How Educators and Leaders can use AI to elevate the learning experience

As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to expand in almost any industry, it is more compulsory than ever for Business students to understand its impact on their future careers. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is the fastest-ever growing consumer app and has reached 100 Million users within merely two months after it launched. I imagine that the zeitgeist among educators during the rise of Wikipedia must have been similar – only this time, it is happening about 30 times as fast.

Despite its beneficial applications for students, generative AI has caused concern among a variety of experts who believe that the use of AI in education will diminish critical thinking skills among students. Let me present a unique approach to how to integrate (or how not to integrate) AI into the education system. AI literacy is not only relevant for our future at college but may also inspire critical thinking approaches as we design educational methods for future leadership positions many of us will hold.

I will call the outlined approach the “Enforce-Approach”, inspired by Tony Wan, which includes the “Zero-Trust Homework”. Envision a school that acquires and equips its classroom with an ed-tech AI software suite for students to utilize in answering questions about Philosophy, History and beyond. Every answer that is generated is recorded so that teachers can instantly ascertain that students didn’t use a different system. Rather than futilely mandating conventional essay composition, teachers now specifically demand AI assistance. Here is the catch for students: The system frequently provides incorrect answers, not just by chance but also as a deliberate challenge. The true challenge for the students lies in verifying these answers presented to them within such an AI suite, transforming students into editors rather than mere regurgitators. This new skill set is not only pivotal in a world dominated by AI but also holds immense value in the present moment. With the Internet still largely fueled by human-generated content, it is essential for individuals to develop the competency of verification and editing, as misinformation and false claims continue to run rampant.

Educators to this day have a difficult time teaching the responsible use of unsolicited internet sources. Given their enormous impact, the integration of ChatGPT, new tools like Brad from Google, and even the aforementioned ed-tech software in the curriculum will become obligatory. Seems like a difficult challenge? I was positively surprised when researching a variety of ways teachers share resources to proactively include ChatGPT in their classroom activities. Professors at several colleges encourage students to use ChatGPT for their assignments – not long until it will become an integral part.

This post was written by Julius Ritter. 

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