A Silent Podcast on Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the seventh InThinking Physics 'Silent Podcast', written back and forth in a shared document. We welcome your suggestions for future topics: put your questions (whether timely or timeless) in the Comments.

For today’s podcast, we are going explore some of the implications of AI to Physics teaching.  We are fortunate enough to be joined by real expert, Richard Allaway.  Richard’s subject is Geography and is the author of the internationally renowned site Geography All The Way.  But Richard is so much more that a teacher, geographer and resource creator.  He describes himself as a technology integrationist.  So, let’s get going…

Tim: 
Rich, thanks for agreeing to join us in the Silent Podcast.  Can I start by asking you what a technology integrationist is?

Richard: 
It’s the job I find myself in! My official job title at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations is ICT Campus Partner. It is my role to support the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning. For me, that is all about integration. The integration of technology into classroom activities, whether that be the more efficient use of Google Slides, the transition to digital examinations or the effective use of generative artificial intelligence.

Tim:
In your experience, do you think many students are currently using AI to complete Physics assignments? 

Richard: 
I believe that educators should assume that the majority of their students, when asked to complete tasks outside the direct supervision of a classroom space, are using AI in some way to assist them. The focus of our reflection and discussions should be on how those students are using the AI tools. Are they using it for a quick route to answers for a homework due the next day, or are they using AI as a ‘side-kick’ to help them work through a challenge they are having?

Tim:
If what you say it right, we have potential problem on our hands! Is there any way to spot whether an answer has been generated by AI and directly copied and pasted into a student’s answer?

Richard: 
The ‘potential problem’ lies with the teacher, who is naive about the use of AI. The teacher who hasn’t experimented with AI’s use by doing something as simple as putting the task they are asking students to complete through an app such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. There is also an issue with the teacher who thinks this is an insurmountable problem.

Assume your students are using AI. Presume that, although they are using AI, students could be utilising it more effectively, and that we, as educators, have a role in supporting their development of these critical approaches to learning skills.

Detection tools are seldom the answer. I doubt that those available could detect AI use in the workings out for a physics problem. There are tools available to help support discussions about possible AI use in text-based responses, such as those built into Turnitin and standalone services like GPTZero.

Testing knowledge, understanding, and skills in exam-like conditions is the most effective way to assess students’ abilities to answer exam questions under actual exam conditions.

Tim: So what can an individual teacher do to help support students use AI in an ethical and positive way?

Richard: 
Engaging with students about their use of AI needs to be a priority for educators. Discussing how AI use could impact the understanding the student gains from an exercise/assignment, and therefore the knock-on effects on exam performance, is essential. If you, as an educator, make the early assumption of AI use, it helps you think about the nature of the tasks you are asking students to complete.

How about teaching the students to use AI as a side-kick, showing them prompt structures and in-built tools like Google Gemini’s ‘Guided Learning’ and ChatGPT’s study mode to coach.

It is quite natural for students to seek ‘a line of least resistance,’ and AI tools provide an incredible temptation.

Tim: This is sounding like a whole school issue. In your experience, how are good schools engaging with the issues across the different departments?

Richard: 
Good schools are training and supporting their staff. They are engaging with the opportunities and challenges presented by AI, not banning and blocking. Good schools assume student use but not negative intent. They are talking to their students about academic integrity, the ethics of AI use, and how AI can be used to support and coach academic progress.

A good starting point for schools is to check out the work of Leon Furze, an author, consultant and PhD candidate, based in Australia, who writes (and speaks) online, helping educators understand the practical and ethical implications of AI.

Tim: Do you think AI is going to make us change how we teach? For example, should we be getting students to do more problem solving and/or written explanations in front of us in lessons and not without the aid of a computer?

Richard: 
Without a doubt, access to AI has already changed things and will continue to do so for some time to come. It has already changed teaching. It will (hopefully) change assessment practices too.

In our current situation, where students must perform in exam conditions, the only reliable way to assess their capabilities is to recreate those exam-like conditions. However, this doesn’t mean that AI has no role in teaching and assessments for our students.

Tim: If a teacher has little or no experience using AI, do you have any recommendations for any (free) platforms they should experiment on?

Richard: 
To be frank, teachers not engaging with AI are short-changing their students. Teachers should discuss with their students the AI tools they are using and then explore these tools themselves. If a teacher doesn’t know how an AI tool would respond to a DP exam question, a homework task or how well it could structure that presentation a student has just been asked to produce they should be taking steps to remedy their‘knowledge gap’.

There are plenty of online courses and webinars offered to support educators in developing their understanding.

https://www.commonsense.org/education/training/chatgpt-k12-foundations

https://grow.google/ai-for-educators/

Tim: Thank you so much for sharing these insights with us.