Publish at February 27 2024 Updated February 27 2024
During a course on the aesthetics of literary genres, one of my students asked me the following question: "How are you going to know that a piece of work has been produced by artificial intelligence?" My reply was: "I recognize your levels and could easily detect the difference". She retorted by saying "but you can also ask artificial intelligence to produce work with approximate quality". She wasn't wrong.
This discussion is indicative of the debate on the effect of AIs on educational habits. If, as a case study, it might be easy to approach AI better with university students, how could it be done with the very young? Should artificial intelligence be tackled at school? If so, how?
In this analysis of AI in elementary school, we combine theory (discourse on AI) and practice (activities to be carried out).
It's important for students to know that these tools exist. We can introduce the concept of artificial intelligence in a simple way, explaining that AIs are computer programs that can learn and make decisions. Use concrete examples to demonstrate how some AIs work.
For example, just as they search on search engines, we can show them how to ask specific questions on text generators like Poe, Copilot, Gemini and many others. After this exercise, they can discover and discuss their uses and limitations.
In elementary school, even in CM2 (the last year of elementary school), the consolidation of writing skills is not perfect for many pupils, especially in priority education zones (INSEE, 2011). With the advent of technology, the idea of a decline in young people's spelling levels linked to technology has gained ground, but studies have shown that there is no direct link, since in some cases technology facilitates learning. On the other hand, with text generators, it is highly likely that grammar, spelling and, in short, the ability to write sentences or texts will be strongly affected in young learners.
In primary school, reasoning is being consolidated through problem-solving, as is reading. It is important here to draw students' attention to the fact that we are first and foremost training autonomous citizens, and that technology is only an accessory tool for working. Although homework is disappearing in some school systems, it must be recognized that many teachers continue to provide students with assignments. The risk with these assignments, especially when they are written, is that their value is greatly diminished by the use of a text generator.
Very often, in the context of a presentation, a student returns with information copied without modification or comprehension, if on top of this he can generate a text that is not his own, it is highly likely that the development of writing skills and by ricochet cognitive abilities will be affected.
In an article on the effect of AI on human cognitive abilities, Rémy Demichelis states that
"its prolonged use also weakens our cognitive abilities over time. Indeed, if we automate our cognitive tasks such as problem-solving and decision-making, we reduce our innate or unaided ability to "translate information into knowledge and knowledge into know-how".
Thus, by employing it in elementary school, without a well-thought-out approach, we run the risk of training individuals whose mental capacities will not develop outside of a technological support.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a very powerful technology that can help us in many ways, but it can also present certain difficulties. One of these difficulties is bias. Bias occurs when AI arrives at conclusions that are not fair or accurate because of the information with which it has been trained.
For example, if an AI is trained with images of predominantly African or Caucasian or Asian people, it will have difficulty recognizing and processing people from other regions. This can be unfair and make some people feel excluded or discriminated against. It is therefore important for students to be aware of this, so that they understand that its use needs to be supervised. Through this step, we raise students' awareness; they will also understand that AI-generated content needs to be critically screened.
Through the eloquent debateapproach, AI can be addressed, perhaps in a second session. The idea is to let the students formulate the motions. By way of illustration, they could propose the following motions: "AI has more advantages than disadvantages"; "AI should be banned from schools". The advantage of debate lies in the fact that it enables an issue to be tackled on several levels: the origins of the themes highlighted, the strengths and weaknesses, and all this after a process of reflection in which the students play roles.
At home, students are free to rely on a variety of tools to solve their problems, but in the classroom, teachers can guide them in their choice of tools. In this context, and as part of a creative exercise, a sculpin can be created by the students. The aim is not necessarily to teach them how to use it, but to show them how it works. Students can create a small sculpin that answers simple questions. They can use user-friendly online platforms for this.
If the AI is used by the students, they should clearly state this in the rendering, just as they do with references to texts consulted or quoted. It's all about cultivating intellectual honesty.
It goes without saying that AI has revolutionized the educational environment, just as it has in every other field. In the field of health, for example, they have enabled advances, but in the field of instruction or education, they run the risk of undermining one of the main missions of education: to contribute to the development of human intelligence.
It's certainly true that delegating certain brain tasks to artificial intelligence frees up space for other activities, as Denis Cristol (2024) argues, but let's not lose sight of the fact that this brain must first be trained to solve difficulties, and the place where it's all forged is first and foremost elementary school; hence the need to properly manage AI teaching at this level.
Also, when approaching AI in elementary school, one of the objectives must be to build the intellectual honesty of young learners. They must be able to clearly assume the use of AI in their exercises or activities.
References
Daussin Jeanne-Marie et al, 2011, "L'évolution du nombre d'élèves en difficulté face à l'écrit depuis une dizaine d'années", https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1373895?sommaire=1373905
Demichelis, Rémy, 2018, "Saving our brains in the age of artificial intelligence",
https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/intelligence-artificielle/sauvons-nos-cerveaux-a-lere-de-lintelligence-artificielle-137385
Cristol Denis, 2024, Apprendre à l'ère de l'intelligence artificielle, Révolution, Défis et Opportunités, ESF.
https://www.decitre.fr/ebooks/apprendre-a-l-ere-de-l-intelligence-artificielle-9782710147220_9782710147220_1.html
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