Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 185 called How to Teach Students about AI. Have you ever tried to teach your students about AI, what it is, and what role it can serve in education and their future lives? This is a tall task and in this episode, we’ll discuss how we go about this complex process. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

For years now we’ve been involved in trying to get our district to adopt a formal AI policy. Now that this is happening, we’re being asked to put together an education program for students.

• What is AI?
• What can it do? What can’t it do?
• How can it be used to benefit you while in school? In your future lives?
• How can it hurt you in school? In your future lives?

What is AI?

• Ask students what they think AI is? Share their thoughts in a digital space like Padlet. Facilitate some discussion.
• Show a video that explains what it REALLY is. There are tons of good ones, here are a couple we like
• For older students: https://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_suleyman_what_is_an_ai_anyway
• For younger students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttIOdAdQaUE

What can AI do?

• Choose an AI tool to demo (we use ChatGPT). Show three prompts:
• A bad prompt, something very vague that gives a general and bland response.
• A better prompt, something that includes lots of detail and specific requests. Show that this yields a much better response from the AI tool.
• A prompt that gets untrue results. Students need to know that AI tools can give incorrect information, sometimes that it just “makes up” due to lack of other information.
• ACTIVITY: Have students play with prompts: Ask them to try a bad, vague prompt on purpose. Then ask them to try it again but with more specificity, comparing the results. They share out what they...