Part 3 - Digital Citizenship & Ethics

I think students need to know what Chat GPT can and cannot do. I think they need time and structure to explore the app. As with anything new I believe this should be explicitly taught with firm boundaries put in place with teacher/school expectations. They need to know that AI does not replace their thinking or their authentic voice. 

I think number 11- help students to become AI literate is important. Just as we taught students to read digital texts and navigate online texts and websites- we need to do the same with AI. Students will use AI in the future and will need to be prepared. If we teacher them how and when to use AI appropriately we are setting ourselves up for a more successful transition into AI use in the classroom.

REFLECTION: What types of discussions do you feel are necessary to have with students regarding this new technology?
I think that with all technology introduced to children should be directly taught. The opportunity of using AI in third grade can open up opportunities for students to challenge themselves. As a third grade teacher I would definitely first speak to the students about appropriateness. I feel like students could be immature and ask the AI generator inappropriate things. A second thing we would discuss would be how to use it to guide you, reteach you, but not directly answer a question on a homework assignment. This can be challenging. However, I think I could tell if it was a student providing the work and not based on if they just copied what they got on AI versus doing it themselves. Another conversation I would tell them would be "you can't always believe everything from the internet." I feel like my third graders could get into arguments about something that was from AI. 

EXPLAIN: Pick one or more of the 11 strategies provided by Turnitin and explain how you might use it in your classroom. 
Strategy #2 Decide on what is acceptable and what isn’t for your assignments. We actually have been playing around with this strategy already. We have talked about how to use AI to enhance our math groups by providing us with challenging math problems. We also have been trying to play around with AI providing us with simple short stories. 

I think it is important to have conversations with students about their personal integrity, and the process of learning.  We learn through doing, and by having artificial intelligence complete your work, you will not learn.   We develop work habits as students, and using the easy way out will not help in the long run. This goes along with #9, "process in where the real learning happens".  My hope for students would be that they realize that their personal effort will make them learners, which is a lifelong skill

I believe that having conversations about what the technology is intended for and the ethics around using this is important to have with our students.  I know that will not solve future cases of misuse from our students, but having these conversations are important just as having conversations about behavior and cheating are important to have with students.  I believe a side benefit of first learning about AI and becoming competent in its use and second, discussing this with students is that they will be aware that you know about and are knowledgable of this tech.  I have found that when students feel like you are knowledgable of the technology used in your classroom they are less likely to feel as though they can use it in a dishonest way and get away with it.

Pick one or more of the 11 strategies provided by Turnitin and explain how you might use it in your classroom.

I think that the best strategies that I have seen involving AI and its effect on education is the rethinking of what we are expecting from our students for learning outcomes.  Focusing on process, asking students to present or debate a topic, and knowing your students' skill sets well are by far the most foolproof ways to ensure that students are doing the work and not relying on AI to do it for them.  I am uncomfortable relying on tools to detect AI-written content at a reliable enough level.  Changing the evidence of learning makes that unnecessary.  Another way that I believe we can teach more about AI and what it can do for students is to model how we might use it in class as an idea generator or a tutor that may help us along if we get stuck but that we don't rely upon to get the answers from.  

Part 3- Making sure to have conversations about the limitations of AI (it's not the be all, end all). Making sure that students aren't abusing this amazing technology to complete their classwork/homework assignments, write their essays/papers, etc. That there's some academic honesty and integrity that comes with these technological breakthroughs... I definitely feel like building strong relationships with our students will foster important conversations and dialogue regarding technology, etc. Also, being able to provide clear and fair expectations with our students. It's all about building and fostering relationships with our students throughout the entire school year. Building it on respect for one another, academic integrity (morals and ethics), and commitment to our school/classroom expectations.

1. REFLECTION: What types of discussions do you feel are necessary to have with students regarding this new technology?
2. EXPLAIN: Pick one or more of the 11 strategies provided by Turnitin and explain how you might use it in your classroom.

I struggle with talking about AI-generated text in my classroom because I do not want to plant ideas where they may not be yet in 4th grade! But, working with college undergrads this is a conversation to have. I loved the part in the article where it said why would a student want to copy and paste and consider our assignments and purpose. While I think time is the biggest factor, I do think adding a personal touch to assignments that can't be generated is a good idea. There is a time and a place for helping generate ideas. Our team keeps struggling with the level of writing as students come up to 4th- this actually relieves me of some of the pressure- of getting the students to form complete sentences on an idea. Integrity is a conversation I would think is valuable.
Adjusting my prompts to incorporate personal stories and authentic situations is a strategy I would incorporate. "Consider writing prompts that rely on personal experiences such as “connect to your work environment” or “describe what you remember.” I think that is beneficial- especially in writing personal narratives and realistic fiction like we do in 4th grade.

1. I feel that the discussions necessary are those about the limitations of AI. When students feel it is an all-knowing and 100% accurate resource, that is where we run into trouble. We would need to teach students how to use AI as a TOOL to support them in their learning.
2. I LOVED #5: Motivate your students with tasks worth doing. If students have an investment in their own learning, then cheating or using AI to blindly complete tasks for them will not service them. Something that I do in social skills groups is try to allow students to create or build something that they can use on their own. For example, when teaching coping skills, we build "coping toolboxes" that they can carry around full of the tools they know work for them. This is certainly easier in some subject areas than others, but giving students a reason to want to do the work is such a great idea.

Clearly explain to students the purpose of using ChatGPT and how it aligns with the learning objectives. Emphasize that it is a tool to support their learning and not a replacement for their own critical thinking and effort.
Encourage students to use ChatGPT as a source of inspiration rather than a direct source of content. Discuss the value of original thought and creativity in their work.
Discuss the ethical considerations of using technology in education. Encourage responsible and ethical behavior when utilizing tools like ChatGPT, emphasizing the importance of respecting intellectual property.
Using ChatGPT in my gym probably isn't something I can do with my students, but using it as a teacher to help them seems more like the action I will be able to do. Teaching my own children at home how to use this tool properly as a student will be important for me as well.

One thing that has been helpful in discussing with my students and being really transparent about the implications of AI generated content. Just as it's common for students to use Sparknotes in ELA, instead of actually doing the reading, students can get overly reliant on academic tools. Then when they're asked to do a cold read on an assessment, they're woefully out of practice. I routinely remind students not to fall into these traps and encourage frequent provisional writing assignments in class on demand. I also show students the plagiarism checking software out there such as Turnitin and ChatGPTZero and do a live demonstration of how it works. I find that this dispels some of the mystery. The instruction doesn't all have to be punitively oriented either. I've also demonstrated how to use ChatGPT responsibly, such as for brainstorming or organizational strategies. The more knowledge our students have about ethical and purposeful use and reinforcement of that message across subjects will only help our students in the future.