Generative AI in EducationActivity Examples: Students Using AI

Read the resources below to learn how other educators are using AI with their students. While we've pulled out a few key points from each resource, you will get the most benefit from opening the articles and reading them in more depth.

Most of these resources focus on generative text AI. Remember that text generation is only one subset of generative AI. How might you also use image, slides, and other AI generators with your students?

For each reading below, we've included the estimated reading time (), the resource citation (), a main idea quote () pulled from the resource, and key questions to consider () as you think about why and how to implement these technologies.

Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts

Reading Time: 72 minutes

Mollick, E. R. & Mollick, L. (2023, June 12). Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts. SSRN. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4475995

Main Idea Quote:

...Acknowledging both the risks and opportunities, we take a practical approach to using AI to help students learn, outlining seven approaches that can serve as a complement to classroom teaching. These approaches serve a dual purpose: to help students learn with AI and to help them learn about AI (US Department of Education, 2023). In this paper, we will discuss the following AI approaches: AI-tutor, for increasing knowledge, AI-coach for increasing metacognition, AI-mentor to provide balanced, ongoing feedback, AI-teammate to increase collaborative intelligence, AI-tool for extending student performance, AI-simulator to help with practice, and AI-student to check for understanding. We discuss the theoretical underpinnings of each approach, give examples and prompts, outline the benefits and risks of using the AI in these ways, and provide sample student guidelines...

AI USE ROLE PEDAGOGICAL BENEFIT PEDAGOGICAL RISK

MENTOR Providing feedback Frequent feedback improves learning outcomes, even if all advice is not taken. Not critically examining feedback, which may contain errors.

TUTOR Direct instruction Personalized direct instruction is very effective. Uneven knowledge base of AI. Serious confabulation risks.

COACH Prompt metacognition Opportunities for reflection and regulation, which improve learning outcomes. Tone or style of coaching may not match student. Risks of incorrect advice.

TEAMMATE Increase team performance Provide alternate viewpoints, help learning teams function better. Confabulation and errors. “Personality” conflicts with other team members.

STUDENT Receive explanations Teaching others is a powerful learning technique. Confabulation and argumentation may derail the benefits of teaching.

SIMULATOR Deliberate practice Practicing and applying knowledge aids transfer. Inappropriate fidelity.

TOOL Accomplish tasks Helps students accomplish more within the same time frame. Outsourcing thinking, rather than work.

Key Questions to Consider:

Which application of AI is similar to what you already do in your classroom? How might using AI extend your current practices?
How might you adapt the AI prompts in this paper to fit your class?
As you design your AI assignments, what risks might you be introducing to your students? How will you make students aware of these risks? How can you and your students address these risks?
How would you assess an assignment that uses one of these AI approaches?

Prompt engineering for students – making generative AI work for you

Reading Time: 12 minutes

Liu, D. (2023, April 28). Prompt engineering for students – making generative AI work for you. Teaching@Sydney. https://educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching@sydney/prompt-engineering-for-students-making-generative-ai-work-for-you/

Main Idea Quote:

Let’s check out a few examples of how generative AI might help you, as a student, learn. Keep in mind that if you are using generative AI as part of your study, you need to ensure that it is allowed by your unit coordinator.

...It’s well known that bringing things out from your memory helps learning. Learning scientists call this retrieval practice, and a tried-and-tested way to do this is through answering questions.

Here’s an example of a prompt that will help you do this, and provide feedback for you (modify the green parts to suit your topic):
Act as a tutor in a first year university software engineering course.

Ask me multiple choice questions that will test my application of fundamental software engineering concepts. After I respond, give me feedback on my answer.

Your questions should target common misconceptions in software engineering.

Key Questions to Consider:

Should your students' use of generative AI be structured as a formal assignment? How might students use generative AI as a tutor?
What study skills with generative AI would be beneficial to your students? How can they balance the risk of misinformation with the benefit of these study aids?
Can you use any of the prompt examples shared in this article as the foundation of an assignment or activity for students in your course?

101 creative ideas to use AI in education

Reading Time: 118 minutes

Chrissi Nerantzi, Sandra Abegglen, Marianna Karatsiori, & Antonio Martínez-Arboleda (Eds.). (2023). 101 creative ideas to use AI in education, A crowdsourced collection (2023 1.0) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8072950

Links to an external site

Main Idea Quote:

This collection captures where we are at this moment in time with our collective thinking about potential alternative uses and applications of AI that could make a real difference and potentially create new learning, development and opportunities for our students and educators, for all of us. The collection is based on an open invitation to all educators and students to share ideas on how AI tools such as ChatGPT, DALL·E 2, and Midjourney, for example, could be used in inventive ways for learning, teaching and scholarship.

Key Questions to Consider

Did you learn about any new generative AI tools after reading these examples?
Can you adapt any of these activities to use with your students?
How would you assess these activities?

Additional Resources

Using Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom:

This guide from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a skimmable read containing considerations before using AI, example activities, and conversation prompts to have with students.

Generative AI Activities for the Writing & Language Classroom:

This presentation from Anna Mills, English Instructor at Cañada College, contains micro-lessons about AI and activities to do with students.