AI in Schools

While there is much debate about what schools are supposed to do specifically, everyone agrees it's about preparing students for the future. As computers get smarter, they make it less detectable if you use them to take shortcuts, like submitting a generated assignment.

If you used a car jack to lift weights in the gym, you might be able to move a weight up and down, but it’s missing the point, and no one will be impressed. Similarly, people who use AI to skip the hard part of learning will quickly find out who figured out a way to use it as a performance enhancer instead.

That being said, AI tools are very flexible and can take a lot of less-important work off your hands. Thinking about which skills are important for you to develop and which may become someone else’s job can free up your time to excel in places that count.

There’s a good chance your idea of your future job may not match reality. Think about whether you prefer to work outside or inside, independently or on a team, electronically or face-to-face.

Warm-Up

1. Make a List: Identify 3-5 jobs that fit your priorities. Consider the skills required first; you might notice unusual similarities between different jobs, like both an actor and a telemarketer need to convincingly deliver scripted lines.

2. Skills Inventory:

   • Consider the communication skills needed: reading, speaking, writing, and multimedia communication.
   • Use an LLM to generate a list of communication skills for each job, focusing on skills you connect with and those you avoid.
   • Narrow down to 7 critical skills, grouped into:
     • Things you’re good at
     • Things you can improve with practice
     • Things better left to others

3. Use AI: Identify ways AI can help develop those skills and ways it might be used to avoid them.

Personal Essay: Finding Your Voice with AI

This part of the assignment is where you bring your career goals and your communication skills together. To make sure the final essay actually sounds like you and not a generic robot, we are going to use a "Human-First" approach.

1. The Anchor Sentences

Before you open any AI tools, write down three specific "Anchor Sentences." These are the heart of your essay:

• The Victory: Describe one specific time you felt proud of how you communicated (e.g., "Last summer, I had to explain a complicated recipe to a new coworker at the bakery in Hamilton, and they got it perfect on the first try.")
• The Challenge: Be honest about one area where you struggle (e.g., "Sometimes I get so nervous during presentations that I talk too fast and lose my place.")
• The Goal: State your career dream clearly (e.g., "I want to work in renewable energy because I care about the future of our Great Lakes.")

2. The Prompting Strategy

Now, use an LLM to help you build an essay around these anchors. Try to generate 3 to 5 different versions by giving the AI a specific "Role" each time. For example:

• Prompt 1 (The Mentor): "Act as a wise, encouraging mentor. Write an essay using my three Anchor Sentences [Paste them here] that explains how I can use AI to overcome my challenges."
• Prompt 2 (The Career Coach): "Act as a professional career coach. Write an essay using my Anchor Sentences that focuses on how AI skills will help me get a job in [Your Career Choice]."
• Prompt 3 (The Peer): "Act as a fellow student who is tech-savvy. Write a casual, neighbourly essay about how I can use AI ethically in my schoolwork while staying true to my own voice."

3. Curating Your Final Draft

Read through all the versions. You will likely find that the AI wrote some parts that are "hollow" and some parts that are actually quite helpful.

• Select and Combine: Copy and paste the best paragraphs or sentences into a new document.
• The "Bold" Rule: Keep the parts you took from the AI in bold text. Anything you write yourself (your transitions, your stories, your edits) should be in regular text.
• Aim for Balance: Try to ensure that at least 50% of the final essay is your own original writing or significant editing. If it's all bold, the essay isn't really yours yet!

4. Reflection Screencast

Finally, record a short video of your screen while looking at your bolded draft. Show me:

• One "bolded" section you kept because the AI explained it better than you could.
• One "regular" section where you had to delete what the AI said because it didn't feel like the "real you."
• One prompt that didn't work and how you changed it to get a better result.

Remember: The "bold" text isn't a mistake: it's a map of your collaboration. I am much more interested in seeing how you directed the AI than in seeing a "perfect" essay that you didn't actually lead. You are the pilot!