Artificial Intelligence (AI) has arrived at the School Library of Secondary School Fernando Namora and all it’s 9º grade and secondary students! An engaging and relevant topic for everyone. A session adapted by teacher librarian Ana Rita Amorim, from the Portuguese School Libraries Network (RBE) initiative titled “Chat … what?”, focused on the use of digital media. It was also planned within the Schools Digital Development Action Plan2. A learning session that sparked a lot of curiosity among all the students!
The session was designed to have 3 main moments for building knowledge about AI Literacy.
Moment 1: Introduction and Brainstorming
The session begins with teacher librarian Ana Rita briefly introducing the topic of Artificial Intelligence and engaging the students in a brainstorming session. The teacher maps the ideas and keywords shared by the students on the board. Using this map, and as new words emerge, librarian Ana Rita leads a brief exploratory conversation with the students about their preconceptions of AI. By identifying these preconceptions, she guides the remaining time of the session to clarify and inform about the most critical points.
Moment 2: Videos and discussion
Video 1
The group watches the video “How Chatbots and Large Language Models Work.” After the video, students are invited to share the main ideas they retained. During this discussion, teacher Ana reinforces and clarifies concepts such as:
- Emotions and impact on human relationships
- Veracity of information
- Human/machine interaction
Video 2
The group watches the video “What Are AI Chatbots?” After the video, students again share the main ideas they retained. Librarian Ana Rita uses this discussion to reinforce and clarify concepts such as:
- Practical applications of large language models in society
- Statistics, probabilities
- Randomness
- Neural networks
- Data and algorithms
- Machine learning
- Human enhancement
- Ethical challenges
- Concepts of intelligence and creativity
Moment 3: Pair work and activity on padlet
In the final part, students form pairs to work on computers or their mobile phones. They explore questions related to the videos, reading and responding on a padlet created by teacher librarian Ana Rita:
- When you think about the future of AI, what emotions do you experience? Explain why.
- Does the video suggest that generating words using probabilities is really a form of intelligence? What do you think?
- Discussions about AI frequently lead to philosophical debates about the concept of intelligence. Why?
- Why is human enhancement necessary in AI development?
- What are the ethical challenges associated with chatbots? Ethics is related to the choice, the desire to live life while maintaining fair and acceptable relationships with others. It is based on the ideas of good and virtue, values pursued by every human being, whose attainment translates into a full and happy existence. The principle of ethical integrity includes honesty, truthfulness, transparency, respect, and dignity.
- Why does the video highlight the importance of everyone understanding how AI technology works?
- How do chatbots like ChatGPT work? Statistics, probabilities, randomness, neural networks
- What are the 3 crucial aspects mentioned in the complexity of developing a chatbot like ChatGPT? Information; tokens (groups of characters representing the fundamental unit of text); enhancement
- What are some practical applications of large language models, like ChatGPT, in society?
Link to padlet CHAT…WHAT? Know how to use Media (In Portuguese. Use automatic translator)
Link to padlet CHAT WHAT? Know how to use Media 12ºABC (In Portuguese. Use automatic translator)
Students discuss among themselves, recalling previous conversations before writing their answers to the questions. This allows teacher Ana to evaluate the students’ perceptions of AI and identify areas that need to be reinforced in future sessions.
If there is time, librarian Ana Rita suggests gathering the whole group again to read the answers together and have a final conversation about them.
Students answers to the questions in the padlets
Question: When you think about the future of AI, what emotions do you experience? Explain which ones and why.
“It’s a mix of emotions. On one hand, it scares me (I’ve been afraid of robots since I was little and I say they are going to take over the world haha), but on the other hand, I know that artificial intelligence is a great tool for some tasks.” 12th grade
“It all depends on how artificial intelligence is used. So, I think the fear of artificial intelligence is actually the fear of people who can handle it with the wrong intentions…”
Question: Does the video suggest that generating words using probabilities is really a form of intelligence? What do you think?
“I don’t think it’s ‘intelligence’ since it is a machine and not a human being with a brain; it is something that stores information and, based on what it has and ‘learned,’ can help people or not and sometimes be mistaken for a human.” 10th grade
Question: Discussions about AI frequently lead to philosophical debates about the concept of intelligence. Why?
“Discussions about AI are somewhat linked to philosophical debates about the concept of intelligence because AI challenges our traditional definitions and principles of intelligence, consciousness, and mind. AI forces us to rethink what it means to be human and the role of technology in our lives.” 10th grade
“Intelligence is a complex concept because it cannot just be understood as the accumulation of knowledge and facts. Other aspects, emotions, and feelings (which AI does not have) are also in some way reflected in intelligence.”
Question: Why is human enhancement necessary in AI development?
“Human enhancement is necessary in AI development to provide the most accurate possible answers.”
Question: What are the ethical challenges associated with chatbots?
“The sources from which AI retrieves the information it uses in its responses may not be the most reliable. These sources may contain ‘information’ that is actually ‘opinions.’ If AI retrieves a text from a source written by someone with sexist views (for example), the produced text may reflect, to some extent, a somewhat sexist discourse.”
Question: Why does the video highlight the importance of everyone understanding how AI technology works?
“To have an understanding of the complexity of the tool we are using and at the same time to know its limitations. Using AI as a tool is great; using it in isolation can lead to ‘making mistakes.’”
“If everyone understands the technology behind AI, they will be better able to know how to use it in the best way, also being aware of its limitations.”
