Artificial Intelligence (AI) can enhance the way you teach and work
AI can be a powerful tool when used right. But it also has a range of limitations - it can produce work which is incorrect, biased, opaque, or simply nonsense. It is up to school administrators and teachers to ensure that these tools are used for the right purpose. The introduction of AI poses several risks if managed poorly or misued.
4. Appropriate use of Generative AI
Identifying an appropriate use of Generative AI can be challenging, but this should evolve as our familiarity with AI grows and we learn more about how we can include it within our curriculum. At this point of time though, clarifying the ethical use of Generative AI with students is critical to help them maintain academic integrity while doing their assessment pieces.
Deciding what is appropriate
To decide what uses may or may not be acceptable, Matt Miller (2022) has developed the following questions to consider when making pedagogical decisions:
- which of the uses would you consider cheating?
- which uses are relevant to our students’ future?
- which uses would you use in your work as a professional?
To illustrate this, consider the scenario of students following the steps for writing an assignment (as adapted by David Rowland). The answer to the question whether the use of Generative AI is acceptable or not, may be very different for each stage of the process:
- developing research questions
- initial conceptual understanding
- researching and note-taking
- organising ideas and outlining
- writing
- editing.
So too, the use of Generative AI by your students may be appropriate depending on the disciplinary context and purpose of the assessment task.