Teaching Critical AI Literacy and Using AI for Learning
Anna Mills, English Instructor at Cañada College
SMCCCD 2024 AI-AR-VR Conference
January 11, 2024
Licensed CC BY NC 4.0
Welcome!
My background is as a writing teacher at CCSF and OER textbook author. I curate a resource list on AI for the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse and serve on the MLA/CCCC Task Force on Writing and AI.
Slides (open for commenting):
What to expect
What do we mean by “AI”? �(Despite AI hype, AI ≠ Magic)
“AI” or “Artificial Intelligence” is used these days to refer to computer systems that uncover patterns in big data and follow those patterns to make predictions or recommendations. They use what’s known as “machine learning” to train until their predictions are more or less reliable.
When we say AI in higher ed these days, we are often talking about generative AI, systems that generate text, images, and video based on a user request.
Some basics about AI text generators like ChatGPT
ChatGPT Alternatives
ChatGPT is just one chatbot that runs on one of OpenAI’s language models, GPT-3.5 (free version) or the more sophisticated GPT-4 (premium).
Will AI automate the jobs students are preparing for? Maybe to some extent. But we can be sure professionals will be working with AI
“[W]e see generative AI enhancing the way STEM, creative, and business and legal professionals work rather than eliminating a significant number of jobs outright.”
–McKinsey Global Institute, “Generative AI and the future of work in America,” July 26, 2023
“Gen AI and other recent trends affecting the labor market point to the importance of upskilling, reskilling, and training to empower the global workforce.” - McKinsey Podcast, September 21, 2023
What does this look like? �With the next generation of AI user interfaces, generative AI is present within familiar applications and might be used in myriad ways throughout a task.
Google now offers beta text generation within Google Docs
Nowhere in version history does it indicate which text is auto-generated and which is written by the user.
AI can be used to generate text but also to modify it
On the right is a screenshot of Google Docs options for auto-revising the AI text.
So what skills do students need to work with it? How do you work with generative AI?
How do you know how to change what it gives you?
AI Microlessons
Let's start building a foundation of critical AI Literacy before we use generative AI in pedagogy
Critical AI literacy includes…
Also labor, colonialism, intellectual property, environmental impact
How do we start? Baby steps?
Watch a very short video?�
Perhaps assign an interactive reading?
Let Us Show You How GPT Works — Using Jane Austen from The New York Times gives readers the choice of seeing rough language model generations in the style of Harry Potter, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Shakespeare, or Moby Dick.
Sample: “Hermione raised her wand. "Professor Dumbledore never mimmed Harry."
He looked back at the room, but they didn't seem pretend to blame Umbridge in the Ministry. He had taken a human homework, who was glad he had not been in a nightmare bad cloak. Her face looked over her closely past her and saw Harry crossed the grip, looked down at the wall. "Come off!" she said tentatively, with a crumpled note into his own hand on her book. "That’s beating attacks how we’ve got detentions or not to realize how she did the Maps worse doesn’t want.”
Assign a short reading like the introduction to Elements of AI, a set of free online course materials from the University of Helsinki.
Artificial Intelligence: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is well researched. Caveat: there’s a bit of swearing.
A microlesson on privacy
(Inspired by Autumn Caines’ blog on annotating the privacy policies)
Share highlights from the OpenAI Privacy Policy (or another model's policy) with students
“We may use Personal Information for the following purposes:
Image by GDJ on Pixabay.com
A microlesson on autosynthesized misinformation (also called fabrication or hallucination)
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
ChatGPT misinformation from a session on surprising AI facts
“AI Can Decode Ancient Scripts:
There’s no such paper and no such author!
What happened? Yann LeCun + Yoshua Bengio = Yann Bengio?
Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio are computer scientists considered “godfathers” of AI who have collaborated. ChatGPT combined their names.
A microlesson on AI bias
Show a video that gives an example of racism and sexism compounded by AI
Another microlesson on bias: Invite students to read “How AI reduces the world to stereotypes” by Victoria Turk in restofworld.org
Biased Barbies
“THEY GAVE SOUTH SUDAN BARBIE A GUN”
Business Insider reporting on the Buzzfeed article: “A list of AI-generated Barbies from 'every country' gets blasted on Twitter for blatant racism and endless cultural inaccuracies”
“They turned Thailand Barbie Russian”--@sighyam
“A few Middle Eastern Barbies wore a ghutra, a traditional headdress for men.”--Business Insider
A microlesson on AI'ls lack of understanding: share a chat session that suggests ChatGPT isn’t thinking, such as this session where it counts wrong.
Another way to demonstrate ChatGPT’s lack of understanding: “correct” its right answer and watch it agree. Here I told it it had rounded the decimal incorrectly for ⅓.
How might you introduce AI literacy in class?
�Scan the QR code
Or, go to https://bit.ly/smccdai (in the chat)�Or, go to Menti.com and enter 6175 7340
Principles for using AI in pedagogy
Plan learning activities involving AI that
Text generation is becoming widely available and integrated into writing environments.
AI-generated text is almost certainly becoming a larger proportion of what we read.
Therefore, students need to know…
And they need practice identifying those problems!
Principle 1: Help students build skepticism of highly plausible AI-generated outputs
Many have recommended encouraging students to use a language model for some part of the writing process (and disclose their use).
I haven’t done this (yet), in part because each part of the writing process helps us clarify our thinking.
Principle 2: Choose AI uses that stimulate student thinking and writing rather than replacing them
Though critical AI literacy is valuable, it’s even more important to keep the focus on students building awareness of what they can do. Let’s consider how much each pedagogical application helps them develop a sense of the value of their voice, ideas, and human judgment.
Sometimes I need to self correct around my impulse to share some new AI capacity with students. That can be distracting from what’s more important.
Principle 3: Help students build confidence and metacognitive awareness
One approach: invite students to critique AI performance on specific skills we want to teach in our discipline
This could involve students
We might
Template phrases for critiquing AI outputs from How Arguments Work (samples below)
Clarity
Accuracy
Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra at University of California San Diego has documented his approach in TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies from the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse
"[S]tudents are provided with an AI-generated text relevant to a course’s topics and focus and then asked to comment, review, and expand on it using a feature such as "track changes." In engaging with the AI-generated text, students review their knowledge, offer critiques, modify theoretical and empirical claims, and provide concrete examples that illustrate or disprove the provided answer...."
A bit of fun: critique summaries generated in tailored styles
In their TextGenEd contribution, Daniel Hutchinson and Erin Jensen of
Belmont Abbey College invite students to ask a language model to explain a difficult passage or concept using an example that incorporates the student’s pop culture reference of choice.
Then they ask students to evaluate how well the model’s example illustrates the meaning of the passage.
Critique brief AI summaries of web pages
PerplexityAI integrates chatbot and search features and doesn't require sign-in. Like Bing Chat and Google's Bard, it will provide brief summaries of sources it links to. Ask students to read the sources and find inaccuracies in the summaries.
Generate and critique examples
Examples of any concept might be tailored to a class theme or student interests.�
Let’s try it… prompt Perplexity.ai (Or Bing.com or Poe.com web search) to give examples that illustrate a challenging concept you teach.
Do the examples accurately and clearly illustrate the concept?
If there are flaws, do you think identifying those flaws would present the right level of challenge for the students?
Please share what you tried…
Share one AI-generated example you would use in class OR one that's terrible
�Click the right arrow if you're in the Mentimeter already�Scan the QR code
Or, go to https://bit.ly/smccdai (in the chat)�Or, go to Menti.com and enter 6175 7340
Another approach to using AI text in pedagogy: �Students use and critique AI writing feedback
AI feedback can supplement teacher, tutor and peer feedback without replacing them
For instructor oversight of student use of AI feedback,
MyEssayFeedback.ai (I am advising on this teacher-created app)
Problem: language model feedback can sometimes be bad while sounding authoritative.��With guidance, though, students can practice recognizing points they disagree with in the AI feedback and points that don’t represent their essays accurately.
Guardrails and nudges in MyEssayFeedback.AI
Choose the kind of feedback you want. Create an assignment where students upload their essays.
Sample suggestion from myessayfeedback.ai
(it also selected a relevant quote from the student essay).
“Readers might question who the target audience was for these posters during World War I, and how that audience has changed over time. Your essay hints at the differences between then and now, but consider discussing the shifts and implications more thoroughly."
Sample template phrases for reflecting on AI feedback (From How Arguments Work)
Reflect on ways the feedback doesn't fit our meaning or purpose
More on MyEssayFeedback.ai
What will we do if we ask students to use AI and the students don’t want to?
If you incorporate a language model, give students a comparable alternative in case they have privacy or data rights concerns
Further resources for ideas on teaching with and about AI
Collections of ideas and tested pedagogical practices.
The AI Pedagogy Project from Harvard's metaLAB
TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies
Edited by Annette Vee, Tim Laquintano & Carly Schnitzler
And published by the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse
A collection edited by
Chrissi Nerantzi, Antonio M. Arboleda, Marianna Karatsiori and Sandra Abegglen
Contributors: Educators and students
�Curated by #creativeHE
2023
Browse, comment, and share your own informal reflections on the Exploring AI Pedagogy site from the MLA/CCCC Task Force on Writing and AI
Questions? Comments?
�Get in touch:
Twitter/X: @EnglishOER
LinkedIn: anna-mills-oer
Slides open for commenting: https://bit.ly/SMCCDteachingAI
�This presentation is shared under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.