Tips for Engaging Students with AI

Having students create chatbots is a great way to let them peak behind the curtain. This semester, I asked my students to: 1️⃣ Choose a problem a chatbot could address. ► This way, the bots are purpose-driven. 2️⃣ Create a Poe account. ► It's free ► Students can play with different models. 3️⃣ Create a chatbot. ► Students design the prompts. ► They manage the knowledge base. ► (We covered prompt design beforehand) 4️⃣ Test, test, test. ► Sometimes, the bot behaves. ► Sometimes, it does some weird things. ► Students iterate and improve as they go along. Here are some great bots my students designed: The Perfect Shoe Guide: https://lnkd.in/ebg7CbfK A Makeup Bot: https://lnkd.in/eGHFSVsC A Management Training Bot :https://lnkd.in/edfWaZTx For these, the students chose a specific use case. And used a bot to offer step-by-step guidance. By designing these bots, students practice AI Literacy. They see how bots can help. They see how bots can hurt. Sometimes, there is just no replacement for building something and then stepping back to reflect on what we built. ----------------------- Images: Screenshots from a recent Forbes article written by Dan Fitzpatrick. He was kind enough to include my quote about using Poe in the classroom.

Thrilled to share a cool breakthrough I had today with AI in learning. It’s a method you can apply to any event you curate. ✨ I was running a full day workshop on innovation for the Entrepreneurs' Organization in Winnipeg (thanks Samantha Duha for hosting me!) and I wanted to give the participants some async “pre-work” to get their creative juices flowing BEFORE they arrived at the workshop. 🧠 As an entrepreneur and educator, I’m constantly exploring new methods to inspire and provoke thoughtful learning in my workshops. ✏️ So I ran an experiment and created an AI prompt that attendees could copy and paste in ChatGPT (or Claude, or Co-Pilot), which directed the AI chatbot to have a focused back-and-forth conversation with the participant about the workshop topic before they arrived. 💬 For any optional activity before a workshop, I’d normally expect only 20% of participants to follow through. 🤷🏻♂️ But 100% of the attendees did the optional homework! I was blown away by the engagement! I’ve never seen that before! 🤯 So going forward for all my workshops and important meetings, I will always assign async prework with an AI prompt to stimulate ideas. 💡 I want attendees to come engaged and excited to discuss solutions to a problem, and AI makes it so much easier! 🙌 Try it out and let me know what you experience! *** Here’s a VERY simplified version of the prompt: 🟢 Dear AI, please ask me these 3-5 questions about my knowledge of this workshop on topic ABC [insert topic]. Wait for my answer to each question, before going to the next one. 🔵 [Then you, the workshop curator, should create 3-5 important questions you want your attendees to consider, and insert them here, Q1… Q2…Q3…] 🟡 Based on my answers, please identify any assumptions I’m making, and offer suggestions for any alternative perspectives. Keep it simple.

It's a challenge as an educator these days to figure out the right times to use AI with students and when not to. We all know AI is here to stay, so modeling strategies and best practices of its use will be extremely important going forward. In my latest blog post, I detail how a teacher could utilize AI with their students in 4 different ways within the learning process. Here are some highlights: Utilize AI for the CONCEPT phase: Have students use AI to help with brainstorming ideas or to get through a creative block. Utilize AI for the DESIGN phase: AI could help write out a first draft that students have to improve or use an AI image generator to create visuals or models of their final project. Utilize AI for the TEST phase: Not all students respond well to peer feedback. AI could be a research assistant or provider of critical feedback to help improve the final product. Utilize AI for the REFLECTION phase: Reflection is such a key component to learning yet we rarely find time to do it or ask the same questions. In this phase, AI acts as a "thought partner" for the learner, reflecting on the project and process. Using AI for different parts of this process provides a scaffolded way of guiding students towards appropriate use. AI should not be used for each step, but instead, at various steps when appropriate and useful. Be sure to check out the full blog here: https://mrhook.it/ailearn