Using AI to support writing in High Schools. A story.
I stumbled across the exploding world of AI in late 2022. Among the tools I first discovered was Playground AI. After playing with this tool to write some formal emails etc, I could see a potential use among some senior secondary students.
In one of our alternative education settings, students are required to write journals every week. They are given prompts to help inspire their posts.
Unfortunately, many don't write all these posts, often saying “I didn’t know what to write”. They also carry the burden of lower literacy, low academic confidence, and a lack of interest in writing in general.
I got to thinking… What if they could use Playground AI as a tool to inspire their writing? So I checked in with their advisor, who was all for any support that can build confidence in his students and appeared in their learning space to throw it out there.
Without saying a thing, I opened Playground and typed in one of their journal prompts for the week.
‘Why is Malala such an important person for your girls to know about? Write as a 16-year-old. Below is the response:
There was silence. Then one of the students said something I thought I would never hear… “But that’s cheating!”
Well below me down with a feather!!! They said what????
So, I countered this statement with the fact that this writing cannot be found on Google, and that it is written for the first time on Playground AI. As such the text would not be picked up by plagarism checking tools. So therefore it is not technically cheating…
Hmmm…. that made them think.
Their interest was piqued a little more.
Some students logged in and started playing.
There was much discussion about whether they can or can’t use this tool for their school work.
We spoke of using AI for ‘white magic’ and ‘black magic’. Of the need to train the AI to be ethically strong.
I decided to leave them with a challenge, promising to return in an hour to discuss.
This was my challenge to them. I asked them to discuss:
What would be the ‘protocols’ around using an AI tool like this to help you with wrting in XXX Academy?
As promised, I returned an hour later, to see what has be decided, almost thinking no discussion would have been held… I was wrong. The students were busting to tell me their collaboratively discussed and decided protocols. Some even put them in place straight away. so, here we go…
Using Playground / ChatGPT in our Advisory:
- Only use for 50% of your writing length
- Fact-check all information that you have not seen before
- write a disclaimer at the bottom of your post that says “This post has been inspired by AI Writing tools”
And you know what…. I think this a great list and is a true indication of how young adults can use ethical understandings to use AI to inspire their writing while helping them get over the speed bumps that sometimes stop them from showing their true capabilities and thoughts.
I’m all for it. Why wouldn’t you be?
Let’s use the AI world to help students become more confident, more analytical, and perhaps even a little more literate…
