Three Analogies for CTE to Understand AI
The conversations on Generative AI are everywhere. The discussion ranges from revolutionizing
education to dumbing down student learning as they cheat through school. With dozens of
new applications announced daily, even technology experts need help to keep up with
explaining innovation. Like most technology, there are exciting benefits and negative side
effects. But what does all this mean to CTE teachers? Current teachers have enough to do with
managing a group of students and maintaining an instruction lab or shop. Many of these AI
apps will disappear as we progress through this early explosion; however, a few will survive as
a lasting technological change. Teachers don’t need to know the intricacies of how Generative
AI works; it matters more about how these tools might be applied to improve and ease your
efforts. Three analogies that can guide you in understanding the benefits of Generative AI are
the Superhero, Apprentice, and Tutor.
Superhero
Remember the speed of superheroes, whether it was in comic books or movies. The
Superhero moves at lightning speed to round up every criminal gang member. The police could
have done the job of capturing all of the villains, but it would have taken time. Imagine you are
an auto technician, and there is a recall on a defective automobile part. You can spend
significant time checking each car to ensure the faulty part is present and must be replaced.
When looking for digital items, a search locates one at a time. Generative AI is the superhero
rounding up all digital items and presenting them to you. You could do that task, but the
Superhero does it with blazing speed.
The Apprentice
In your technical field, you are an expert; you apply your technical skills to create, design, or
repair. You work hard, but the work never ends. A new apprentice arrives to be your assistant.
This apprentice is enthusiastic and eager to learn. You give them a task, and they complete it in
record time. You are pleased but also a little skeptical. Was the task up to your standards of
quality? So, instead of passing the completed work on, you check the work. Consider
Generative AI an eager, naive apprentice. They might complete the work in record time, but it
still needs to be verified by the master craftsman. Generative AI is incredibly fast, but it can
have disastrous results if the work moves forward with being checked.
The Tutor
A tutor is a teacher who helps struggling students. A CTE teacher takes on the tutor role when
a student struggles to master a procedure or recall critical information. The tutor doesn’t simply
do the procedure or give essential information. The tutor offers clues or poses questions to aid
the student in being successful. This tutor role reinforces learning. Generative AI can operate
the same way. Generative AI can be used with students to strengthen their learning. Likewise,
Generative AI can tutor you on something you don’t know. One example is an AI app that can
reword or explain a passage of text you don’t understand. When struggling with an unknown
education initiative, looking up the definition might be of little help. But like a good tutor, you
can ask an AI app to explain how this education initiative relates to your teaching. Now you
understand. A Generative AI tutor helps students and teachers learn.
These three analogies are more straightforward ways to understand emerging AI technology
and how you might begin to apply it to improve student learning in your CTE instruction. 9-28-24 Richard Jones
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