AI, Oh My! Were We Ready?

0:01 Hello, this is Dr. Lashhanta. I hope everyone had an awesome, awesome summer. I just want to just say thank you. Thank you for the work that you do in education. Whether you are a classroom teacher, whether you are the cafeteria worker, the custodian, the classified, certified staff, wherever you fall, thank you for the work that you did on this last school year. Many of us are back to business. We have our teachers coming in, or our students are already here, and we've already kicked off another school year.

0:46 And so I wanted to just make sure I gave my kudos to educators. Being an educator myself, this is year I can't keep up now, but it's year 27 or 28, and I'm still enjoying the ride and what I'm doing. And so, again, thank you again for the work that you have done last year, and I look forward to another school year, and I hope you are too. Wanted to talk to you a little bit about AI. And so the title of this episode is AI, oh my, were we ready? And I can say I was not ready for AI at all. But guess what?

1:27 I have gotten there, I think I'm ready, and I'm gonna share a little bit about why uh this was such a um contemplation for me about whether or not I was gonna continue to be apprehensive about what AI is and how it's going to impact the classroom environment. So last year I did an episode March 18th, it's season five, episode one, and the title of that episode is The Good, the Bad, The Ugly, The Future. And this was a discussion about technology where I talked a little bit about AI, went into not much, but just talking about how technology has impacted our classrooms.

2:14 And so last year I was beginning to hear in my school district about AI and about their possibly, um, well, not possibly, but there being classes in which you could actually um have students taking classes and learning about AI, which is artificial intelligence. And so I was very, very apprehensive. I went to a professional conference uh that summer, last summer, and I sat in a session just so I could become more acclimated with the terminology and to see the direction where our State Department was going and offering courses.

2:54 And um, I have to admit, I I was just uh very, very apprehensive in looking at this concept of a machine and understanding how that machine could operate like a human, and it goes deeper than that, but in my mind, those were my first thoughts, and so I came away with a lot of information from the session, but I also had still has so many more questions, and so this past uh about a few weeks ago, I was able to attend another conference in which I sat in on a session where a gentleman by the name of Jeff McCoy, he's an associate superintendent in Greenville County Schools here in South Carolina, he gave an awesome presentation in looking at Chat GPT.

3:52 Say that three times fast. Chat GPT. And in that presentation, he also talked about AI, and so I just wanted to share a couple of uh couple of things from that. I want this episode to be more of a thought-provoking discussion. So there are some things I want you to go back after you've listened to this, go back, research some of the names that I'm gonna provide to you, and and just see what you can learn about this. Because if you are anything like I was, I was apprehensive, but I have um gotten more settled in understanding where we are and using um artificial intelligence in our classrooms because guess what?

4:42 It's already been there, it's been there, it's been there, and it's still there. So let's uh let's just um talk about what what is AI, what is artificial intelligence, and in the um hcltech.com online, it defines AI as the science of making machines that can think like humans, the science of making machines that can think like humans. That in itself, the definition can be a little scary. But as I said, we have been using AI for a while now in many things. So, as I was looking at this concept, I want to because I'm I like I love history, I like to go back to the origins of things.

5:36 Who are some of the people that are given credit for AI? One gentleman is John McCarthy, he's known as the father of AI, and he was a computer scientist, uh cognitive scientist. He's been given that term. Then there was another gentleman, Alan Turing, who he published a work called Computer Machinery and Intelligence, and it was his work that was used to create what was called the Turing test, and you can go and research that. But this test is where the term AI was coined. So, from his research, we got the term AI.

6:20 So there are some other men and women who are given credit with the progression of artificial intelligence, but those are two names that I wanted to provide to you. And and you can have an opportunity after this episode, go and research them. Learn as much as you can learn about John McCarthy and Alan Toring. And so, in that presentation, a couple of things that really um stood out to me that uh Jeff presented, he did a one, as I said, he did a wonderful job, but he talked about the three types of AI, and so where we are, we're more in that artificial, uh, narrow AI era where AI is trained to perform tasks, and so it's on the it's considered a weak AI, so that's where we are right now, but we are progressively getting into the general AI, which is also called strong AI, in which you have machines that can learn and perform those intellectual tasks like humans, and then there is super AI.

7:32 Super AI is where the machines can think, they can reason, they can make judgments, they have emotions. That is later on, that's probably more of your your grandchildren, great-grandchildren. But this super AI, I guess, is the piece that had me most conflicted. Um, but again, once you understand it and have a better knowledge, you can become a little bit more comfortable. But I like it, I like to stay in where we are right now in that that narrow, weak AI existence because we've been using it forever now.

8:15 We have been using it in so many things, and we didn't realize it. If you use Amazon Prime, if you use Netflix, if you use Google Maps, guess what? AI is embedded within those um concepts, within those um products. If you use Dreambox Learning in your classroom, you've been using AI. And even now, with if your schools um have Magic School bus, they have that product, um, software, or if they or if you use Canva, teachers are using this, organizations they're using this to make their flyers and resumes because they're all kind of templates.

9:00 Guess what? AI can help you with your template. You put in the information and tell it what you want it to look like, and boom, it is there it is. So we've been using AI for a while, for a while. One of the quotes that uh Jeff shared in his presentation. I love this quote because it not only reminds me of what we should embrace and learn and understand about AI, but it also goes back to what we should be doing as professionals in our roles as educators and making sure that we stay on top of all the latest trends that are going on because we have to be able to teach our students about things that are going to happen 20, 25, 50 years from now, and in order to do that, we've got to stay ahead of the game.

9:59 So, this quote is a beautiful quote. The quote is by Steve Steve Jeffs, and Steve Jeffs is just uh he is an all-around um guru on learning and leading. He's a considered a thought leader and an expert in organizational design, brand and product management, and social media, and the list goes on. And I I want to research about him a little bit more, Steve Jeffs. But the quote is this innovation is the unrelenting drive to break the status quo and develop a new where few have dared to go. In order for us to break the status quo, we've got to be willing to go where no one else is gone yet.

10:48 And that in itself can be very, very scary and very intimidating. But guess what? We want to make sure that we create the best environment for our students because if our students know what AI is and they know how to use it, and trust me, they do. Do we want them to be ahead of us? Who's the teacher, who's the student? And we know that the roles interchange in the classroom because our students will teach us things that we may not know, and hopefully, prayerfully, our job, our role, we are teaching those students what they don't know.

11:26 But you've got to keep in mind with the with cell phones out, you can the world is your oyster, it is opened up to learning so many things. So, we as educators, we have to put our best foot forward and do sometimes double duty to stay ahead of our children and making sure that we are able to provide them the best education and as well as making sure that we have the best classroom environment possible. And so I just wanted to just come on briefly and and talk a little bit about that and give you an opportunity, throw out some ideas to you so you can kind of think about this as we're in another school year, and our school year is going to look different because of laws that are being passed locally and also statewide and nationally.

12:16 And when we're looking at artificial intelligence and the role that it plays in the classroom, it is important that we understand it. We may not like it, but we still have to understand that it is here and it's here to stay, and we have got to be able to embrace it and be able to learn about it. And so I hope that you were able to get some information from this. And this is one of those episodes that I think I want to continue that discussion because there are some more things that I want to research and to bring back before you, but I also want you to have an opportunity to kind of think about some of the topics that I've um I've put out there for you.

12:58 Um, look up John McCarthy, look up Alan Toring, and um just see what that research was about. Chat GPT, if you're not already using it, learn it and you can do it, and it's free. You can go to chatgpt.com and you can actually play around with this. If you start an account, which that is free, also it will keep up um with some of the things that you've put in there. You can put in paragraphs and you want little blurbs written if you want to do a speech, it will keep up with that information, names that you put in there.

13:41 It is it's just it's a lot, it is a lot going on in chat GPT and how it can be used. If you've used it and you loved it, I would love to hear from you as educators. I would love to hear your um take on artificial intelligence. Drop me a line, send me an email, and I may even read your comment on the next episode. My email address is lashantasix at gmail.com. That's l-a s h a w n t e the number six at gmail.com. If you're an educator already using chat GPT, or you're using other products that have artificial intelligence embedded within it, drop me a line, tell me how it's going, tell me how your school year is going.

14:35 You might even win one of the incentives that I'm going to be giving out um during the course of this of this school year. Wanted to be able to give incentives to our educators and just to say thank you for what you're doing. So, thank you for listening to this episode. This is AIO My.Shante, and until next time, have a wonderful, wonderful school year.