically for teachers. Brisk recently released Brisk Boost for Students, a teacher-monitored student AI interface. Teachers can set objectives for students to meet and watch how students engage with the AI in real-time. Students do not need to log in with personal information, and Brisk does not collect or share personal data. Only the students and the teachers can see the progress, and the program flags any discussion that could be inappropriate.
AI does not need to be the monster we made in our heads. It can be a great tool that helps students go further with their work than we ever thought possible. After using AI to revise their essays, my students reported more confidence with their final product; a deeper understanding of how their words, sentences, and paragraphs work together to make an essay; and a more substantial familiarity with a tool previously used to make weird pictures. As developers do more with YOU’RE your students’ familiarity with the technology will allow them to experiment more and learn about this tool, leaving an indelible mark on their future. Just as talkies changed movies and cell phones changed communication, AI will change technology, and students need to understand AI to navigate the world ahead of them.