A teacher’s aide unlike any other?
By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week
Many people focus on the potential benefits of generative AI for kids when considering its application in the classroom. Still, teachers can gain as much, if not more, from the technology. Google and MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) have launched a free Google Generative AI Educators course to assist middle and high school educators in utilizing generative AI tools to improve their workflow and their students’ learning environment.
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The self-paced, two-hour course is designed to help educators leverage generative AI to save time on routine tasks. From email composing to adapting content for various reading levels, creating innovative evaluations and organizing activities around students’ interests, generative AI can streamline these processes, freeing up valuable time for educators.
By feeding their current lesson plan into the generative AI models, educators can even learn how to use generative AI to assist with one of the most time-consuming tasks: lesson planning. This will provide ideas for what to do next in the classroom, the media release explained.
“This course empowers educators to confidently integrate AI into their teaching, creating richer and more accessible learning experiences for all students,” MIT RAISE Director Cynthia Breazeal said.
Teachers and administrators can access the course’s five modules on the Generative AI for Educators web page. Each module lasts no more than 40 minutes.
According to the media release, several school districts across the nation also intend to offer the course, including the Anaheim Union High School District in California, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, the Chicago Public Schools in Illinois, the Albuquerque Public Schools in New Mexico, the Glenpool Public Schools in Oklahoma, and the Sun Prairie Area School District in Wisconsin.
“In a rapidly evolving world, our teachers cannot afford to fall behind in accessing powerful generative tools that will help them develop new approaches to teaching and learning,” said Michael Matsuda, the superintendent at Anaheim Union High School District.
The company that created ChatGPT, OpenAI, previously emphasized the advantages of providing teachers with shared use cases and generative AI tools and examples of how teachers nationwide are already utilizing the technology. Examples given by OpenAI included:
- Teaching students about critical thinking
- Creating instructional materials
- Helping non-native English speakers with their English
- Employing a chatbot to role-play discussions intended for students
2 Responses to “Educators Can Benefit from New Generative AI Course”
CPA Trendlines Research
Hi Roger. Yes, AI is flawed and experimental.
For now.
But there’s every reason to believe at this time that it’s impact on business and society could be as consequential as the advent of the steam engine, electricity, and computing. But note: While the tools changed, the human needs did not. Steam engines went out of fashion, but transportation went global. Electricity obsoleted candles, but light and power employ more people than ever. Computing pushed aside the pencil, but the tax and accounting business is bigger than ever.
In the end, AI is just another tool.
ROGER ROTOLANTE
How can I evaluate the AI recommendations on Education.. My experience with the AI being able to think is that it can’t. It merely parrots the information right or wrong. It cannot tell truth from fiction, in most cases it relied on its trainers to parrot back the right answer. I doubt the it is cognitive enough to know about critical thinking except for the dictionary definition.