Roundup: AI at Analy
Exploring the promise of AI by introducing it as a tool for both teachers and students
Like mushrooms after a rain.
AI Literacy
AI is in the air, you might say, but is it fresh air or more like industrial pollution? It’s hard to answer such a question now except to say that AI is here, just like the internet. Many of the uses of AI will be unpredictable, bringing good things and some bad. One of the most controversial proving grounds for AI is education, where AI can be a responsive tool for more personalized teaching and learning or a way to avoid doing the important work of thinking for yourself.
“I feel it's really important that all of our students become AI-literate, and they are made aware of both the incredible promise of the technology as well as the pitfalls,” said Analy Principal Chuck Wade in an email. In September, the school board approved a request for Analy to begin using Packback, an AI writing assistant. “Packback was a teacher request, and something that fell into a category that was relatively easy to pursue grant funding for,” said Wade.
I talked to Analy AP English teacher Tricia Maxson about introducing her students to Packback. Can it help them become better writers? Maxson explained that Packback had two main uses: one is in doing research; the other is giving students feedback on their writing. When researching a topic, students can type questions or prompts that specify what they want to learn. Packback evaluates the student’s prompts and assigns a Curiosity Score that rates students on the originality of their ideas and how much they engage with one another. This kind of feedback could help students form better questions and use AI more effectively to get more relevant answers.
When writing, the AI writing assistant can give students suggestions on ways to improve their work. Packback provides help on the mechanics of writing such as spelling and grammar, but it can also point out weaknesses in areas such as the structure or flow of their essay. It offers a full rubric for evaluating and grading student writing.
Maxson said: “I have about 130 students in my classes and it can take several weeks for me to review and give students feedback on a paper they submitted.” She sees that an AI writing assistant can give students immediate feedback and encourage them to edit their own work.
“I was intrigued with the idea of the ‘curiosity score’ that Packback uses to evaluate the quality of user prompts,” said Wade. “Curiosity is one of our Portrait of a Graduate outcomes, and something that it can be challenging to think about teaching and assessing. I think we have an obligation to teach all of our students how to create sophisticated prompts that enhance and complement their own thinking. ”
Joe Myers teaches AP Language as well as a class on Film and Literature. I met with Myers and a handful of students to discuss their use of Packback. The students seemed somewhat unimpressed by Packback. One student complained that the AI in Packback wasn’t powerful enough; perhaps it is using an older version of ChatGPT he speculated. These students already familiar with AI on their own. It made them want Packback to do more — and perhaps more for them. They said that while it did correct spelling and grammar errors such as an app like Grammarly, some of the guidance Packback gave them was unclear. “I didn’t understand what to do with what it told me,” said one student. Another said the feedback wasn’t specific enough.
Myers said that he’s had to make changes to the kinds of assignments he now gives to students, realizing that students use search engines and AI to get easy answers. He wants them to be thinking about topics that don’t have clear answers and he wants to evaluate their comprehension of what they are reading. One of his units in his film class is about “worldbuilding,” which could involve a discussion of how a particular film or book establishes and develops its own world and how its characters navigate that world. “Packback doesn’t recognize worldbuilding,” said Myers, with a smile. He is having to outsmart the AI his students might use.
Myers has fundamental questions about AI. “Is AI going to shape how you think?” he asked. Just as a teacher shouldn’t tell a student what to think, Myers wants AI to avoid doing that as well. He wants students to develop their own critical thinking skills and their own ability to express themselves clearly. Myers also worries that AI could be biased.
After meeting with him, Myers shared some screenshots from Packback to give us a sense of what it looks like to teachers and students. (He edited out student names from these images.) “For the deep dive writing assignment, I've included a look at an assignment that includes my feedback and some of the feedback of the digital writing assistant.”
Writing Assignment
Examples of AI-generated feedback on student writing
Teacher feedback on student writing
While at Analy, I ran into Lily Smedshammer, a Spanish teacher. She explained how she uses ChatGPT to generate very specific kinds of dialogs for her class. Here is an example of a prompt that she has used:
In basic Spanish, write a simple 4-paragraph story in present indicative tense about a 15-year-old girl living in Mexico City. Include a short conversation where she is asked for directions and uses the imperative tense to respond.
Here is one of four paragraphs that were generated by ChatGPT:
En la bulliciosa Ciudad de México, vive una joven de 15 años llamada María. Ella es una estudiante de secundaria con cabello oscuro y ojos brillantes, y su vida diaria está llena de aventuras emocionantes. Cada mañana, se levanta temprano para ir a la escuela y camina por las animadas calles de la capital mexicana.
“I also have used it to have a conversation with students in Spanish,” said Smedshammer. “ChatGPT acts as a conversation partner with the right prompt. It took me some time to get the prompt right.”
‘Ask and answer questions in a conversation with me in basic Spanish. Don't translate to English.’”
When typed into ChatGPT, this prompt asks a question in Spanish and expects the student to provide a response; then ChatGPT follows up with another question.
It’s early days in AI and everyone is learning. “I was also interested in what Packback promises it can do for teachers in terms of learning how to generate actionable feedback in the teacher's style and about the things the teacher cares about,” said Wade. “I don't think we've used that here very much yet though.” He is not surprised that students and teachers have a learning curve. “I would agree that Packback adoption has been very slow overall—though, honestly I'm not yet completely sure if that's because of the failings of the platform.” Wade says that he is “eager to see how our teacher of newcomer English Learners is thinking about employing Packback.” If teachers and students — all teachers and students — don’t engage in AI, he said, “we will be at risk of being complicit in creating a new digital divide, so to speak... “
Myers mentioned that he and Maxson went to an AI conference and met with the developers of Packback who were very interested in knowing more about how it was being actually used. “The developers aren’t classroom teachers and they are creating these tools as a product; they were anxious to hear our feedback.”
If you want to see where things are going — fast — look at this video released just this week demonstrating the use of Gemini, a new AI tool from Google. Here, instead of just typing prompts, the user interacts with AI by showing it things (objects, drawings) on the desktop and also talking to it. It’s a pretty amazing AI-over-your-shoulder experience.
This AI twin (Gemini) that is watching over your shoulder could be a trusted creative partner or a supervisor tracking your every move. The outcomes may be determined, in part, by how we ourselves interact with AI and advocate for its best uses not just in schools but in society as a whole.
Updates
Last week’s poll asked the question which social media platform do you use to get the news. Ten percent of you said Facebook and the same percentage said Twitter/X but 76% of you answered “none of the above.”
Sonoma Pizza, featured in last week’s Roundup, has exceeded its minimum funding level by raising $74K so far. Its crowdfunding campaign has 26 days to go.
The Week of December 4th - 9th
Book Talk - Inflamed: Abandonment, Heroism and Outrage in Wine Country’s Deadliest Firestorm
Inflamed, by Anne Belden and Paul Gullixson, is the story of the abandonment of more than 100 senior citizens at a luxury senior living complex during the Tubbs Fire in 2017.
Diana Rich is Sebastopol's new mayor
Diana Rich is Sebastopol’s new mayor and Stephen Zollman, the new vice mayor, but their election was a bit of a wild ride, marked by competing nominations from Councilmember Jill McLewis and the appearance in public comment of what sounded like Neo-Nazis.
Three lesser-known Sebastopol holiday celebrations to brighten your December
Discover the Sebastopol Lights Parade (December 13), the Analy Holiday Light Show through January 1, and Sebastopol Hardware's Holiday Tent
“It is invaluable to have our community informed and engaged.” — Violet Rae, our newest subscriber.
Sebastopol Times has 624 paid subscribers out of a total of 2,560 subscribers. Will you help us reach 650 paid subscribers by the end of the month? Did you know you can also give a subscription as a gift?
Thank you for this essay about entry level use and users of this new technology. I gained a practical understanding.