7 AI in the Classroom
Hann Bingham Brunner
Introduction
As natural language processing (NLP) chatbots become more wide-spread and well-known, and as students and teachers begin to utilize these tools, universities across the US have rushed to make decisions about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. Along with concerns about plagiarism, many argue that there are other potential problems with using AI in education. For example, there have been concerns about student privacy and the harmful biases that are encoded in AI systems, such as preferences for men, or racial biases against people of color (Benjamin, 2019). People who are against the use of AI in higher education argue that AI tools should be banned from use in higher education settings, especially by students in their coursework.
However, many scholars argue that NLP chatbots can be beneficial for students, teachers, and researchers, if used correctly and ethically. AI tools can help break down writing tasks, work to reinforce writing lessons from composition classrooms, and can personalize lessons for students. These people argue that AI tools should be harnessed and promoted in higher education, rather than banned.
In short, people on both sides of the debate have strong opinions about whether students should be allowed to use AI in higher education. In this simulation, you will take one of these sides. In the next section of this chapter, you will learn more about the use of AI in higher education, and about the important skills you will gain by participating in this simulation.
Overview
This simulation engages you in critical discussions about using AI in higher education as well as ethics in higher education contexts. The chapter begins with an opportunity for you to discuss how the themes of the simulation relate to your own lived experience. You will also engage with reading, listening, and research activities to help build your knowledge of debates around increasing the use of AI in higher education. You will then take a position on the use of AI chatbots by adopting a persona in the role-play phase. After reflecting on the role-play, you will either write a letter to the editor, create an infographic, or write an academic essay about this topic.
How the simulation works
| Phase | Phase Description | Activities |
| 1 | Activation | Discussion 1 & 2
Reading 1 |
| 2 | Comprehension | Listening 1
Reading 2 Role Assignment / Role Preparation |
| 3 | Simulation | Role Play |
| 4 | Reflection | Debriefing Activity
Critical Reflections |
| 5 | Application | Letter to the Editor or Infographic |
You will gain a number of important skills as you participate in the simulation. These skills are sequenced from simple tasks such as defining and describing to more complex tasks such as synthesizing and evaluating.
After completing this simulation, you will be able to:
- make connections between AI tools and higher education.
- define key terms relating to AI use in the classroom.
- describe the central arguments supporting the ethical use of AI in education.
- make predictions about the future of AI and higher education.
- summarize issues related to ethical AI usage.
- synthesize knowledge about biases in AI.
Phase 1: Activation
In this phase of the simulation, you will draw on your background knowledge of NLP chatbots and higher education. This will help prepare you for the listening, reading and research activities in Phase 2 of the simulation. It will also allow you to share your experiences and ideas with your classmates.
Discussion Activity 1
Work in a small group. Discuss the following questions and be ready to share your responses with the class.
- Have you ever used an NLP chatbot like ChatGPT or Bard?
- Have you ever used an AI to help with schoolwork?
- What kinds of AI use seem unethical for school work?
- How can AI be used ethically for school and writing?
- What are some potential problems with over reliance on AI?
- How can we prevent AI from being biased?
Discussion Activity 2
Watch the short video University of Kentucky looks to welcome AI in higher education and discuss how the University of Kentucky plans to teach ethical AI use in their classes.
- According to the survey they mention, how many college students admitted to using AI to help with school work despite knowing it is plagiarism and cheating?
- Why does Dr. Conaster want to teach how to use AI effectively?
- Do you think students can be trusted to use AI ethically? Why or why not?
Reading Activity 1
Read The Brilliance and Weirdness of ChatGPT (Roose, 2022), then answer the following questions.
- What company created DALLE-2 and ChatGPT?
- What are some of the new things that the author says ChatGPT can do?
- What year did GPT-3 come out?
- Why is ChatGPT not “stateless” and what does that mean for its potential?
- According to the article, what is the last year of information that ChatGPT was trained on?
- What are some things that ChatGPT will not do?
Phase 2: Comprehension
The purpose of this phase is to help you expand your knowledge of the debates around using or banning AI in higher education. You will listen to one podcast episode, and read one text. For Listening 1, the podcast episode will provide you with information about how AI can be discriminatory and biased, and why it is important to consider wider ethical ramifications of innovative tools like AI chatbots. For Reading 2, you will write a descriptive summary of the text.
Listening Activity 1
Listen to the selections from the podcast The New Jim Code? Race and Discriminatory Design, and then answer the following questions:
- Timestamp – 1:56-4:30
- Who is being interviewed?
- What example of “discriminatory design” does she give?
- What is “discriminatory design”?
- How are armrests and other such additions used to keep people from sleeping in public?
- Where else are these benches seen?
- How did people in France get rid of the discriminatory benches?
- What does the story from France tell us is possible?
- Timestamp – 4:31-5:45
- What was the worst example of the benches?
- How is the “bench with spikes” example like education?
- How can design in education also discriminate against groups of people?
- Timestamp – 7:55-8:46
- What is the “New Jim Code”?
- How can innovation hide racism and bias?
- Timestamp – 8:47-10:30
- How does training data recreate inequity in AI?
- What example do the speakers give for this?
- Timestamp – 23:35-26:11
- How does Dr. Benjamin think technology can fight discrimination instead of creating it?
- How does the “White Collar Crime” app change people’s expectations about criminals?
- In what way does this application allow people to both use and question technology at the same time? Why is this important to Dr. Benjamin?
Reading Activity 2
SUMMARY
Read What Higher Ed Gets Wrong about AI Chatbots– From the Student Perspective (Madda, 2023), then write a summary using the prompt provided:
- Summary Prompt: Based on the reading, provide a brief overview of the benefits the author sees for AI use on campus (word limit: 100-200 words). Then, summarize the kind of AI policies she thinks would be best for the future (word limit: 100-200 words).
Phase 3: Simulation
In this phase, you will be given a role to play in a simulated discussion event (e.g., 45 -minute panel discussion). It is important that you understand the context and your role to prepare for the role playing.
The Context
The rapid rise of AI tools and their potential ethical problems posed by AI has led to universities and departments rapidly making AI use policies. You are sitting on a departmental panel at your university to decide whether to ban the use of AI and consider its use as a form of plagiarism on campus, or teach the ethical use of AI in college classes.
Agenda: Should the use of AI be banned in college classes, or should college classes teach ethical AI use?
Roles
You will be assigned a role to play in this phase of the simulation. There are five participant roles on each side of the debate and one moderator role.
Moderator:
Your task is to introduce the issue at the beginning of the panel discussion, welcome the participants, and moderate the discussions. Allow every participant (role) about 3-5 minutes to talk and make sure that everyone gets a turn to express their opinion. Develop one question for each group’s presentation and ask the question after their presentations. The moderator role can be played by students or the instructor of the course.
AGAINST ALLOWING USE OF AI
Role 1. Associate Vice President for Academics
Description
- You are against allowing the use of AI in classes because you are concerned that AI will replace teachers and higher education, leading to fewer students at the university, and leading to young people not getting the human interaction and guidance they need from real teachers and educators.
Potential Sources
Role 2. Academic Integrity Coordinator
Description
- You are against allowing students to use AI, as you are worried about students using AI to write their homework and their papers and thus cheat in their college classes. You do not know yet if there will be tools to help catch AI writing and are worried about more academic integrity cases each semester if students try to turn in AI writing instead of their own.
Potential Sources
Role 3. Education Policy Maker
Description
- You are against the use of AI in college classes, as you believe that AI will have a negative effect on education, and that by using AI, students will become more and more reliant on technology. In addition, because AI systems can be biased, AI systems can discriminate against marginalized groups, and these biases could then be passed onto students.
Potential Sources
Role 4. Associate Professor of Creative Writing
Description
- You are against using and teaching AI in college classes, because you know that some AI tools are able to write papers that sound like student writing, and you are concerned that students will not learn to write on their own. You are also afraid that AI use will lead to students’ loss of creativity and critical thinking skills, especially when that technology may be biased against certain groups of people.
Potential Sources
Role 5. Parent
Description
- You are against the use of AI in classes because you are worried about the negative biases that may have been trained into the AI, as well as the potential that AI could be used to manipulate students or promote unhealthy behaviors. You are also worried about AI systems tracking students and the privacy concerns inherent in large-scale data collection.
Potential Sources
IN FAVOR OF USING AND TEACHING AI IN CLASS
Role 6. Director of the University Writing Center
Description
- You are in favor of using and teaching AI in class, as well as teaching students how to use AI ethically to support them in their university careers. You believe that AI can help students learn by giving them real-time feedback, and by tailoring instruction for individual students.
Potential Sources
Role 7. Assistant Professor of Technology
Description
- You are for the use of AI in college classes, because you see potential for AI in the future of all kinds of jobs and careers. For instance, you believe that AI can help teachers to automate tasks, like grading papers and managing student information.
Potential Sources
Role 8. Graduate Student Researcher
Description
- You are in favor of teaching students to use AI in class. You are working to develop new AI-based tools and resources for teachers and students, and believe that AI can help make education more adaptive to the needs of individual students.
Potential Sources
Role 9. Curriculum Designer
Description
- You are in favor of teaching and using AI in college classes, as you use AI to create learning programs that personalize lessons and programs to students’ needs, and you believe students need to learn how to use these tools for themselves as well.
Potential Sources
Role 10. Undergraduate Student and Writing Center Tutor
Description
- You are in favor of students learning to use AI tools in classes, such as AI tools to help students edit their papers. This will mean you get to help students revise higher-level issues in their writing at the Writing Center, instead of focusing on lower-level issues like spelling, grammar and punctuation, which AI can help with.
Potential Sources
Phase 4: Reflection
Debriefing Activity: In small groups, discuss the following questions. Be prepared to share your thoughts with the whole class.
- What did you think about the topic for this simulation? Were you already familiar with it?
- Was it easy or difficult to create an argument for your side of the issue? Why?
- What did you think of your role in the simulation? Did you personally agree or disagree with your role’s required stance on the issue?
Critical Reflection Activity
- Did any of the participants/ groups make particularly persuasive arguments? If so, which one/s? What made the arguments more persuasive?
- Did any of the participants/groups make arguments that you thought were weak? If so, what were the arguments? What made them weak?
- Which individual participant did you find the most knowledgeable / most persuasive in the role play? Why?
- Which group did you find most persuasive? Why?
Phase 5: Application
OPTION 1: Letter to Editor
You are writing an opinion letter to the editor of the university newspaper after hearing both sides of the arguments for and against using and teaching AI in the university classroom.
Prompt: In the form of an opinion letter, write a letter to the newspaper editor to be published in the university newspaper, either in favor or against students being allowed to use and learning to use AI in college classes. Write to convince students, teachers, and administrators to support your perspective using sources from your role, others roles, and outside sources to support students using AI.
OPTION 2: Infographic
You are trying to bring awareness to this topic, and want to make infographics or posters to place on your campus to help people better understand your side of the AI debate.
Prompt: Using Canva or another graphic design tool like Adobe Express, create an infographic or poster that uses images, graphics, and text combined to support your side of the AI debate.
Option 3: Argumentative Essay
Prompt:
Write an argumentative essay that expresses your opinion about using AI in the classroom. You should use the information provided in the briefing for the simulation and acknowledge the arguments different from your own.
References
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Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new Jim Code. Polity Press.
Bryson, L. (2023, July 7). University of Kentucky looks to welcome AI in higher education. WKYT. https://www.wkyt.com. https://www.wkyt.com/2023/07/07/uk-looks-welcome-ai-higher-education/
Dominguez, A. (2023, March 22). We can’t keep ChatGPT out of the classroom, so let’s address the “why” behind our fears. EdSurge News. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-03-22-we-can-t-keep-chatgpt-out-of-the-classroom-so-let-s-address-the-why-behind-our-fears
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Statement: This chapter was brainstormed using assistance from Google Labs AI.
About the author
name: Hann Bingham Brunner
institution: Oklahoma State University
Hann Bingham Brunner is a PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics at Oklahoma State University with a focus on disability and identity. They are Associate Director of the International Composition program and Assistant Director of First Year Composition.