Activity to... Build Students' Background Knowledge on AI

Introduction

First off, I want to let everyone know that Socratic seminar is one of my favorite activities to get students to interact with their research. Even if you don't end up implementing AI, I highly encourage you to try using the Socratic seminar method in your class. It is a fairly taxing process to teach if students are brand new to it but, like all things, the extra time and effort is worth putting in in the beginning and it definitely pays off in the end.

Image credit to https://spencerauthor.com/socratic-seminars/

Normally, students would choose their own research topic, gather sources, and collaborate with a partner prior to the actual discussion taking place; however, since this seminar was the first activity of the semester, we mostly ended up discussing directions, the purpose of the seminar, and then practiced procedures and expectations. Starting out with a trial run is always a good idea, it takes a bit of the pressure off the students, and it allows you to model what an "ideal" seminar might look like.

A little bit about what my course looks like: it is a co-req style freshman comp/rhet course (meaning some students receive accommodations like extra time, recorded lectures, etc.). In total, 20 students participated, with 10 sitting inside the horseshoe and 10 sitting outside the horseshoe, all between 18-22 years of age (aside from one student, who is a bit closer to my age), with a fairly even number of female to male students. They signed waivers to grant me the honor of recording our session but (as we all know) technology was not my friend and Google Meet was not having any of it.

Nonetheless, we were in a computer lab to ensure everyone had access to a working device and students were using a Google Doc they shared with their partner. The expectation is for students inside the "circle" (whatever shape the desks/chairs could be made into) to argue their position, while the students outside the circle sit behind their partner and provide research to support whatever claims their partner makes.

Here is the general layout of what our class looked like:

Takeaways & Outcomes

Q: How did students respond to discussing AI?

A: As expected, students started out very hesitant to start the dialogue (many of them were unsure of how to research and how to make claims), but they began to warm up as we discussed steps, sentence stems, how to practice actively listening to each other, and what it looked like to support their partner with research.

As for the actual conversation about AI, students were provided with a Google Doc template that was organized into 6 discussion questions, 3 for AI use in the classroom and 3 against, (all 6 provided by Claude) to give them a general direction to point their research in and 10 minutes to discuss their position and reasons with their partner. As the students discussed, their partner was tasked with finding a credible source to back up their position.

Q: What learning benefits or challenges did you observe?

A: Students definitely learned a lot more about AI in the classroom (none of them had very much interaction with using AI prior to starting the course); however, I do feel like they were so overwhelmed with understanding all the ins and outs of the Socratic seminar that some of them may have been too mentally drained to give the topic as much energy as they might have had I used a less tedious activity. Overall, though, I have to say I'm really glad we went through it; it's important to me they are exposed to the different perspectives surrounding AI in education right now.

Next week I am planning on teaching them how to prompt so the foundation we built this week will be essential to their understanding of how and why we are using it so stay tuned for that.

-Kayla