Sweet and Sour AI: A Boon and A Warning
@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS
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Last April I wrote a blog post about an AI conference that completely blew my mind. There was a decent mix of excitement and fear about how AI would impact education now and in the near future. Dr. Sugata Banerji, the associate professor of Computer Science at Lake Forest College said that "no professional runner competes without shoes, and within 1 year I don't imagine a world where any educator doesn't use AI in their classrooms." So which pair of shoes do we give our time and attention to? Not surprisingly, since April, there has been an explosion of new AI-related educational apps and services and it's easy to get overwhelmed with the choices. It's important to take advantage of what AI offers us as professionals, while still being wary of the unintended consequences of such a fast-paced tech boom. Today, let's take a look at two pieces of the puzzle, one AI app to welcome and utilize, and one AI app to be understood and be wary of.
The Good
Diffit.me is an incredible productivity AI tool that our very own Kelly Walenga shared with me. Diffit is a resource adaptation/creation tool that can adapt the reading level of any reading, excerpt, or article you provide. Even if you don't provide anything, Diffit can CREATE a reading-level-appropriate text on the chosen topic. According to their website, it can:
- Make adaptations to support English Language Learners
- Make modifications for students with IEPs
- Assist in differentiating your curriculum*
Instead of merely being able to adapt a text to a reading level, it can create worksheets, homework assignments, multiple-choice questions, summaries, short/long comprehension questions, and feature key vocabulary, all based on the chosen text or topic. Once you've created your document, you can export it as a PDF, or convert it to a Google Doc or Google Form. You can also house your resources to Diffit's main UI, which currently maintains that they will never share your data, and remains FERPA and COPPA compliant. It does all of this by using ChatGTP as an LTI integration but modified for their app.
Here are some Diffit resources:
Diffit currently plans to offer a freemium version for educators, while also offering a premium version with more robust services. While a lofty claim, their goal is to "save teachers time, help all students to access grade-level content, and create new possibilities for differentiation and lesson prep."
The Bad and the Ugly?
There's currently a TikTok that is going viral of a student sitting in a university lecture hall, using a new AI tool called Answer.ai, which seemingly is able to instantly answer all of their multiple choice questions on an assessment. The video shows a POV of when a "freshman finds out that college students cheat on everything crying smiley face." To my immediate horror, I noticed that the app was answering Microeconomics questions and if the video was to be believed, rather quickly and accurately.
Their website's tagline is, "School on Easy Mode" and boasts integration to Blackboard and Canvas (phew), and can photo solve individual multiple choice questions, auto solve MC questions on Blackboard/Canvas, or even accept PDFs or Textbook chapters. All this for a low low price of $9.99 a month!
So I decided to test this out and purchased a month of this pandora's nightmare and my results have been...mixed. I tested out multiple choice questions from a variety of AP and non-AP courses and I'm happy to report that while powerful, it's not quite as accurate as they suggest. Here's what I found:
- It would report that the question is unanswerable. (clearly not true)
- It would give an obviously wrong answer.
- It would give a correct answer but with an incorrect rationale.
- It would give a correct rationale, but choose the wrong option.
- It would give an incorrect answer once, and a correct answer the next time for the same question.
On some higher-level AP Computer Science and AP Economics questions, it had about a 50-75% pass rating. Other times, it got every single question correct. I don't believe it's accurate enough (yet) for students to completely buy in, but it's worth keeping on our radar. It might also be a good idea to think about how we're releasing our multiple-choice assessments to students since there is a Chrome extension, as well as an Android/Apple app.
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| Don't tell my students, but this is correct... |
While we shouldn't necessarily fear the incoming changes to education via AI, it's certainly worth noting that there are going to be some negative consequences and that we need to be realistic in how we assess knowledge and understanding without students. It feels like "The Essay" has been attacked by ChatGTP, and now our multiple-choice questions may no longer be unaffected. I don't necessarily believe much, if anything, needs to change due to apps like this. You really shouldn't allow students to have their cell phones or Chromebooks out during closed assessments anyway. But it helps to know what's currently out there and to weigh the true value of the types of assessments we are assigning students outside of the class. Good luck navigating this new and exciting phase of technological change. We'll be researching and piloting different AI tools and strategies this year, and are excited to share our findings with you. Please feel free to reach out!
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