Use AI Effectively

We are in a situation where the debate around AI has become polarised and where it’s been demonised by people in education and beyond. Well, it’s here, it’s not going anywhere, and indeed it will just carry on getting more advanced, so younger people need to work out how to use it properly.

What do I mean by properly? Well, to an education professional it means to use AI to help you and scaffold your learning but to do the hard work of thinking and writing yourself. Use it to brainstorm ideas on ChatGPT, use it to ask questions of the articles that may or may not be useful to you on ChatPDF. Learning how to craft effective prompts is central to using AI and it’s a skill that must be taught in schools from the early stages. I am still learning how to craft prompts myself, and will continue to learn as I get more experience with AI. Younger people should never stop learning about AI and, indeed, any other aspects of life and education that they are inspired by.

AI is not the enemy, well apart from environmentally, and we need to be as focused and logical as possible when looking at the power it possesses and we know it will continue to become intertwined with our lives in ways we can’t yet imagine. As young people step into that new reality they need to have the attitude of open minded experimentation in order to make the most of it. We have spent too long misunderstanding King Canute. He never tried to command the waves, he showed his courtiers that he couldn’t. AI is a tide we must work with not against.