Summer is a time for educators to do some learning, and there are plenty of conferences and workshops throughout the season. But one national event for teachers this month had a very unusual trait: It was started and organized by students.
The free online conference, called AI x Education, aimed at getting teachers at colleges and high schools up to speed on the latest AI tools like ChatGPT, and to encourage them to try to use them this fall. The students worked with no external funding, though Zoom donated use of its platform.
And educators showed up in force. More than 2,000 people attended at least part of the event, according to lead organizer Johnny Chang, an incoming grad student at Stanford University, with 90 percent of participants indicating they teach at colleges or schools.
It was the latest example of how AI is turning things upside down in education. After all, chatbots can suddenly spit out five-paragraph essays and other texts in seconds, once considered something that only humans could generate. And the fast-changing tech has now inspired students to spend part of their summer volunteering to make sure their instructors try AI for themselves and not simply throw up their hands in fear that students will use chatbots to cheat.
To the college students who led the two-day event, AI could improve education and make it more interesting — and could soon become key to many jobs they might take on after graduation. So they want their courses to help prepare them for this new world and to be part of developing ethical rules on how best to use AI.
“Once they know the limitations, they stop being so scared of these tools,” says Chang. “We’re encouraging educators in classrooms to try to implement it and use it in classrooms.”
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