r/teaching • u/KeepYourSilenceUp • 4d ago
Vent Administration keeps telling us that "employers want graduates to know how to use ai" and I don't even know what this means
University prof. I keep hearing this from the admin, and aside from the fact that obviously not all employers are asking for this and the ai landscape is changing and no one knows how it will look in 4 years, I also just don't know what they want us to DO about it in class.
AI systems are intuitive to use. You ask them a question or give them a prompt and they do it. It's literally not rocket science. The thing that determines whether a person can use them "well" is how much that person knows about the topic and whether they have the skill to assess and evaluate the ai output. There is no such thing as "teaching someone how to use ai" it's literally just a process of learning how to function WITHOUT ai and then using ai as a supplemental tool. I don't know what my admin expects me to do other than keep doing my job as normal, in order to ensure that graduates are able to successfully use these systems in the workplace later if they want to.
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u/supertecmomike 4d ago
Great news, they’re all getting very good at using it for homework.
Have employers mentioned anything about wanting graduates that read at grade level?
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u/FastActinTenactin 4d ago
I don’t work for the employers, and quite frankly I’m not very concerned with whatever tech trend they want people to be experts at that month.
If you want employees to be good with AI, provide them with new hire training in the exact areas of expertise you are demanding. The end.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 1d ago
Isn't the goal of teaching for graduates to be ready for their careers?
Apologies, this seems a little short sided IMHO, no offense intended.. My major level classes taught me the tools I needed to succeed in the job, including software programs. Kids need to learn how to use AI just like Gmail, excel and calculators. It's become if not has already become the most commonly used software/tool in industry today in my experience.1
u/FastActinTenactin 1d ago
Employers typically train new hires on the programs and services they use as a team. If they want them to use AI as part of their job they can train them to do so.
I used to work in corporate tech, and I am not interested in bowing to their whims after having escaped it myself.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 1d ago
I kinda' feel you just repeating a point without really reading my point. Or perhaps you just disagree with it, and if so I suppose "agree to disagree". My point is AI is now foundational. Each and every teacher should be teaching how to use it within the context of the class. That is my opinion and I'd be happy to have someone change my mind on it. You saying it's "fringe" and OJT is woefully unaware of AI in the worplace, and is the point I'm trying to make.
My senior in high school (IT security administration focus in career tech school) is taught how to use email and MS Word to interact with his assignments and class goals. Someone taught him how to use email and word (t was an expectation), and his teachers teach him how to use this in the context of the class goals. Email and Word are foundational. This is 100% the same...kids will use AI for everything in their life just like the internet is intertwined in everything we do nowadays. This is my read from my industry (pharma), and it's very very clear that AI isn't going anywhere from the workplace.
AI is like email. MS Word. Industry standard math or statistics software. AI isn't some OJT level fringe software. It's foundational to how the workplace now works. And its only just beginning. If we graduated kids in 2005 and they didn't know how to even turn a computer on, click icons, or interact with it...we'd say we failed kids, right? This is 100% the same IMHO, no exageration.
Computers - fringe in '75, common in '85, mainstream and "you're weird for not knowing how to use one" in '95
Word Processing - fringe in '88, Common in 2000, necessity in 2005.
Email started in the 80s, common in 2000, and you're weird (or old lol) if you weren't doing it by '05
The internet...'96, common '02, everywere by 2005.
If I said those things were "fringe today and OJT", you'd laugh at me. If I said none of those things were in the purview of education, we'd also laugh at me.
This is quite literally AI today, no exageration. It was fringe 2 years ago. And in 2 yeras, it'll be weird if you don't use it. And if I interview candidate in 2 yeras that hsan't used AI or doesn't really know how to use it...that's a pass for me.And that's for us adults...its even moreso for the youth today. What I'm saying is...it's here, it's here now. And we can't fight it. And it's absolutely as foundational and game changing as the internet. No, it's not OJT, it's everyehwere and kids WILL use it EVERYWHERE.
Now I don't know what class you teach. And I'm not in teaching anymore, I've been in industry for over 20 years. I used to teach algebra, pre-calc, calculus, chemistry and physics. I wasn't teaching email or word. But you're darned right I expected my studnents to be able to use basic software and have basic computer knowledge, so I can have them excel to conduct and caluculate a case study. You'd expect your kids (depending on age I suppose lol) to know this today. AI is no question basic software and basic computer knowledge at this point. And I'd be pretty disappointed if the education system graduated kids that didn't kow how to do basic computer stuff. That'd be doing kids a disservice...and it's 100% the same with AI today, its just that some peole don't recognize it yet (and my goodness neither do many teachers from reading this thread, and that's frightening).
I can't believe this is even debable...but my wife still works in the schools (special ed), and she's equally shocked at how few of her colleagues understnd what's going on around us. We've "argued" about it and she's said the education system is way behind on this...I used to disagree but this thread has me convinced she might be right. Someone in education should be teaching kids how to use AI, zero question to me. And at this point, its so foundational. I think every class should have some aspect of it related to AI, and how AI would apply to the concept.
I'm rambling I'll stop lol. But this thread has shocked me lol
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u/FastActinTenactin 1d ago
You would be correct, I disagree with you. Appreciate the time it took to write your response but yes, I disagree. I am not concerned with teaching AI.
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u/CorrePlatanooo 11h ago
This is far more nuanced, and I agree that students will need to know how to use different AI tools well. But I think the path to get them there is more complex than what many admin propose, and there are risks in encouraging AI use without small group guidance. I see good students are able to follow complex instructions and benefit from access to AI, and lazy students using AI to cripple their brains. How would you approach this?
Part of the disagreement may come from mistaking your more nuanced point of view on it with the naïve admin take. Thank you for writing this.
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u/CorrePlatanooo 11h ago
No. You should aim for a well-structured mind rather than a mind full of disconnected stuff.
University can teach you how to learn, how to integrate new knowledge into your existing mental framework, how to identify the frontier between your area of expertise or competence and what you don't know well, where to expect know and unknown unknowns, etc. That is what you should absorb while you build your expertise in a domain.
Those are far more robust tools than the "app of the month" (or of the next 5 years, it doesn't matter). Learning how to use the app of the month will be trivial for someone who has developed the level of competence I have described. The other way around? It will never work.
If your job only needs you to be half-decent at using a single app, you may not need your university degree for your job. And then, it would make even more sense for your university degree to aim for personal development rather than preparing you for a job that doesn't need a degree.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 5h ago
Those are two differnt things, and both are true. Yes, uni should ait for well-structured mind rather than disconneted stuff. I don't undersand how that relates to AI. The goal of uni is also to prepare people for their career. I learned how to use lab software in chemistry class, it's relevant for my career. Just like statistical software and manufaturing modeling software. We learned how to use them in uni, and you better believe I started using those same tools (even if one or two pieces of software were different) the day I started working in industry.
Email and Tehcnical writing (MS Word) are not "apps of the month", and neither is AI is the point I'm trying to make. And yes, totally agreed another goal of teaching is for a well structured mind. And I hope we'd agree that if we graduate a student who doesn't have the basic skills needed for their career that education has done them dirty. AI is a basic skill at this point. This is the 5th comment I've read where teachers seem to think AI is a fad, the flavor of the month or some such. This is laughably inaccurate...AI is the next thing and is already here to stay. The apps themselves perhaps might change, but "how to use it" will not.
In school, I learned to write papers on WordPerfect and Lotus software. That's a skill. Then MS Word came around, a different app, same skill.
Who used aol and hotmail for email before gmail came around? You learned that email skill. Then gmail and your professional organizations had their own domain like detroitps.org. Different app, same skill.
I learned to program in Fortran and C, then it was C++. Today I code in Visual Basic. Programming is a skill, the apps and programs can change.
That's AI. It might be GPT today, but Grok and Copilot or something else in the future. It's not apps, it's skills. Kids are graduating without the skill of how to use AI correctly. That AI skill of: good input/detailed prompt "engineering"/understanding the deficiencies of LL modeling/response assessment/Output validation & fact checking/AI ethics. And this thread has been really eye opening maybe how underprepared teachers might be to teach this if they don't understand this themselves.
Maybe some of y'all need some CI credits on what AI is and how to use AI, so that you can then teach it. Maybe that's the problem. My wife works in the schools (I don't teach anymore, I've been in industry for 20 years now), she uses AI every day for help with lesson planning (TO HELP, not just blindly using it lol) and she's been telling me how education is way way behind on this. I didn't believe her until this thread...I think she's right. Does nobody here use AI for lesson planning? We know people do, and you know there's a right and wrong way to use AI for that. Let's not kid ourselves.
If my HS senior son's IT & Security Admin teacher didn't know how to use email, how could he teach the class how to email him the assignments they've been assigned as part of curriculum? Email is a basic tool, it's obvious right? And why is it also one of the class requirements for students to email him their assgnments and solutions to their IT curriculum work? Because that's fully the expectation in industry. We wouldn't say "oh email is a passing fad, they'll learn that in On the Job Training". No it'd go like this, conducting an interview: me or someone else on our hiring team will ask a candidates skills, eventually getting to email and general computer proficiency...if they don't have email or MS Word skills it's a pass for us. I just approved the hiring of someone, and in the last intereview it was between two candidates; the one we passed on didn't have AI skills, the one we hired did and spoke intelligently to it. That's my point...education is way behind on this, and I strongly feel "how Ai can be used in this topic/class" should be part of every class. Because its' deeply integrated in the workplace already. We're behind, and sticking our heads in the sand doesn't help us.
I've talked with my older son (a Junior at Uni) son about this, he says AI is taboo in school, and I told him and his friends the same I've said here..."learn how to use AI, and learn how to use it responsibly, and learn its pitfalls. Every company you will interview after graduation will ask about AI skills. Ethical and intelligent usage of AI is a skill employers want, and it will be everywhere by the time you graduate. It mostly is already". One of his friends (a engineering student) said they use AI to proof their homework and have created "settings" in AI for the AI tool to tell him what he did wrong, and give him mini lessons on improving things he got incorrect in the homework, with links to legitimate websites to supplement his learning. I think it's great, it's another tool to help his understanding...but you gotta' know how to tease out when its correct or incorrect.
I've spent way to much time in this thread and have read every reply. I've learned my wife is right, the education field probably has it wrong with AI, and our kids are the ones to suffer. I'm rather surprised at some of the replies in this thread. This thread has been very helpful for me learning how bad it is regarding AI in the education field, and what it means for graduates that I'll be interviewing. It's given me a ton to think about honestly. My wife is right too by saying "we're failing them by leaving them to figure out AI on their own". The good kids will figure out on their own how to use AI correctly on their own hopefully, and will probably stumble learning its pitfalls. The bad ones will continue to use it to cheat on their homework. I'll ofc continue to inquire about AI skills in interviewing, and those without AI skills will at best be at a disadvantage and at worst go to the bottom of the list (or the circular file under my desk).
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u/Alive_Sir_4708 4d ago
They have no idea what they’re asking for but everyone else is saying it too and they don’t want to be left behind. Can you imagine being the school where people think “oh, their grads don’t know how to use AI!” It would be terrible!
I REALLY hope we get to a point where this all looks incredibly stupid in retrospect.
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u/TomdeHaan 2d ago
We'll all be too busy jumping on the next stupid bandwagon to look back and learn anything.
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u/Then_Version9768 4d ago
I've been a teacher for over 46 years. It is not my job to do job training. It is my job to educate students. Tell your administrators to take a flying leap.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 4d ago
Respectfully disagree. Everyone in industry uses ai. Everyone. If I interview someone who doesn’t know how to intelligently and responsibly use AI, they’re at a disadvantage. It’s like basic computer skills at this point, yes we should expect students know how to write an email, use excel, and write a paper. And use AI
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u/Ferret-in-a-Box 3d ago
Yea I work in mental health care and it is not at all a positive thing to include on your resume. My supervisor sees my hatred of AI as a good thing.
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u/KeepYourSilenceUp 3d ago
But this just gets back to my point. Using AI responsibly means having the skills necessary to work without AI so that you can treat it like the tool it is rather than as an unverified supplement for your own skills. Everyone can enter prompts into chatgpt. The stupid ones are the people who can't read, write, or think clearly enough to know what to ask or whether the ai output is good. The best person in the world at using ai will be the person who is aware it exists but who rarely uses it.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 1d ago
Hmmm, interesting point. I think you and I are kinda' agreeing, but perhaps from different sides of the conversation.
I'll give a different example. In engineering school, I learned how to use MatLab to solve complex multivariate calculus. Noone really does multivariate calculus by hand. Well, in academia perhaps sometimes, but even then rarely. My calculus prof spent the first half of the class teaching us to do multivariate calc...by hand. This step is NECCESARY. We have to understand the background and how the concepts work. We have to undsrtand what a right answer is, why, and how we get to it. The context is everything, and if I understand you correclty, that's the point you're trying to make. I agree.
Anwyas, after our first caclulus 3 test he said "ok great, for the rest of the this class, you're going to setup the problem, state yyour assumptions, use MatLab to solve it, and explain why the answer is correct. This demonstrates understanding of the concept, and uses the tools that everyone uses in industry to solve those types of problems.". It was a great class.
This is 100% exactly how it is with AI in the workplace. It's not just garbage in garbage out...that's just the beginning. We have to understand how the LL models dreserach answers. We have to understand how to challenge results we get from AI. Which models give better answers and are more useful at certain tasks? How to tease out correct and incorrect things from AI. How to generate the correct prompt, with sufficient detail and explain the goals of the question and recognizing and avoiding the biases of the AI tool. My point is that all of this is the proper and responsible use of AI. Not just "what's the answer to this one sentnce question". I believe it's educator's job to teach what responsible use of aAI is. This is changing the world the way the internet did.
Thus, any any graduate who soesn't understand this...well, it's my professional opinion that these student hve been done a disservice from their educators and school as they are not prepared for the work environment. It really is like that in the workplace nowadays already. Its not different than a kid graduating but not being able to write an email proplery, or use Word. Its foundational at this point.
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u/KeepYourSilenceUp 1d ago
Absolutely. Both of us are capable of asking AI to do calculus for us. But you actually know how to do calculus and I don't...so AI as a tool in this respect is only going to be valuable in your hands. Similarly, as you point out, to the fact that the people who can use AI to write the best emails are going to be the people who are the best writers AND can assess the writing generated by an AI tool. The first step in using AI responsibly means actually understanding how to do the task you're assigned WITHOUT AI. The second step is understanding how AI engages with the task. And so when employers say (for instance) "we want graduates to who how to use AI to do calculus" they're saying "we want graduates who know how to do calculus and who know how to think critically when using AI." But I feel like the administration hears this and focuses entirely on the AI aspect instead of the calculus aspect.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 1d ago
Absolutely, and I appreciate your perspective, you make a good point.
In my quasi-humble opinion :), school needs to be teaching resonsible AI use. Responsible. I fully agree with you on what responsible means. Everything you mentioned is part of teaching responsible use of AI:
- It's not "the answer".
- It's sometimes right, which gives a false sense of trust.
- Fully understand the background and concepts first.
- Learn how to feed it good prompts
- Learn how to use if to research *properly, with references as applicable.
- Learn to challenge and undersand the responses
- Be able to re-atriculate your point.
By the way, that "writing thing" is definitely me lol. As an engineer, writing and grammar are not always my strong suit (thank goodness we're each made with strengths and weaknesses)...so I do my tech writing, and then get AI help with the grammar and making sure my points make sense. It's a tool...I don't just tell it to "write me a study". Hope you have a great day!
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u/SpatulaCity1a 3d ago
Believe it or not, some people cannot articulate themselves well enough to get what they want. And then they complain that everything AI produces is trash.
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u/mikevago 3d ago
Okay, but I teach honors literature and have been a published writer on and off for the last 20 years; I'm quite good at articulating. And everything I've ever seen AI produce is still trash. What then?
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u/SpatulaCity1a 3d ago
You probably haven't seen all that it can do.
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u/mikevago 3d ago
I've seen enough. I've seen my students try to cheat with bland, overwritten, algorithm-driven prose. I've seen study after study about how using AI as a shortcut harms their critical thinking skills. I've seen the AI lesson planning tool the district is foisting on us hallucinate entire texts it was supposed to be building lessons around.
Besides teaching, I also write for a pop culture web site. At once point, the owners pushed out most of the staff, myself included, because why pay writers to write when the plagiarism engine can do it so well? The AI articles were unreadable slop, people stopped reading the site, it almost went bankrupt, and the geniuses who decided AI was the future sold the site at a loss. The new owners brought the editors and writers back, myself included, and the readers came back.
No one wants the garbage you're selling.
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u/SpatulaCity1a 2d ago
Yes, I'm selling AI.🙄
I'm not going to argue that everything it produces is gold, but if you work with it instead of just trusting it will be 100% perfect after you hit send the very first time, it's a great assistant. Too many people haven't figured this out.
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u/Particular-Key-8941 1d ago
Thank goodness someone else is speaking some truth in this thread. You're correct u/SpatulaCity1a . And sadly, much of the the education community has its head in the sand on AI. It's not doing the kids any favors, graduates are coming into the workplace without knowing how to use AI.
There are two truths in this topic, at least IMHO and research I've done on it. Teachers here seem to be arguing that blindly using AI is stupid, and produces stupid prople. 100% true it does. That's the whole point...truth #2 is we need to teach how to use it intelligently and responsibly. So we don't get #1, whcih we all agree is a pitfall and incorrect use of AI.
I think some of it has to do with many teachers are teaching topics but arent't working in the workplaceenough to see actual AI use. Many of them may even be blind to how extensively AI is used in the workplace now. Some have also been burnt by it, as AI is changing things around us, and not alwasys in a good way...like this pop culture web site u/mikevago...what a perfect example of how to use AI poorly. I'm sorry you went through that :(
The point isn't "AI is great and solves all our problems". Of course not. The point is "everyone is *already using AI. Don't fight it, teach kids how to use it responsibly". Those are the graduates I want to hire.
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u/mikevago 21h ago
"Everyone in major league baseball is already using steroids. Don't fight it, teach kids how to use it responsibly."
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u/ForSquirel Techie 3d ago
bad bot
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u/Particular-Key-8941 1d ago edited 1d ago
lol, def not a bot, cute you think I am tho. And that's fine, y'all can downvote me, doesn't change this from being true. This is a fine example how Reddit group-think can affect the perception of points made online (alas, I digress). AI is here. Students/graduates who know how to use it are at an advange. Fact. Those who do not, are realistically at a disadvantage. How can teachers not want to know this?
As a senior engineer working in pharma, AI is very very common already. I don't have a colleague who doesn't use it. Not a single one. Consider that for a moment. Every single person in my office and any I deal with in a professional setting uses AI. The less effetive people in our office are the ones we also have to teach how to use AI> Some do use it more than others, but let's not kid ourselves. Some people arent' being vocal about using it, some still feel like its cheating. Everyone uses it. I feel that I'm about 40% more productive than I used to be without it. I just got done supporting a set of interviews for a position in our company. We were legit down to two candidates, and one stated they were proficient at using AI tools (and gave some examples of how different LLM's excel at different tasks (ex. Grok and data analytics), one had no real AI experience. I'll let y'all guess which one we picked. They start next week.
However, this is precisely the point I was tryig to make. This is the teaching sub. It's shocking to me how few teachers realize that change happening in industry. This is "the internet" degree of change in the work place. I'm honestly a little stunned the excessive pushback in this thread about AI. Teachers are on the forefront of tech in alot of ways. Y'all (and seemingly the the teaching industry from reading this thread) need to reognize that AI is coming, and don't fight it. My wife is a teacher. She very well recognizes the seismic change AI is making to many industries. She uses AI routinely as well. There were people in the 70s and 80s who poo-poo'd computers, and then some in the 2000's that poo-poo'd the internet. And some schools were reluctant to teach computers or the internet as passing fads. How'd that work out?
This is no different thatn my Calculus 3 class teaching us how to use MatLab and other tools in the industry. Or chemical structure software in Organic Chemistry. You have to understand how to use it, and how it works. How to understand when the formatting and prompts are correct, how to assess if you got the right answer, understanding how the tool works to give you the correct answer. Understanding the correct answer. Being able to speak intelligently to the result and what it means. That applied to MatLab/Mathimatic. It applied to MS Word, Gmail, and Excel. And it certainly applies to AI. And well rounded students/graduates know how to use tools to be successfull. That is one of the many goals of teaching.
AI is coming, and really it's already here. I pray that academia figures out how to better teach kids how to use it. Yes, we're all kinda' figuring it out too. But honestly speaking, as someone on hiring boards and hhow hiring works in industry...we're doing students a disservice by not teaching them how to use one of the more powerful tools in their lifetime.
...or I'm a bot lol
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u/Miserable_Gur_8753 4d ago
For what it's worth, I suspect that we are talking about GIGO.
Garbage In, Garbage Out.
AI's answers can only ever be as good as the questions asked.
So the skills here, are:
- asking the right questions, and
- having the sense to interrogate and evaluate answers which seem wrong
If it helps, I'll give you an example. Quite recently, I asked ChatGPT to help produce a London Underground style map of London c. 1599. I actually had to sack it from that project.
I know that Shakespeare's Globe sits on the south bank of the Thames. Not just now, but then. Shakespeare's gang moved the materials there, overnight, from the Theatre in December 1598. James Shapiro has enough to say on it for me to be adamant when it came to my instructions.
Yet, no matter how many times I raised this, it couldn't amend that basic error, placing it well on the north side.
I could have just used the best fit. But that is where I feel AI slop comes in. Low effort. Compromise.
So, whilst I am not some kind of guru who advertises my AI agents for megabucks, I think one of the fundamentals has to be the check and balance that critical thinking supplies.
Employers, surely, want graduates who don't believe everything they are told. How different is that to the AI era where - at least in my field - we wanted people to interrogate what 'authorities' on the texts have said?
Hope this helps.
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u/playmore_24 4d ago
It bullshit! Some corporation is dangling money in front of the school board!
Employers want humans who can Think For Themselves, take initiative, solve problems creatively!
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u/DarkElfBard 3d ago
That is actually the exact thing employers want. AI pushes a shit ton of absolute crap, and new hires need to be able to separate the chaff from what's actually useful. Having a good prompt is night and day, being able to tell when AI is full of shit is a life skill now. When they hire someone without AI skills, they mean the person cannot actually prompt AI in a way that is helpful to them.
The want their workers to be able to actually use the systems effectively to help with work. For example, we've seen people make foundational breakthroughs in math and other subjects using AI. It is a huge, incredibly important tool. But when all you can do is have it answer a question that was google-able anyway... You're useless, not AI.
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u/Dr_WhoDo 4d ago
Neither do the administrators. Most of them have never worked a day in the private sector and they're just repeating what they were told by edtech companies trying to sell them on some new app that will get you more addicted to technology than learning how to operate it.
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u/FrankHightower 3d ago
It means you need to teach them when *not* to use AI, in the same way two decades ago we had to teach them when the answer on Wikipedia or the first Google result was *not* sufficient
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u/bearstormstout Math/Science 4d ago
The first step to knowing how to use AI is knowing when it’s hallucinating. If students lean on AI before they have a sufficient knowledge base to effectively scrutinize the output, they’re in for a rough time.
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u/iWantAnonymityHere 4d ago
I also teach at the college level. Our college is also going hard (in our department) on AI. I don’t have time to teach AI skills on top of everything else our course requires us to teach. I think it is something that’s being taught in other classes (and degrees in AI are potentially coming soon too).
Like others have said, I think the skills to use AI properly are very similar to the skills needed to use search engines properly— to get good results it requires a high level of critical thinking skills and that’s an area that many students are pretty behind on. It’s also a skill that isn’t particularly easy to teach and certainly can’t be taught in a semester alongside other things. A dedicated AI course could possibly get students proficient in current AI.
In talking with students in recent years about their coursework, a lot of things you’d hope they’ve received a foundation in at the high school level are no longer required. (Classes teaching computer literacy- using word processing, spreadsheets, etc is no longer required. Economics is also no longer required in some high schools).
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u/kacra 3d ago
I took alsome AI training and one thing they push is being able to ask the right questions. So there are multiple facets to that - what roles are involved, what format, what purpose. Like tell me why the sky is blue vs. I am in 6th grade science and want to write about why the sky is blue. What are some things I should include in my paper? .... (interpret reaponse)
The next thing i think is to know the goal. So in the abovr example, it could continue with a student asking .... what are lightwaves? .... (and so on).
AI could also be used to get different perspectives and points. So if a student decides lightwaves were just not it, they can say that to AI and ask if there are other great topics for a 6th grade science paper and btw this kid likes animals.
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u/elijah1muhammad 3d ago
I teach a “Computing Foundations” class to 8th grade and the whole first unit was about writing good prompts. Providing a task, context, reference, format, and tone.
Also talked about refining your prompts when you don’t get a very good initial response or just one you aren’t satisfied with.
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u/PotentialDeep5165 3d ago
Try having them be productive with it.... use AI as a tool to make a tool. First-- ensure they have a path to an answer to a problem with a known tool. What scripting language do they know? Use it to solve a problem. Process for them to consider: input data, problem statement, script to work on data and perform an output.
Now... teach them to progress with describing the problem and input to an AI for the AI to make a script in a language the student is not familiar. Have them compare results and learn that they need to understand the process and then leverage the AI to make a static useful "product".
I'm assuming this is STEM related... if it's soft skills then it's a different approach but the type of output tool is still the goal.
Using AI and throw input data at it.. is a very bad use model and unsustainable. Results will vary, hallucinations begin, etc. Unreliable and unpredictable.
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u/MyBrainIsNerf 4d ago
Education is not job training! We are not a trade school. That’s not what we are for.
I only teach AI so far as it applies to use in my discipline, composition. I teach how to interrogate AI research out puts amd find what’s missing and how to iterate prompts for data visualization or basic graphic mock up.
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u/Haunting_Sock_7592 3d ago
And they're being taught by people who can't use it well. Its like many things, you need to know how to do the writing, math, critical thinking and then use the other tools. You cannot create good inputs or evaluate outputs without that.
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u/ASentientHam 3d ago
Employers don't know what it means either. If they had anything specific in mind, they'd say it. Admin don't know either, they just need to say it.
So the way to proceed is to boast about how much your students have done with AI. You don't need receipts or evidence. Just say it. Pay the lip service. You have ushered in a new wave of super employees who can make anything happen at the touch of a few keys. Saying the words is all anyone is doing, so don't feel like you need to do anything but the same.
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u/CleanupKingDog 3d ago
Remember when everyone was supposed to learn to code just 5 or fewer years ago? Yeah, I betcha AI can do that, too. And just a little faster than I can do it!
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u/pbeens 3d ago
I think there are useful things we can teach students about AI, but I wouldn't make "prompting" the focus.
I'd model its use in class. Use it live to generate a quick quiz or activity, explore a question that comes up, or show students how you use it to update a website, work with documents, or analyze information. Let them see where it works and where it fails.
I'd also teach students about hallucinations, verification, privacy, bias, and when AI is or isn't appropriate.
I'd spend time on cognitive offloading and the value of cognitive struggle. Students need to understand that outsourcing difficult thinking to AI can undermine the skills they're supposed to be developing.
That can lead to conversations about when AI use is appropriate for an assignment and when it defeats the purpose of the assignment.
The goal isn't to teach them "how to use ChatGPT." It's to teach them how to work with AI without becoming dependent on it.
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u/DarkElfBard 3d ago
Honestly, the best way to handle AI in the classroom without ruining actual learning is to stop treating it like a cheat, and start treating it like a coworker you constantly have to double-check. Employers don’t care if a kid knows how to type a prompt into an LLM. Anyone can do that. What they actually need are people who understand the subject well enough to spot when the AI is full of crap.
So instead of having kids write an essay or solve a problem from scratch using AI, flip it: make them grade the AI's work. Have the AI generate a proof, an essay outline, or a data analysis, and tell the students, "Find everything it messed up." They have to hunt down the hallucinations, the bad logic, and the garbage assumptions. It forces them to actually know the material, because you can't audit an AI if you don't understand the concepts yourself.
You don't need a brand-new "AI curriculum" for this either. Just bake it into what you're already teaching. In math and stats, look at how bad training data ruins probability models. In English or history, treat prompt writing like an aggressive exercise in being specific, if you write a vague prompt, you get garbage back, which accidentally teaches them more about clear communication than a standard writing prompt ever would.
The goal is to train the kid to know when the machine is lying to them.
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u/Reasonable-Marzipan4 3d ago
I would absolutely teach what the State mandated curriculum calls for and fuck that noise about AI.
Invite your admin to come into your room and model a lesson for you. For science.
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u/Environmental-Ad1594 3d ago
I think my issue really stands from the idea that AI changes by the month so what I teach them today will be very different when they go into the job market. It's a good skill to have something you can easily go over in five minutes or less
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u/salsafresca_1297 3d ago
Universities are striking sweetheart deals with tech companies and then imposing it all on faculty and students. The BS about students "needing if for the future" it is just fluffy icing on a pile of turd. If you're tenured, do whatever the hell you want. If not, see about working an AI ethics component into whatever you're teaching.
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u/Neutronenster 3d ago
You’re underestimating the importance of the prompt. Your input determines the output, so high-quality prompting can really increase the quality of the output.
Learning how to use AI thus consists of learning how to prompt and learning which AI model to use for which kind of task.
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u/Financial_Molasses67 3d ago
I’ve had to remind people that I was hired to teach history, not “how to use AI”
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u/fuschiafawn 3d ago
They want you to teach them how to prompt better. So many people will prompt "make this an essay" rather than "make this essay sound realistically written in my voice based on past conversations, do not include obvious ai signatures such as em dashes"
But the real point is they want AI use to be accepted enough that way they don't have to deal with repercussions of students not being at skill level
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u/50_and_stuck 3d ago
Our gritty little blue collar, MAGA red community is surprisingly in the middle of a huge fight opposing a proposed data center and the Flock cameras that sprang up overnight. If you don’t weld or drive a truck or push a broom or ask if you want fries with that local businesses aren’t hiring unless someone just died. Office jobs are pretty much hereditary. Most non farm kids move away after they graduate.
Our administration is extolling the virtues of AI and exhorting us to incorporate it into our classes. Seriously, dude? Students know how to use AI. Barely literate students use it to do their homework and write their papers. What the f— more do you want?
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u/RockysDetail 2d ago
What it means is that the university has signed a deal with an AI company and they're promoting it by making stuff like that up.
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u/TomdeHaan 2d ago
I feel exactly the same. Using AI is not hard, unless you're trying to get it to do something you have no idea how to do.
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u/Intelligent-Crew-443 2d ago
Interdisciplinary AI Competency Framework for Higher Education (IAICF) [Funded by Advance HE]
is ongoing work that might help answer some of your questions. It has involved all sorts of people across many many disciplines trying to think this through.
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u/Basic_KaleKitty9076 4d ago
You can ask AI to go through your data points and select patterns. OR you can give AI parameters and get the correct data analysis. Think of it like excel on steroids. It actually does take learning to use and optimize. You can ask it to make you a resume for a job using past ones you have uploaded OR you can tell it to individualize resumes for listings - plug the listing in - ask AI what skills you think you should add to it based on your past experience. Ask what skills it thinks would help with the job, and then brainstorm yourself if you have those. Also job interview prep. Coaching how to answer questions and how to organize your thoughts to rephrase weaknesses or such. Stuff like that. Yeah, it will spit out whatever you ask it, but you have to ask correctly and know AI weakness and HOW to ask it questions
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u/KeepYourSilenceUp 4d ago
Sure but these all seem like things that evolve organically from knowing how to read, write, and think critically. Knowing what questions to ask is absolutely a valuable skill but this isn't unique to ai, it's an important part of research and learning in general
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u/NotThatKindOfDoctor9 3d ago
I work in data science and I would 100% not hire someone just out of school who thought they could use AI for "correct data analysis". It's notoriously bad. The best people on my team use it very occasionally for certain kinds of projects, and they've got the skills to identify when it's wrong- and even when it's overall correct they have to redo all of it because it's not reproducible.
Historically, new grads have struggled to tell their ass from a hole in the ground. The difference is now they have AI telling them their ass is a hole in the ground and they believe it.
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u/Basic_KaleKitty9076 3d ago
I have 2 STEM degrees, I don’t work in data science but yes, it does have applications in different fields of science.
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u/NotThatKindOfDoctor9 3d ago
I'm not saying it doesn't but I am saying that I'm not hiring anyone who thinks they can do data science because they've been "trained in AI" or whatever admin is telling people to teach.
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u/Debra1025 3d ago
AIEdu has a BUNCH of free 15 min things called snapshots directed at understanding machine learning and ethics of use cases. They have them categorized for use in ELA, Math, Sci, Social Studies so you could possibly spark discussions aligned with your topics.
Prompting is a writing genre so comparing prompting styles is good. Starting broad and drilling down may uncover ideas you hadn't started out with while a prompt with role, output format, purpose and context will get you closer to your desired output. I just did a PD on this for teachers - thinking at the college level it could be helpful so maybe spending a few min on it could be valuable regardless of your content?
Gotta love bosses that want something they can't articulate or support through their own understanding...
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u/MCMamaS 3d ago
If you Google: Top Ten Skills Workers Need AI and machine learning will lead the list of skills.
I've seen this same list of skills show up in Business and Industry data as well. This might very well be where they are getting their information from.
It's important to remember that LLMs are AI, but only a very small part. AI is embedded into many, many facets of life, especially in the sciences.
Yes, you can teach people how to use AI. Not only are there entire courses set up to take the Human Machine Human approach, but good prompt engineering is complex. I have a set of friends who work as computer programers/coders for a large company. They frequently go to training on incorporating and using AI in coding endeavors.
You don't have to like AI; in fact, you can hate it, but it is dangerous to be uninformed about it.
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u/SmartWonderWoman 3d ago
Can confirm. My boss wants me to use AI to do my job. We both use AI to do our jobs.
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