What do teachers think about AI?
COE Industrial Engineering Professor Abe Zeid, Executive Director Claire Duggan, and Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Director Jennifer Love of the Michael B. Silevitch and Claire J. Duggan Center for STEM Education are working on the NSF-funded project “Modernizing Education: Using AI to Improve Students’ Learning and Build Skills for the Future” with 30 local high school STEM teachers. Lead teacher Mark Casto from Amesbury High School in Massachusetts uses AI in his classroom with his students to support ideation of their potential project ideas. Learn more about the Using AI to Improve Education project.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cesareo Contreras. Main photo: Is it ever ok to use AI for school work? Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
OpenAI introduces ChatGPT for Teens. What do teachers think?
OpenAI said ChatGPT for Teens is designed to help students learn and study. What do educators have to say about AI use in the classroom?
Since ChatGPT’s introduction in the fall of 2022, educators have been trying their best to navigate artificial intelligence’s explosion into the classroom.
On one hand, AI proponents say, when used appropriately, the technology has the capacity to transform education for the better, enabling students to learn subjects more quickly and take in new educational experiences.
On the other, AI skeptics say the technology can be extremely detrimental to student’s ability to critically think for themselves and easily help them cheat. Chatbots are also notorious for sharing false information, they argue.
To help combat negative perceptions about the technology and cater more directly to schools, companies including Google and Anthropic have developed tools and services designed specifically for the education market.
This week, OpenAI added new features to ChatGPT geared toward those teenagers using the chatbot for homework and studying, aptly named ChatGPT for Teens.
The company said ChatGPT for Teens is “designed to help teens learn, think critically, deepen understanding and use AI with confidence.” One of the hallmarks features of the new software suite is “Study Mode,” which prompts the chatbot to provide students with “guiding questions” and “step-by-step” support when reviewing homework instead of providing them with direct answers.
The fact is, AI use among teens is here to stay. According to a February report from the Pew Research Center, more than 50 percent of teens surveyed use AI to get help with their schoolwork.
And according to a recent survey report from Instructure, the technology company behind the education platform Canvas, 90% of higher education students use AI “at least occasionally” to help them complete assignments.
But what do teachers think about the rollout of new AI features designed with teens in mind? And more broadly, what are their thoughts on AI use in the classroom?
Mark Casto, a chemistry teacher and science department head at Amesbury High School in Massachusetts, began integrating AI into his classroom after attending Northeastern University’s education workshop last year, designed to help high school teachers integrate the technology into the classroom.
One application students use Google’s Gemini AI chatbot for in his classes is to generate topic ideas for projects, he said.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News