WICOR® and AI: Inquiry

In today’s episode, we'll explore 10 ways that students can use artificial intelligence (AI) in the inquiry process. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#263 — WICOR and AI: Inquiry

11 min
AVID Open Access

Keywords

ai, students, questions, inquiry, ideas, upload, process, topic, number, research, content, prompt, answers, google, synthesizing, tools, resources, information, data, summary

Speakers

Paul (100%), Transition (0%)

Paul Beckermann  0:01  

Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I'm your host, Paul Beckermann. 

Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

The topic of today's episode is WICOR and AI: Inquiry. In today's world, we have access to more information than ever before in history. We can get millions of responses to a Google search in about a tenth of a second. We can ask an AI chatbot for solutions and almost instantly get a well-written answer to our question. We can even connect with experts across the globe instantly through video conferencing. In this world where information is so readily accessible, the skills of being curious and asking good questions have become more important than ever before. I love this quote from Earl Rubik, inventor of the Rubik's Cube. He says in a popular YouTube video produced by Google, "That's the problem with the old schooling, because they were teaching answers. I believe sometimes questions are probably more important today than the answers." 

There's some wisdom there. And at its core, inquiry is about asking questions that move a learner to action. And this skill is becoming increasingly central to success in our information-rich world. We need our students to be able to identify problems, formulate good questions, and then seek out answers that can help them both, answer those questions and solve the problems associated with the questions. When students engage in the inquiry process, they are uncovering understanding, thinking critically at the highest levels, problem solving, and engaging in thinking, learning and discussion that can inspire innovation. If you think about it, this is at the core of what we want for our students. In today's episode, I'll share 10 ways that students can use AI in the inquiry process. Older students might actively engaged in these activities using AI. If you have younger students who are too young to use AI themselves, you could model or facilitate these strategies as a full class. 

Transition Music  2:17  

Let's count it, let's count it. Let's count it down. 

Paul Beckermann  2:21  

Number one, gather background information. Students need a basis upon which to ask their questions, so they need background information. They could gain this through traditional research methods, or they could also use generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft Co-Pilot, Google Bard, or Anthropic's Claude to assist with the process. The main difference in using a chatbot over a search engine is that the chatbot will provide a summary of available content rather than a list of websites and resources to review. The advantage of this is that it's faster and the information is already synthesized. The disadvantage is that there may be inaccurate information provided by the chatbot. Of course, websites can be wrong too. So a combination of resources may be the best way to go. 

Number Two, Question generation. We want our students to be the primary drivers of generating questions during the inquiry process, but AI can be a nice brainstorm partner. For instance, once students have gathered background information and have gained a foundation of understanding about a situation, they should then be encouraged to generate their own questions. The question formulation technique, or QFT, is one approach that can work really well. But however you choose to proceed, it's important that students generate and voice their own questions. Once they've done that, then you can bring in an AI tool. You can have students paste their questions into a chatbot and then ask for additional questions that they hadn't included. Or you could have the AI brainstorm possible questions about the situation or topic first, and then have students compare the AI list to their own. This provides an opportunity to expand the student question base and broaden perspectives. 

Number three, prompt engineering. In many ways, using an AI chatbot is all about creating the right questions. Generating the best prompt or question to ask the AI is called prompt engineering. By gaining experience engineering prompts for an AI chatbot and coming up with new iterative versions of a prompt to get better results, students are practicing the art of asking questions, and they're getting new insights about their topic at the same time. It's a win-win. It can also be really beneficial to discuss this process with students, share discoveries, and intentionally call it out during the learning process. 

Number four, research. While questions or key, answers are eventually important, too, and coming up with answers often include some degree of research. If students could ask an AI chatbot for topics to research related to a question submitted by the students, they could also ask the AI to generate a list of possible sub-topics, which break a bigger problem into more manageable parts. Using AI for the actual research may be less effective, unless you're using a chatbot that cites its answers and allows students to check for accuracy. Another related tool that can be helpful during the research process is the Chrome extension Merlin. Merlin automatically gives a narrative summary alongside search results in search engines like Google. It can also be used to summarize individual websites or to ask a question about that website, which can speed up or enhance the research process. 

Number five, research planning. Before using AI to gather information and research, students can use AI to help develop a research plan. Students might ask a chatbot for the best ways to gather information to answer their questions. If they're conducting primary research, they could have the AI help them generate a set of interview questions or survey questions aligned to their research goals. 

Number six, summarizing content. Many chatbots allow students to upload PDF documents and then ask questions about the content in those documents. Other tools like Google's notebook LM, allow users to upload Google Docs or paste in large amounts of content. If you need your content in the form of the PDF, tools like the Google Chrome add-on, print-friendly PDF, allow users to convert webpage content quickly into PDF formats that can then be uploaded into one of the AI tools. Once the documents are uploaded, students can ask the AI to provide a summary of the main points included in the resource. This is a really efficient way to survey large amounts of data in a short amount of time. Once concepts are identified that require more exploration, students can dig deeper. They can even dig further into existing uploads by asking pointed questions about content within that resource. Again, it's an efficient way to survey large amounts of content for potential usefulness. 

Number seven, blind spots. We all have blind spots, and AI can be really helpful in assisting students and identifying the blind spots in their thinking or research. Students can upload either a summary of their ideas, a copy of their notes, or a rough draft of a paper into the AI chatbot, and directly ask it to identify blind spots. They might ask something like, "What key ideas am I not noticing?" or "What gaps exist in my current research and brainstorming?" The AI will likely return ideas that will prompt the student to further information gathering and refinement to their message. 

Number eight, analyzing data. Once students have gathered data in the inquiry process, they can use AI to help analyze that data. AI is exceptionally good at finding connections among data points within one or more resources. Students can enter the source content directly by pasting it into a chatbot. Or they can often upload a compatible file type. Tools like Anthropic's Claude allow users to upload large amounts of data, including up to five PDFs at once for analysis. Students can then ask the chat bots questions about the content they've uploaded. If the AI returns something that seems interesting or promising, the students can dig deeper or ask follow up questions. It's a great way for students to discover new connections, dig deeper, and inspire new ideas. 

Number nine, synthesizing ideas. While we want students to do much of the hard work discovering new connections and relationships among different resources, AI can be an invaluable aid in this process. Because it's able to instantly connect similar content across multiple sources, AI tools can speed up the process of synthesizing ideas, and making new connections. Students might also enter in a list of their discoveries or ideas and ask the AI for analysis of their findings, including an identification of connections between and among those ideas. 

And number 10, engage in dialogue or debate. Once students have formed a hypothesis or believe they have reached some conclusions to their inquiry, they can use generative AI as a sounding board or virtual debate partner. They can submit a summary of their findings or maybe a position paper to the AI and ask it to find flaws in their reasoning. They could also ask the AI to engage in a debate with them about the designated topic. This could lead to a back and forth discussion with the AI chatbot that strengthens or deepens student understanding of the topic.

I'm quite certain that these are not the only ways AI can be integrated into the inquiry process. In fact, I was so sure of this, that I pasted my 10 ideas into ChatGPT and asked it to point out what I might have missed. ChatGPT did not disappoint, and it gave me its standard list of 10 ideas. It seems like it always gives 10. While I didn't like some of its ideas, the friendly chatbot did offer several useful ideas, such as using AI to identify bias in my ideas, discovering how my findings might intersect with historical or current events, visualizing data, providing feedback on the format of my final report and, and even helping me with the time management and organization of my inquiry process. Those ideas could be helpful. Thanks, ChatGPT. 

To learn more about today's topic and explore other free resources, visit AvidOpenAccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out our collection of articles about AI. You can find it by going to AvidOpenAccess.org and searching for "AI in the K-12 Classroom." And of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for our full length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we are joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.