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THIS WEEK IN DIGITAL LEARNING

Writer's pictureMelissa Brayall

When & How To Use (or Not Use) AI

I've spent a lot of time talking about different AI tools and prompts and ethical considerations. But one question that comes up a lot is...what scenarios can AI help me with and where would it be better for me to avoid AI?


Let's take a look at a couple specific situations where you might want to use some caution:


Replacing a Google Search to Find an Answer to a Question

AI is well-known for its confident responses, but the answers it provides are not always accurate. For example, just this week, I wanted to know how many columns were in one section of my spreadsheet. It went from F through GI. There were some ways I could answer my own question right in the spreadsheet, but I decided to ask some AI tools just to see what would happen.


Prompt: "I have a spreadsheet with questions on it. The questions go from column F to column GI. How many questions is that?"


Responses:

Google Gemini: 5

Microsoft CoPilot: 182

ChatGPT: 194

SchoolAI Co-Teacher: 208

The Actual Correct Answer: 186


Every AI tool gave me a thorough explanation of how they got their answer...and none of them were correct and none of them were even the same. This is an extremely important lesson for EVERYONE. AI tools do not know everything, but they will always produce a response. If you choose to use AI as a research tool, be prepared to back that research up with more reliable sources.


Writing Something Completely From Scratch

AI is not creative. It is essentially a computer program that uses information from the internet to produce original content. Original...NOT creative. Here's what might happen if every teacher used AI to write emails to parents.


Prompt: "Write a 3 sentence email telling a parent that their student did great on the last assignment."


Responses:

Google Gemini: I wanted to take a moment to let you know that [Student's Name] did a fantastic job on the recent [Assignment Name]. Their work was [Positive quality, e.g., insightful, well-organized, creative]. Keep up the great work!

Microsoft CoPilot: I am pleased to inform you that [Student’s Name] did an excellent job on their last assignment, demonstrating a strong understanding of the material. Their hard work and dedication truly paid off, and they should be very proud of their achievement. Keep up the great work!

ChatGPT: I wanted to share that [Student's Name] did an excellent job on the last assignment! Their hard work and understanding of the material really shone through. Keep up the great work!

SchoolAI Co-Teacher: I am pleased to share that [Student's Name] did an excellent job on their recent assignment, demonstrating a strong understanding of the material. Their hard work and dedication truly stood out, and I am proud of their progress. Please join me in congratulating them on this achievement!


Notice the similarities in style and language. Notice the lack of personality and detail. If you choose to use AI as a writing support tool, make sure you are providing a more detailed prompt AND editing the results to sound more like you. As a sample, a better starting prompt might be "Write a 3 sentence email telling Mr. and Mrs. Banner that their son Bruce did an amazing job on his last project in Video Production class. Focus on the originality of his script and his strong editing skills." THEN you could adapt the results to your personal voice.


 

Now let's look at a couple of scenarios where AI can be a great resource!


Quick Adjustments to Existing Text

I have two examples that I have already run into this year where AI tools have helped me with simple tasks that would have taken me at least a few minutes to do on my own. The first was when I was emailed a list of names in no particular order. I wanted the names to be alphabetical by last name. I could have done it manually or put them in a spreadsheet and sorted it. But instead, I opted to copy and paste the list into an AI tool and ask the tool to alphabetize it for me. Seconds later, I had the list I needed.


In the second example, someone accidentally typed a block of text with caps lock on. Some tools have the ability to change from uppercase to lowercase, but that doesn't take into account words at the beginning of a sentence or proper nouns. It would have turned EVERYTHING lowercase. A quick copy and paste into an AI tool with the prompt to keep the content the same, but use proper capitalization resulted in exactly what was needed.


Making Tweaks to Your Own Original Writing

Sometimes when we write, we just feel like a sentence isn't quite right. Or maybe we use the same word twice in a paragraph and we can't think of a better way to re-word it. When I'm stuck, I will copy and paste my sentence or paragraph into an AI tool and ask for help re-wording it. I often ask for a few different choices so I can decide what works best for me. The responses help me think differently about my sentence or paragraph structure and help get me "unstuck".


Another example would be to ask an AI tool for general feedback on your original writing. When I do this, I focus on how it thinks my writing could improve and then I decide whether or not I agree. I wrote something this week and requested feedback from an AI tool. The response provided 3 suggestions for improvement. I liked one of them, but wasn't sure where to incorporate the new content. So I asked! The AI tool gave me two examples of where I could place the new content. I then updated the writing with MY words, but based on the AI suggestion.


 

These are just a few examples of how AI can be both useful and harmful. There are countless other examples of both. The most important thing to remember is that responses from AI tools should ALWAYS be reviewed and NEVER accepted as truth or fact. Like most other digital tools, AI is a resource. Trust me...you are smarter than AI. :)

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