The use of generative AI has exploded in recent years and will become even more prominent as we move forward into the teaching profession. After completing my undergraduate degree in early 2023 I took a few years off to work and travel before starting the PDPP Program. Generative AI was something that I did not really utilize in the final years of my degree and have been shocked to see how prevalent it has become during my two year absence from school. While generative AI has immense abilities to assist in so many aspects of life, it does have limitations. When searching for things and prompting AI, you receive such broad amounts of information as it pulls from sources scattered across the internet. One thing that we discussed in class with Rich was the importance of being very specific when prompting AI to get the best results. Broad and generic prompts result in broad and generic responses, which is something we need to avoid in education. There must be a balance when using AI as it can be helpful to provoke ideas and thoughts but over reliance can lead to diminishing levels of originality. Especially when it comes to relying on AI to construct written work, as this is a key element of the human brain.
Contrary to the limitations, generative AI is able to be a very useful tool. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my experience with it was at an extremely novice level prior to this semester. The concept of it worried me, especially as a History major that has had to write numerous research papers. I still avoid generative AI at all costs when it comes to constructing written pieces because I believe it to be extremely unauthentic. Last semester I was stuck with coming up with additional ideas on what students could research via a Social Studies community walking tour. The goal was to get kids involved within their community and learn hyper-local history. Generative AI suggested looking into street names and their historical relevance which I had not considered. Little things like these I believe can be very helpful as a tool for educators, while still focusing on originality and authenticity. I view generative AI as a tool that can inject a little spark into an idea when faced with a “block”.
Photo Source: https://www.trinka.ai/blog/the-limitations-of-artificial-intelligence-what-humans-still-do-better/amp/