CIDDL Community Chat: AI in Special Education and Personnel Preparation
Author: Yerin Seung; info@ciddl.org
Associated material: CIDDL Community Chat: Let's Talk AI and Special Education
On a recent episode of the CIDDL AI Community Office Hours on October 1st, 2024, the conversation involved the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Dr. James Basham from the University of Kansas led the discussion, sharing insights from his research and teacher preparation on prompt engineering. This session also featured practical demonstrations of AI tools such as NotebookLM and Brisk and valuable participant feedback.
Prompt Engineering for Personnel Preparation
Prompt engineering, as Dr. Basham explained, is a valuable skill for educators to develop. It empowers teachers to optimize AI tools for specific classroom needs, from curriculum design to individualized learning supports. Also, educators can model this process for their students, helping them become masters at leveraging AI to support their studies. This approach enhances teachers’ ability to use AI and fosters students' digital literacy and problem-solving skills.
He emphasized that prompt engineering involves structuring prompts (the input or command given to an AI) to ensure the AI delivers useful, high-quality outputs. In an educational context, teachers can guide AI to assist with tasks like lesson planning, providing instructional support, and even generating personalized learning materials for students.
Dr. Basham identified six key components of prompt engineering that help construct effective prompts:
- Task: Define the specific action you want AI to perform, such as generating lesson plans or analyzing student data.
- Context: Provide the necessary background, including the learners’ needs and the educational environment.
- Exemplars: Share examples or models to guide AI in producing relevant outputs.
- Persona: Specify how AI should respond, whether as a teacher or another character.
- Format: Set the desired structure for the output, such as tables, bullet points, or essays.
- Tone: Choose a formal or informal style, depending on the context and audience.
Dr. Basham also shared several considerations educators should consider when working with AI. First, not all six components are needed for every prompt. While knowing all six components is helpful, prompts only sometimes require every element in practice. Second, specificity is key—the more detailed and specific the prompt, the better the results. Dr. Basham compared prompt engineering to giving instructions to a personal assistant: Specific prompts that clearly outline expectations tend to generate the most accurate and useful AI responses. Lastly, avoid asking for direct answers. Instead of asking the AI to provide an answer simply, Dr. Basham recommended framing prompts in a way that encourages AI to offer multiple perspectives or examples. This strategy helps ensure that the AI output supports critical thinking and exploration, particularly valuable in an educational setting.
Useful AI Tools for Students and Teachers
We introduced two AI tools that can be utilized in educational settings. One of the standout tools discussed in the session was NotebookLM, a free tool by Google designed to enhance educational experiences by organizing and analyzing multiple sources of information. Dr. Basham demonstrated how NotebookLM creates a podcast-style dialogue between two AI agents based on uploaded documents, such as research articles or lesson materials. This feature allows educators to modify academic content into engaging formats, providing an innovative way to introduce complex topics in the classroom. Participants were especially interested in the potential of NotebookLM to support students with disabilities by personalizing the learning experience and making content more engaging and accessible.
Brisk offers templates for creating IEP goals, lesson plans, and presentations based on brief student descriptions. One of the advantages of Brisk is that it integrates directly into Google Drive, providing a seamless way to generate educational content. Samantha Goldman, one of the panelists, demonstrated how Brisk can efficiently build out IEP goals and other documentation. This tool allows teachers to create, edit, and personalize educational materials quickly. The participants were impressed by Brisk’s ability to generate documents and slides and translate languages. These functions show significant potential to help educators better manage their workload while providing high-quality, tailored student resources.
Join the Discussion
Have you used AI tools for personnel preparation? What are the most useful and effective approaches to support educators using AI in their classrooms? Share your thoughts in our community!