Don’t be an ostrich: embracing AI in education

Faced with artificial intelligence (AI), some high-school college counsellors simply turn into ostriches – they bury their heads in the sand.

Many educators are choosing to ignore the growing impact of AI in education. But ignoring AI isn’t just ineffective – it is likely be detrimental to you and your students.

To give one example: ChatGPT has emerged as a powerful tool across all industries, and education is no exception. While ChatGPT and similar AI tools are still in their infancy, they possess incredible capabilities for ideation, summarising, outlining and producing first drafts of texts, as well as having many other possible uses.

However, there are ethical considerations around how we use these tools. We must be careful to use these tools responsibly and ethically, and we must ensure that our students receive similar instruction and guidance. Furthermore, this work must be done not only by college counsellors but by all educators. While these tools have amazing potential, we must also consider the example we set for our students.

Unfortunately, some educators – college counsellors included – have responded to AI tools like proverbial ostriches: avoiding, disparaging or dismissing them. This response is not unlike the one seen in education to other challenging topics, such as sex and relationships education. In both cases – AI and sex education – unless students are given proper guidance, they will be left to explore and learn on their own. This can often lead to misuse and misunderstanding.

Just as we understand the importance of guiding students through complex topics, such as sex and relationships, we must also recognise the need to guide them on how to use AI tools responsibly and ethically. Ignoring the topic only compounds the challenges and sends a confusing message to our students.

AI has been making strides in the education sector already. There are myriad tools available, beyond ChatGPT, and they are promising a greater educational experience for our students. Intelligent tutoring systems can help students with specific learning needs in discrete subjects. There are tools to aid teachers with grading. And, of course, there are tools that can be used for evaluating college applications.

For college counsellors who want to stay ahead of the curve, I would like to share some resources to help you learn more about AI. I hope that some will use these resources to explore the possibilities that AI tools possess:

• YouTuber Adrian Twarog has a wonderful series of videos to aid anyone looking to advance their understanding of ChatGPT and prompting, whether you are new to the technology or more experienced.

• Learnprompting.org offers prompting courses at four different levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced and applications), making it an essential tool on this list.

• Tech-Neill-ogy: I run a weekly newsletter, custom-tailored for high-school college counsellors interested in technology, covering AI tools, such as ChatGPT. There are other tips, tools and tricks offered each week. Consider signing up.

As educators, it is crucial that we engage with AI and understand its implications in the education sector. Instead of ignoring AI, embrace it. Understand its uses – and its limitations – in our own field, and prepare students for a future where AI will be ubiquitous.

Remember: burying our heads in the sand doesn’t make the thing we are scared of go away. It just leaves us unprepared.