An Exclusive AMA with Tina: Straico’s Active Community Member
Exploring the Role of Large Language Models in South American Classrooms
Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of sitting down with one of our most active community members and Straico Guardian, Tina, during our first-ever Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. Tina is an English language teacher and a personal development coach currently residing in South America. Our roughly 45-minute discussion delved into the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) within the educational landscape.
Our Straico Guardians Program provides the chance for highly engaged community members to standout from the crowd. Those who make significant technical contributions, foster interesting discussions or are welcoming to new users are invited into the role of Straico Guardians. Benefits of the Guardians Program include a stylish blue discord name to standout from other users, community recognition and a direct line of communication with Straico staff members.
The Strengths of Large Language Models in Education
Tina discovered Straico on AppSumo earlier this spring, and our platform swiftly became an essential component of her professional education toolkit. She highlighted that LLMs and AI have significantly reduced the administrative workload outside the classroom, allowing her to dedicate more time to personalizing resources for her individual students.
Streamlining Administrative Tasks: AI’s capabilities in text generation have proven invaluable for creating quizzes, tests, and adaptive learning materials tailored to her pupils’ needs.
Enhanced Analytical Tools: Tina emphasized AI’s ability to quickly analyze and categorize representations of concepts, simplifying the tracking of individual student progress.
Ethical Considerations and Academic Integrity
A critical point of discussion was the ethical concerns surrounding AI, particularly regarding academic integrity. Tina observed that students often utilize the same LLM models as their instructors. To foster critical thinking, she emphasizes the importance of:
Diversified AI Usage: Encouraging students to use multiple LLMs with specific purposes in mind enables them to evaluate outputs more effectively.
Bridging AI and Critical Thinking: Tina stressed that it is the teacher’s role to bridge the gap between AI and critical thinking, ensuring students take steps to evaluate information and use these technologies responsibly.
The immediate thought when it comes to academic integrity and technologies like Large Language Models might be something to do with plagiarism or academic dishonesty. Surprisingly during our discussion with Tina the topic of protecting against plagiarism via advanced A.I detection and academic never came up. Instead she focused on teaching students the ins and outs of A.I technology and how to use generative A.I to further the goals of learning in a responsible way that doesn’t disrupt the critical thinking needed to be successful.
Addressing Socioeconomic Disparities in Access to AI Technologies
Our conversation also touched upon the socioeconomic challenges of accessing AI-based technologies in South America. Unlike their North American counterparts, many of Tina’s students do not have guaranteed access to personal computers—or any computers—outside educational institutions. This reliance on limited resources makes utilizing LLMs locally an unattainable goal for most.
Potential Solutions: We explored hypothetical solutions to bridge this economic gap, including:
- Government Policy: Implementing supportive policies to enhance technological access.
- Private Sector Involvement: Encouraging private interests to invest in public educational institutions.
- Technological Advancements: Anticipating future local technological developments that could make AI more accessible.
Tina concluded that addressing this access gap requires a multifaceted approach involving various organizations and societal sectors. To get a more macro view on the level of disparity between those in Chile and the United States a number of economic and societal metrics were considered. According to the Cost of Living Calculator the cost of living in United States versus the Chille s approximately 75% higher when compared across similar metrics. While the cost of living in North America is higher the average income in each country paints the true economic picture – the average income in the United States is 80K USD versus just slightly over 18k USD for those in Chile. With numbers like that the income disparity is very apparent.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Education and AI Integration
The discussion naturally led to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. During the pandemic, students had to stay home and rely on video conferencing for their daily education, which highlighted the real-world implications of the existing economic disparities.
Human Element in AI Integration: As AI gains prominence across various fields, Tina noted that teachers play a crucial role in facilitating human-machine interactions. By incorporating real-world examples and using AI and LLMs responsibly, teachers can empower students to understand AI outputs and identify potential inaccuracies or “hallucinations.”
Promoting Responsible AI Use: Tina emphasized the importance of teaching students the necessary skills to critically assess AI-generated information, ensuring they do not become entirely reliant on these technologies.
Conclusion: Bridging the Gap Between AI and Education
Our AMA session with Tina provided valuable insights into the integration of AI and LLMs in education, particularly within the South American context. The conversation underscored the potential of AI to enhance educational experiences while highlighting the ethical and socioeconomic challenges that must be addressed. As AI continues to evolve, the collaborative efforts of educators, policymakers, and technology developers will be essential in ensuring equitable and effective use of these powerful tools in classrooms worldwide.
Thank you, Tina, for sharing your experiences and perspectives. Stay tuned for more insights from our Straico community! If you’d like to join our community make sure to get in on our Discord Server.
