TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – Tuscaloosa City Schools are integrating AI into the classroom and working to educate parents and students before expanding AI academic tools.
TCS held an AI literacy event Thursday night to show parents and students to show how Tuscaloosa Career Technical Academy is using AI for coding.
“It will help demystify some of the concerns around AI,” TCS Instructional Technology Specialist Cherelle Young said.
University of Alabama Professor Dr. Katherine Chiou believes a lot of fears surrounding AI stem from people’s lack of understanding and use of the tool.
“AI is not actual intelligence,” Chiou said. “It’s trained on large massive date sets and predicts what the output should be.”
AI is evolving fast, and the world is trying to learn what it means to evolve with it.
New iPhones allow users to ask questions about the spaces and items around them. Glasses can help translate things in real-time, photos and videos can be generated and manipulated at the touch of a button or the sound of your voice.
“We don’t want it to replace human thought, we don’t want it to replace human decision making,” Chiou said.
That’s one reason TCS is making sure teachers are becoming well trained in AI – how to use it, which tool to use, and what setting to use it in.
“We want to keep creativity in the loop, we don’t want to minimize critical thinking,” Young said. “Right now, teachers are using it to be a thought partner.”
CBS 42 News visited a TCTA computer class on Thursday. The teacher and students explained, they learn the basics and fundamentals of coding.
For example, a student wanted to code the game “rock, paper, scissors”.
In that game, each player has three options: rock, paper, or scissors and you can only choose one during each round. Each option beats another, unless each player chooses the same option – then it’s a tie.
The student wanted to take that physical game played in real life, correlate to computer play. While this student already knew some of the codes necessary, AI allowed him to fill in some of the holes, while also double-checking AI work given he has knows the basics.
“A lot of people use the calculator analogy,” Chiou said. “you have to learn how to first multiply, and various of other basic number problems, before you leverage the technology of the calculator.”
Similarly calculators were not allowed to be used on every test, or for every equation, but at a certain academic level – you need a calculator. Through the lens of using AI, it can help brainstorm, organize thoughts, find data, and other things needed to work smarter, not harder.
TCS also recognizes with the constant evolution of AI, and the emphasis academia is putting on STEM, it will be valuable for students to understand how to work with AI – not let AI do the work for you.
“I think it’s important to note, the more we learn the more cautions and intentional we are as we roll out this AI plan,” Young said.
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