3.1 AI and Curriculum Development — The AI-Enhanced Classroom: Redefining Teaching and Learning

Guiding Questions

How can AI be used in developing curricula?
What are the main benefits of using AI to help with curriculum development?
What are some of the key AI tools that can be used to aid in curriculum development?

Now that you understand the big picture of AI and education, let’s start getting in to how you can leverage these tools to your benefit. Now, we are not about to suggest that a chatbot can do all of your lesson planning for you…at least not yet. But, it can be a huge help.

In this lesson, we will go over how tools like chatbots can help with drafting unit outlines, lesson plans, worksheets, and quiz questions, as well as assist in creating activities, prompts, and other content.

Drafting Unit and Lesson Plans

We’ll start with unit plans. One of the reasons that AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for generating a draft outline of a unit is that it can respond to inquiries about specific grade levels and standards. Whether it’s Common Core, NGSS standards for science, or C3 standards for civics, you can ask for a unit outline that aligns with the standards used by your school or district. The same goes for its knowledge of specific subjects, books, languages, and more. When conducting these inquiries with AI, try to be as specific as possible with the questions that you are asking. The more detail you give in the question, the more useful the output will be.

For example, instead of prompting it to “create a unit about fractions”, try “Acting as a 4th-grade math teacher, create a 5 lesson unit on adding and subtracting fractions, aligned with California Common Core State Standards”. The added details about grade level, specific topic, and standards will be more likely to result in a usable plan.

Another helpful function of chatbots like ChatGPT is that all your chats save like text conversations, so you can return to a conversation and ask a follow up question without having to start a new query. So, let’s say you first asked it to create a 5-lesson unit, you can go back later and ask it to suggest activity ideas or a worksheet to go with lesson 3 or a multiple choice quiz on the whole unit.

Another use for this function is refining what you need. For example, if one or more of the ideas it suggested don’t fit with your needs, you can ask it to re-do the unit without them or to suggest replacements. Over time, engaging in the iterative process with AI will help you improve your skills using the technology and asking the right questions.

When prompting for lesson plan ideas, include details about the topic, length of the class period, grade level, and learning objectives. You can also get more specific with the lesson components you need. For example, if you want your lesson to include guiding questions, a door opener, lecture, a small group activity, and an exit ticket, you can include those details in your prompt. It can also be helpful to specify what materials you have available (i.e. whether students will have internet access).

Similarly, if you want your lesson to employ a particular teaching style, like project-based learning, or follow a particular learning approach, like backward design, you can prompt for those specifics as well.

In addition to generating ideas for your lesson plans, it can also help you quickly adapt them. For example, you can enlist a chatbot’s help with making an activity more accessible for English language learners, or suggest ideas for how to present content in different modalities for various learning styles. We will get into this further during the lesson on individualized learning.

Useful Tools and Tips

Canva has a few AI tools that you might find useful, like helping you create powerpoint presentations in seconds. In fact, all the slides you have seen in this course were made using Canva! 3 Canva AI tools you may find useful are:

Magic write: You’ll find this in Canva Docs and it works similarly to Chat GPT in that it generates text based on a prompt.
Docs to deck: This function allows you to create an outline in Canva Docs and then AI will generate a slide deck based on your outline.
Magic Design: After opening a blank presentation, you can prompt Canva to create an entire presentation with just a simple prompt. It’s unlikely this will result in a complete presentation, but it will provide you with a customized template to use based on the topic you requested.

Perplexity.ai and Bing chat are other tools you may find helpful if you’re looking to generate a resource list for yourself or your students. Like ChatGPT, these tools generate their responses in sentence form, but they also cite their sources. So, they are a great resource for quickly learning about a topic and having a list of sources you can refer to for more information. Think of it as a self-directed version of Wikipedia. But like Wikipedia, it’s important that you don’t rely on the output as your sole source of information and that you can verify the facts with other reliable sources.

Possibly one of the most helpful uses for AI in lesson planning is brainstorming ideas if you’re feeling stuck. For example, if you are writing a unit on Shakespeare and want to incorporate a new activity to help students better understand the texts, ask a chatbot to list some ideas for activities. It is similarly useful for generating writing prompts, discussion questions, and ideas for different types of assessments. One tip we have found useful when using it to brainstorm is to ask for more ideas than you ultimately need. So, if you need 5 problems for geometry worksheet, ask ChatGPT or another bot to create 10 and choose the best ones.

In addition to helping you create lessons and materials, AI can also help you test out your ideas before class. Have an idea for an essay prompt? Type it into ChatGPT and see if you get a decent draft. If not, you can revise the question and ask again until you are confident that you are asking the best possible question to produce the response you want. You can also ask for feedback on lesson plans, worksheets, assessments, or other materials. AI-driven tools can help quickly identify areas that could be improved or prompt you with an idea that you hadn’t considered before. In this way, AI can also help us grow as teachers in the long run.

To wrap up, here our own main tips for using AI tools for developing curricula:

Be as specific as possible with the questions that you are asking or ask broader questions if you’re just trying to brainstorm ideas.
Ask follow up questions or try asking the same question a few different ways if you’re not getting the response you’re looking for
Don’t count on AI to do it all for you. It’s great for brainstorming and drafts, but your discernment and critical eye are still needed

Key Takeaways

AI tools like chat bots can help draft unit and lesson plans.
AI can help brainstorm, test ideas, and suggest resources.
Remember to take a critical eye to AI outputs and edit to fit your needs