3 Ways Educators Can Use AI in Their Classroom Today
Teachers work a median of 54 hours a week, with 25 hours spent teaching, according to a national teacher survey cited by Education Week. One way teachers can protect and guard their time is to embrace artificial intelligence tools. AI can ease laborious lesson planning sessions as well as improve the use of effective instructional strategies.
Photo by Mikhail Nilov
Designing Lesson Plans
AI tools can help you draft your lesson plan or they can review and suggest improvements on lesson plans you have already drafted. In an article called Lesson Planning with AI, Ditch That Textbook offers ten ways AI tools can help teachers plan lessons better and faster. The website outlines a workflow that begins with using (1) ChatGPT to design a draft lesson plan, (2) Bing Image Creator for a lesson hook, (3) and Curipod for creating interactive slides and so on.
Differentiated Instruction
Students enter classrooms with various strengths and learning needs. Differentiated instruction is meant to facilitate student learning based on the students' individual needs. Teachers report two significant barriers to differentiation: lack of time and insufficient resources. AI tools like Explain Like I'm Five (ELI5) can be used to explain difficult concepts to students who may need extra support. Bruce Ellis, Ed.D explains that ChatGPT can be used to create simpler and more complex reading texts and assignments based on students' reading and comprehension levels. The platform can also translate texts for second language learners.
Descriptive Feedback and Grading
Giving students descriptive feedback on their assignments celebrates what students are doing well and guides students in the learning process by helping them improve. Because it is a very student-centered practice, it is very time-consuming. However, students benefit from receiving that feedback quickly in order to most effectively advance their learning. Programs such as EssayGrader create feedback, identify errors and detect if students are using artificial intelligence to write their essays. Gradescope is a platform that supports grading different types of assignments in multiple content areas.