Tony Frontier asked the very pertinent question “What can leaders do to help ensure ChatGPT and other new AI tools will expand and support, rather than undermine teaching and learning?” (Frontier, 2023). He argued that generative AI presents transformational opportunities—and challenges—for teaching and learning. Therefore we need to take a transformational approach to utilizing generative AI and ask transformative questions. Frontier (2023) said these must be big, open-ended questions, such as “If you could use AI to provide individualized, one-on-one teaching and tutoring to students each day, what opportunities would you provide to each learner?” (Frontier, 2023).

He gave the following as ideas that respond to such as question (Frontier, 2023):

Create opportunities for content to be accessible to each student: Teachers can paste a passage of text at a 10th grade reading level into an AI tool and ask it to rewrite the passage at a 3rd grade reading level, or in a different language, in a matter of seconds. The possibilities for differentiation and tailoring content to students’ individual needs or circumstances are unparalleled.

Create opportunities for content to be accessible to each student: Teachers can paste a passage of text at a 10th grade reading level into an AI tool and ask it to rewrite the passage at a 3rd grade reading level, or in a different language, in a matter of seconds. The possibilities for differentiation and tailoring content to students’ individual needs or circumstances are unparalleled.

Meet learners where they are and engage them in personalized formative assessment: A student could follow a set of prompts from the teacher to have a conversation with an AI tool about an academic topic. The tool could discern what understandings and misunderstandings the learner has on the topic. Then, the AI tool could coach the learner to address specific misconceptions, provide a short passage of clarifying text, create a quiz, and provide instantaneous, formative feedback.

References

Frontier, Tony (2023). Educational Leadership. Taking a Transformative Approach to AI. Available at https://ascd.org/el/articles/taking-a-transformative-approach-to-ai