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Smart Learning: Helping Your Teen Balance AI in Education

• The Classic Literature Teacher • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Could artificial intelligence be the ultimate ally in transforming education, or are we sleepwalking into a tech-dependent future? We're peeling back the layers of AI in the classroom, uncovering its power to personalize learning and streamline tasks, freeing up educators to nurture critical thinking and empathy in their students. This episode traverses through the nuances of AI tutors in math and English, and how their 24/7 availability can be a game changer for diverse learners and under-resourced schools. We shine a light on the importance for parents to discern and leverage AI's role in education, ensuring it amplifies rather than dampens their children's learning experiences.

Navigating the tightrope between AI's advantages and its risks calls for a deft touch—something we examine with a fine-tooth comb. The conversation turns to the critical balance that educators and parents must strike, ensuring that while embracing AI's efficiency and non-judgmental feedback, we don't forfeit the irreplaceable human elements of teaching. We advocate for a blended approach to AI in education, one that enhances rather than replaces traditional learning, and discuss strategies like non-AI days to foster active learning and maintain students' unique voices against the backdrop of AI suggestions. Join us as we chart a course through this digital frontier, empowering listeners to wield AI as a potent tool in the quest for educational excellence.

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome back. In today's episode we are venturing into the world of artificial intelligence, or AI for short, and we're asking the big question is AI a friend or foe to our learning journey? It's a pretty controversial topic, ai, especially when it comes to our children's learning and how we use it in high schools, and I think that there are many different, divided opinions on this, not just about using AI, but where AI is going, the future of AI and how much of an impact it's going to have on our children's lives. So we are running a five part series at the moment. This is episode two of five parts, and we are exploring everything that there is to know about AI, how it applies to your children's education and how, as a parent, you can get on board and understand and exactly harness the power of AI so that we're controlling it, we're driving it, we're not just participants in it. So first of all, I thought we would look at really what is AI. Let's break it down. So imagine a computer that can think, can learn, can make decisions somewhat like a human, and obviously the technology is evolving and getting more and more sophisticated day by day, and so these machines are sounding more human-like, they're able to produce results that are more human-like. They're able to produce results that are more human-like. We can adapt and manipulate photographs now, or videos, or people's voices, or even the way that we write, and that's probably one of the most common ways that you've heard of AI in your own children's lives is that they are able to get on board now with some of these websites and these apps that can print out whole essays for them or they can do whole projects for them. And so, looking at AI, the dream of AI is it's not just science fiction, it's real and it's here helping students like your child and also teachers around the world. It has benefits, benefits as well as negatives, and we all have different learning styles. No two children are the same. Some students are visual learners, some students are auditory learners, some students prefer visual, some students prefer the written word. So AI has really been beneficial to nourish and enhance these different learning styles as well. So in the classroom, we can look at how we can apply in a positive way For maths and science, for example.

Speaker 1:

Ai tutors can break down complicated subjects like algebra into understandable parts. It can provide step-by-step explanations and even adapt to the pace of what you learn In a subject like English, have you ever used a tool that helps check your grammar or suggest different words, even just in a simple Word document, when it's underlined in red? That's AI in action. So we're already using it, without even realizing it. It analyzes your writing and it offers real-time improvements in making learning how to write better more accessible to everybody. Touching on what I talked about before with the different learning styles, how every student has a different way of learning, ai doesn't teach every student in the same way. Instead, it adjusts the material based on your performance. So if you're struggling with a concept, for example, your students, your teenagers struggling with a concept, ai can provide additional resources or simpler explanations. Or is your student excelling? Does your teenager need more challenges in class? Perhaps An AI system or an AI website or an AI program might offer more challenging content to keep you engaged or to keep your teenager engaged. And, as I mentioned before, everybody learns differently. Some are visual learners, others prefer listening, so AI can suggest resources like videos or interactive simulations or audio recordings, based on what works best for your teenager.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at the benefits Once we understand AI and once we are able to filter through the white noise of systems and programs for our children's education, or perhaps apps that our children are using. If we can really look at them and decide which are the best fit to help our children in their education, then there are some great benefits of using AI, for example, efficiency. Ai can handle tasks like grading and providing feedback instantly. That frees up teachers to spend more time on interactive and personalized teaching. Marking can take a huge amount of a teacher's time. It can take a whole weekend to mark assignments or mark essays. So having an AI assistant to help with the marking, which can be done instantly, means that teachers have so much more time to be able to focus on developing those wider skills that students need, such as critical thinking and the ability to harness their empathetic skills and their understanding of the wider world and how that applies to their subjects. Another benefit of AI is the accessibility, so students from different backgrounds with various needs can receive a more tailored educational experience that suits their learning styles and paces.

Speaker 1:

And in a classroom you are going to be faced with many, many, many different needs. Some schools might do zoning of classes, others don't. It doesn't really matter, even in a zoned class and when I say zoned. I mean ability-wise. You might have a top stream, middle stream and then stream. That might need more assistance. Different schools will have different names for these sort of streaming categories. Not all schools do them, so I don't want to ruffle feathers.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, even within those streamed classes, you are still going to get a broad spectrum of abilities and it's very easy for students to get lost or get left behind and they won't tell you. You won't know necessarily as a teacher who's getting left behind during the course of a lesson. It's only when you start to look at their work, take their books in or mark an assignment, that you can really see where the weaknesses are within a student's work. In class they will keep their heads down. Most likely they'll pretend that they're working or they might be playing up. There's a whole range of different behaviours, but that's a different podcast.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, with AI you can ensure that your programming, or the teacher can ensure that their programming is set up to cover a broad range of styles and paces, and also the benefits of AI in education. You get better engagement so learning can become more engaging and fun. There are interactive AI programs that can turn a dull lesson into an exciting game-like experience. There's so many really cool websites and apps that are available now. You can have a whole game show in a class with some of those interactive quizzes, or you can create an escape room experience where the students really are able to get out of their seats and move around and explore with their minds. It really suits the kinesthetic learners out there their experience learning best through movement. So AI can harness all of that. It can facilitate all of that.

Speaker 1:

Now, it's not all positives, though, and obviously we're going to talk about the negatives as well. With AI and education, some of the considerations and the challenges to think about is privacy and data security. So, as we use AI tools and as they get more and more sophisticated, we often provide them with a lot of personal data. It's really essential when you are at home with your teenager and you are looking at what apps and websites they're using or perhaps you're signing up to some together it's really essential to understand how this data is used and how it's protected.

Speaker 1:

Another consideration is the dependence on technology. So your student, your teenager, as a parent, you need to be mindful that there's a risk of becoming too reliant on AI, potentially diminishing critical thinking and problem-solving skills if it's not balanced properly. Ai is here to stay. That's not in contention. But we need to make sure that our teenagers and youth, the future of tomorrow, is still able to consider and weigh up the options, weigh up the information that's in front of them, and be able to make critical decisions, to be able to still problem solve. These are skills that we are still going to need 30, 50, 100 years from now. These are skills that will not be overtaken by AI. A human's ability to make critical judgments and to problem solve is still going to be it will be even more important. So we need to really ensure that we are teaching our teenagers how to think critically and how to problem solve. So, yes, ai is great for helping them as a learning tool or even producing an assignment. I'm not recommending that it produces an assignment. I think that's gone too far, but we know it's happening. But still, I think we need to be mindful, as parents and as educators, that those two key skills critical thinking and problem solving must be maintained at all cost.

Speaker 1:

And the other consideration or perhaps this is more of a challenge is access and equity. So we need to ensure that all students have equal access to AI tools so that no one is left behind in the digital learning shift, and we know that lower socioeconomic backgrounds or regions might not have the same advantage that more developed areas or higher socioeconomic regions or communities or families. If we want to look at it at a micro level, their students have access to the technology. We need to really be mindful that everybody should have equal access, or the chance at least for access. So, at a council level, maybe that's making sure that the libraries are well equipped and well geared for this digital learning shift or, at a school level, that everybody has access to the same technology while they're learning.

Speaker 1:

Ai in education is transforming how we learn and it's making it more personalized and accessible. However, it is important to use AI tools wisely and we need to ensure that they do complement traditional learning methods and enhance critical thinking skills without completely taking over the educational process. That is the challenge for educators and parents. I think I very much see it as a dual relationship between the teacher and the parent that both must be on board to ensure that those traditional learning methods and I'm not just talking about copying things down in a notebook or looking at a whiteboard the traditional learning methods in the sense of teaching our students how to think. Those skills are still maintained, and it's what you do at home as a parent and it's what we do in the classroom as teachers which will keep that alive and flourishing.

Speaker 1:

So let's do a deeper dive into the pros and cons With all these amazing uses. You might wonder if there's any downside, and we have touched briefly on it. But I want to go a little bit deeper. Ai tools offer a lot of benefits they're available 24-7, they give instant feedback, they don't judge you if you get something wrong, which can make learning a less stressful experience for our teenagers. And they're all great reasons, and I love all of those reasons. But relying too much on AI might make us a bit lazy in our thinking.

Speaker 1:

In the rapidly evolving landscape of education technology, ai tools have become integral in shaping how we learn. But, as with any technological advancement, it's crucial to strike a balance. Ai tools are available around the clock. They make learning possible anytime and anywhere. This 24-7 availability can be particularly beneficial for students who might have busy schedules, and it means that they can fit their learning in around maybe sporting or cultural commitments they've got, especially when it comes down to homework and extracurricular activities, and it can also be beneficial this 24-7 access to schools that lack sufficient educational resources, almost like extra staff, if you need that ability to create lesson plans or resources.

Speaker 1:

Another benefit is the non-judgmental learning environment, and I think that's one of the most significant advantages of AI is its impartiality, so AI doesn't judge, it just simply provides feedback based on data, and that's great, because we know that teenagers are very self-conscious and they don't always take feedback the best way, and we have to be really careful in how we deliver that feedback. And with AI, it can create a less intimidating learning environment, especially for students who may fear judgment from their peers or from their teachers. And it also provides instant feedback. It provides immediate responses to queries and submitted work, which is essential for learning. It provides quick feedback that helps students understand what they've done right and where they need to improve, without the delay that can often come with traditional grading and, as I mentioned before, sometimes marking a whole class's essays that's, 30 students could take a whole weekend. Having that instant feedback is so crucial for a student to be able to get on and improve quickly.

Speaker 1:

But then there are the cons. We've got the potential for reduced critical thinking and this is what I mentioned earlier in the intro was that relying too heavily on AI can lead to a decline in critical thinking and problem-solving skills. When solutions are readily available, there's a risk that your team might not develop the necessary skills to tackle problems independently. We need to make sure that critical thinking and when I say critical thinking I mean taking a problem and being able to look at it from various perspectives understand who it is that's providing the information and what their agenda might be. It's looking at the cultural and social significance of the problem and it's coming up with multiple solutions and then deciding which one might be best. It's being able to weigh up things and think outside of the box in a very simplified term, in a very simplified way, and when your teen is faced with multiple pieces of information that's being generated by AI, they are still going to have to make decisions and they're still going to have to make critical decisions.

Speaker 1:

We need to make sure that that particular skill doesn't get switched off and we want to make sure that they're not dependent on technology, just as using a GPS can diminish our ability to navigate independently on the roads. You want to try and use your memory as much as you can when you're driving. But nowadays it's just so the convenience of putting an address on a GPS and you don't have to think about it, it's too convenient. So we're losing that ability to use our memory in that particular case, or an over-reliance on AI for educational tasks can make students overly dependent on technology. Typing everything out on a computer and then using the spell check means that we no longer have to think and remember how to spell words, like we did when I was at school. So this dependency can become a significant handicap in situations where AI tools are unavailable or inappropriate.

Speaker 1:

Think about the loss of personal touch. So AI, while efficient, lacks the human element that teachers bring to education. It cannot fully understand student emotions and it cannot provide the moral support and encouragement that comes from human interaction. It's that one-on-one interaction in the class where, as a teacher, you're looking around and you can see a particular student might be sitting there quietly or might be struggling or might be taking longer to complete a task than everybody else. You lose that when it's completely automated and it's the same at home as a parent and having that parent-child relationship where you're helping them with their work or you're checking in and making sure that they're all okay. If everything is reliant on AI technology, then it almost replaces your need to be there for them, especially during exam study or caring for a particular project at school. It's about finding the balance, and I think if we integrate AI wisely, then we can find that balance to maximize the benefits of AI without succumbing to its pitfalls.

Speaker 1:

I think educators and students must aim to use AI as a supplementary tool rather than a replacement for traditional learning methods, and we talked about this before, that AI should be seen as a partner in the educational process, not as the sole facilitator. Schools and teachers should emphasize skills that AI cannot replace, such as what we talked about creativity, leadership, emotional intelligence. Encouraging tasks that require these skills can help maintain a healthy balance between using AI and developing independent capabilities. I think we need to look at continuous monitoring and adjustment, and this is the same at home as well. When I'm talking about educators in school using AI technology, I think it's also very important at home to keep an eye on what your teenagers are using for these studies and to continuously monitor it and adjust where need be.

Speaker 1:

Educators and parents should continually assess the impact of the AI tools on student learning, for example, does your teen go into their room and 20 minutes later they come out and they say they're done and they've produced a 600 word essay? I mean, how can you do that in 20 minutes? Have they actually read it through? Have they used their critical thinking skills? Have they used their emotional intelligence? Have they striked the right tone? Is it what the teacher was looking for? Have they read the question carefully? Have they been able to put in their own critical evaluation? We need to be constantly monitoring this, and this might include setting limits on the use of certain AI functionalities or incorporating activities that strengthen cognitive and analytical skills. So, yes, ai is here to stay. Yes, our teens are using this technology in their work, but what else can we give them to strengthen those other skills, to strengthen the cognitive and analytical skills, the critical thinking, the emotional intelligence, the problem solving, the creativity, the leadership, the initiative? What other activities are we giving them, above and beyond what they're getting from their teacher at school, that can continue to improve the side of their learning and development? It's so important. So, while AI in education offers numerous benefits, including enhanced accessibility and instant feedback, it also presents challenges, such as the potential over-reliance and the loss of critical thinking skills. By understanding these dynamics, educators and parents and students can better navigate the integration of AI into the learning processes, ensuring that the technology enhances rather than hinders educational outcomes. And so let's continue more about striking that balance.

Speaker 1:

When using AI tools such as essay writing assistance, don't automatically accept all suggestions. Or when your teenager is using AI tools, encourage them not to automatically accept all suggestions. Encourage them not to automatically accept all suggestions. Review each change critically so they might do a draft and perhaps the AI tool hasn't completely written it the right way. So then you ask to write it again and compare both options, considering why it might be suggested and whether there's a better alternative that reflects your unique voice and understanding, and whether there's a better alternative that reflects your unique voice and understanding. I feel that by even talking about an essay being written through an AI tool is blasphemy in the teaching world, but we know it's happening with our teenagers and I think that we need to confront it rather than ignore it. And if you see that this is happening, then I think we need to ensure that they are using these essay writing assistants responsibly and that's a key word, I suppose, responsibly, because if our students are able to use an AI writing assistant and then look at what's been produced by it and continue to make changes themselves based on their own unique voice, their own understanding and their own critical thinking abilities, then we are on the right path with them. Even though they are using these AI writing assistants, they are still able to think critically about the work that's being produced.

Speaker 1:

It's about diversifying study techniques, blending the old with the new, incorporating traditional study methods alongside AI tools. For example, set aside days for reading physical books and taking handwritten notes to ensure you're processing information actively and not becoming over-reliant on digital aids. And if you are helping your teenager at home, set up a study schedule, perhaps it's a good idea to block out non-AI days or non-technology days, where they are just focusing on the reading and the writing and the handwritten notes, using the cue cards or the flashcards, getting the highlighter pen out and doing the old-fashioned highlighting and then summarizing the notes and margin all of that and then perhaps look at active learning. So question and challenge AI. Always ask yourself if the AI solutions or suggestions are the best or only ways to approach a problem. So this also encourages deeper thinking with your teen and helps develop problem solving skills too, and as educators and as parents, and as educators and as parents, I think we also need to ensure that AI complements, but it doesn't replace our children's ability to study and to learn, so they should enhance lessons if you're an educator, but the teachers still need to engage in one-on-one reviews to discuss the nuances that AI might miss, and I think it's still really important to go through the essay with the student on a one-on-one basis to go through why the student received the grade that they did and what they need to do to improve. I think teachers and parents should still be encouraging critical thinking and I've said this a lot throughout this podcast but think about designing thought-provoking activities that will encourage critical thinking. So think about activities that cannot be easily replaced by AI, such as debates or group discussions and creative projects that require students to analyze or to apply and create based on their own knowledge. I think we need to monitor the AI use and adjust it based on feedback. So regularly solicit and use feedback from students about the AI tools that they're using. Are they helpful? Are they becoming crutches? It's the scenario of the student coming out of their room 20 minutes after going in to do their homework and they've produced a 600-word essay. That would be where an AI tool is becoming a crutch the student's overly reliant on it and I think, use this feedback to adjust how AI is integrated into the curriculum.

Speaker 1:

As a teacher, or perhaps as a study tool at home, if you're a parent, a good idea is to establish guidelines for AI use. So set clear objectives, really define what the AI tools are being used for each lesson, or perhaps at home. You can have a list or have a discussion with your teen about what AI tools you are happy for them to use as part of their study and what ones are out of bounds and are just for fun, and objectives should be focused on enhanced learning outcomes, such as improving their writing skills or understanding complex concepts, rather than just completing the tasks for them. I think we, as parents and educators, we need to limit the AI dependence. We need to establish guidelines for when and how students should use AI tools. For example, limit AI use in certain projects to encourage independent research and critical thinking.

Speaker 1:

If you're a teacher or at home, it's what we talked about before setting up a study timetable and maybe blocking out days where AI is out of bounds and they need to be able to use some of those more traditional methods for study, and I think we also need to promote the ethical use. So we need to educate our teenagers about the ethical dimensions of using AI, including the privacy concerns and the importance of honesty in academic work, even when using advanced technology. And this is a topic that we will talk about in a future podcast the ethics of AI because it's a whole topic in itself, but it's really really, really important that teenagers understand the ethics of AI and where the line is with it. So balancing AI in education requires mindfulness from both students and educators and parents. By using AI as a supportive tool rather than a complete solution, and integrating the traditional learning methods, still especially encouraging critical engagement with technology, using those critical thinking skills, we can enhance educational experiences without sacrificing essential skills development.

Speaker 1:

These practical tips provide a roadmap for responsibly leveraging AI in educational settings to enrich learning while fostering independent critical thinkers. So so, so important. As we wrap today, remember that AI and learning is like a library it's full of resources and potential, but it's up to you, as the parent or the educator, to make most of it. It's there to enhance your teen skills, but not to replace the adventure of learning. So thanks for joining us today on the Classic Literature Teacher podcast. Don't forget to tune in next time for more insights into the tools shaping our education. So keep thinking critically and I will see you soon.

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