Time ain’t nothing but time
While ChatGPT (see previous post) has taken the world by storm, and truly set fire to education, there are other artificial intelligence (AI) platforms that can also impact education. While there are always going to be negatives associated to these latest developments, there are also significant positives if you look for them. Critical thinking is a very important skill to develop in our students and teaching them how to use AI to enhance rather than replace it is crucial. Before we rush to ban all of the AI platforms and websites that are emerging, educators should dive in and explore the possibilities. The two I am going to explore have benefits for both teachers and students.
It’s a verse with no rhyme
PLAG
The website plag.ai has a lot of potential for student or professional writing. While not totally free, it does allow for some free analysis of papers. Essentially, plag.ai allows users to upload papers and check for plagiarism, will fix plagiarized papers, claims to have the highest grade plagiarism, unlimited document size, proofreading service, and more. There are freemium uses and reasonably priced options. If this becomes an affordable educational tool, it can help students create and turn in papers that are free of plagiarism and with proper citations, which is a big step in the right direction. The image below shows what the report will show when a document is uploaded.
Man, it all comes down to you
There have been a lot of sites in existence that offer help with papers and detecting plagiarism, but sites like plag.ai will change the game. The AI can quickly help students go from a paper that plagiarized and ineptly cites sources or fails to cite sources, to one that will pass the lithmus test of any teacher. Instead of automatically blocking these sites, educators need to explore them, and discover ways that students and teachers alike can benefit from the power and speed these sites can offer.
DallᐧE
This next site is perhaps less impactful in general as Plag, but it still has fun and beneficial implications for education. The site is playfully called DallᐧE which may evoke thoughts of the artist Salvador Dalí. DALL·E 2 is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language. You type in what you want, and in seconds a variety of images are generated and automatically saved in your History tab. You can choose an image to download or regenerate another with the same description or a more detailed one.
Change ain’t nothing but change
Just the faces and the names
There are many applications for this if it develops into something educators and students can use. DALL·E 2 can make realistic edits to existing images from a natural language caption. It can add and remove elements while taking shadows, reflections, and textures into account. This ability to create unique and original art could be beneficial for students wanting to illustrate their own stories when they lack the skills to create their own or want to experiment with different art forms. Students won’t have to Google or search the internet for images that they then might use in projects. Unlike those images, the ones generated by AI don’t have the copyright issues attached. Teachers can use this for a variety of purposes also. The sky’s the limit here. Create pictures for writing prompts, discussion starters, personal uses, show and tell, mystery artist or art style, etc.
But you know we’re gonna make it through
Whether or not you use either of these AI sites, or similar ones, prepare yourself for the change they represent. We can either deny the change until it is impossible to do so any longer, or we can educate ourselves on what is out there and what can that do to elevate the learning for our students. A lot of money has been given to develop AI, which means the industry or field is about to explode in growth. We in education need a practical approach to how it all fits in with education rather than a head in the sand approach. It’s here. Now what do we do? Whatever we decide, individually or collectively, we aren’t in it alone. It’s time to tap into those PLCs and roll up our sleeves.
#RocknTheBoat 