General AI platforms, although relatively fresh in the education scene, have managed to sweep there way through most if not all schools and post-secondary institutions. It tends to get a bad wrap as, unfortunately, in the schooling system it is often used as a way to cheat and avoid doing the work on your own and instead using this tool to create it for you. Although it appears as a device only to cheat and create whole items of work, it actually has many potential aids in the schooling system that can help in a way that does not result in cheating. General AI platforms are excellent at summarizing long and difficult peices of writing, and can create a summary in a specific way that different readers can understand and therefore understand these peices of work better. As Maria Radeva states in the article “The Benefits and Risks of ChatGPT for Education” Gen AI tools can also help students start an assignment by creating prep sheets, guidelines, and rubrics students can follow to build an essay or assignment off of (Radeva 2023) and help them organize there ideas in a way that makes completing said assignment simple. Ideally, I would like to teach middle school aged kids, so grade 6-8. In my case specifically, I think using gen AI tools could greatly increase the grade level in my classroom when used appropriately. Not only are middle schoolers already going to know and most likely understand how to use tools such as ChatGPT, but restricting that from them may lead to more inappropriate usage as they may feel the need to sneak it into different assignments. By allowing the access of general AI tools and proper techniques to use it affectively, it can create an excellent and inclusiev education environment.

“In summary, AI tools like ChatGPT could lessen teachers’ workload and foster interactive and adaptive learning environments.”

Maria Radeva 2023

My personal experience with general AI tools, more specifically in the education system, has been exteremly positve. I find these tools very helpful and they create a broader understanding of a variety of subjects and assignemnts, from a long scholarly journal entry to a calculus question.

I find it incedibly useful and it has genuinely helped my grade throighout highschool and now post secondary. Most commenly, I use it to summarize long readings as I struggle understanding lots of text on a page and find myself just getting overwhelmed.

I even use it to jump start professional emails and resumes as often times, I use the incorrect format. All in all, gneral AI has its perks and its disadvantages. it is up to the user to determine which outways the other. I feel as long as you undertsand the precautions of AI use (how much of the “facts” AI uses tend to actually be false more oftne than not for example) and are weiry that it may happen to you, AI is an excellent tool for your educational needs as well as professional needs. General AI is definitely not going anywhere so it is better to work with it than against.

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When faced with the question “do we need to reimagine education?” in the simpliest terms, the answer is yes. There is always room for improvement, especially in a growing and constantly changing world that should ultimately effect how we educate a new generation. Due to standardization and (honestly) fear, the education system has remained the same for over a century. In order for our world to not only advance to its full potential but each individual learner as well, a call for a newly reimagined education system across the globe is well overdue, and I feel it is approaching.

Changing pedagogy is a necessary step to reimagine the education and schooling system as a whole, but that process is not a simple step by any means. The brave educators who put themselves out there and attempt to change a century-old process and way of life face many obstacles inside and outside the school space. Just to start the process, the approval of not only the higher-ups but other teachers who see the benefits is something needed, and often many teachers and leaders may not initially see the benefits. Instead, they may only see the potential for failure and collapse of a once very stable pedagogy. If the initial change is successful and manages to be placed into a school system, there is now the obstacle of aiding the students and even parents into this new way. Not only will it initially be confusing for the students, but the majority of the parents may be worried for there child’s education and not believe in the new pedagogy at the start.

With more and more reasons to change our current education system adding up each year, my excitement and worries about the education future rise with it. There truly are so many positives: more skills that apply to our futures, a more positive mindset in school, higher growth rates in students and creating more positive and mindset-driven students. Alongside those positives, there are the fears of having to change the university requirements or even the classes, which can cause a chain of problems, the time that it would realistically take to effect the schools and countries that need this most, and maybe even a loss of students due to a fear or anxiety around the new pedagogy.