For generations, students returning home from school were met with the question “what did you learn in school today?”
The answer, of course, has been “nothing” for just as long.
What was lost on all those generations is just how useful that question could be to our learning. We know that reconstructing what we have learned helps to “make it stick;” we know as well that explaining things we know to other people helps us learn it. Even of our explanations are incorrect, articulating our understanding can be a valuable learning activity. If more of us had answered the question “what did you learn today,” then we may have had more questions to ask when teachers asked, “do you have any questions?” and we might remember a little advanced algebra today. Who knew those nosy adults who were annoying children were such brilliant learning scientists?
It may be too late for those of us who are adults (some of us with grey hair) to benefit from someone asking what we have learned, but maybe not; and maybe we can help our students find aa better use of AI that the unsatisfactory (to me) having it do our homework.
Some AI tools have been developed specifically for the purpose of being a tutor. Even those that were not designed with this specific use in mind, I have used the generative AI tools trained on large language models to provide a chat companion to help me explore topics of interest and the potential for being the valuable agent to whom our students tell “what they learned today” is clear to me.
If you open you favorite generative AI large language model and add a prompt like “I learned about game theory today would you like me to tell you what I learned?” (of course you can substitute any subject you want), you will be met with and enthusiastic partner who prompts you to explain what you know and to correct your errors.
This seems a strategy we can teach our students. Even if the explanations they get from AI isn’t perfectly align with the teacher’s language, it is going to explain the material in a different way which we also know helps learners.
AI is here. It is going to be a game changer in education, especially if we find ways it can help our students become smarter rather than just helping our students complete assignments.