Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document. In the ever-evolving landscape of education, one area that has remained stable is the importance of providing high-quality feedback to students. However, we've long grappled with the challenge of offering timely, personalized, and meaningful feedback to all students, particularly in environments where resources are already stretched thin. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) promises to help us meet this challenge. But how do know whether pre-service teachers—our future educators—will be receptive to creating feedback mediated by AI? This question was at the heart of an informal study I conducted with secondary education majors, exploring their attitudes toward AI-assisted feedback and its potential role in education, using a simple in-class survey.
The Power of Feedback Before diving into AI's role, let's recognize the foundational importance of feedback in education. Effective feedback is the lifeblood of student growth. Whether it’s formative, summative, or diagnostic, feedback has the power to guide learners toward deeper understanding and mastery. Feedback helps to model and support, to strengthen and grow. Feedback builds knowledge and skill, but also metacognitive abilities, fostering lifelong learning. The realities of classroom dynamics, however, often limit the ability of educators to provide this feedback as comprehensively as we might like. We know that feedback needs to be specific, timely, and relevant. But providing that level of individualized attention to each student, especially in large classes, can be a logistical and practical nightmare. To echo the call of teachers everywhere, "We can't do it all." This is where AI might enter the conversation. AI-Assisted Feedback: A New Frontier In my study, conducted with 107 secondary education majors over two semesters, I explored how AI-assisted feedback could alleviate some of the challenges of traditional feedback methods. I used generative AI (i.e., ChatGPT) to provide feedback on various and specific assignments, focusing on courses in data and assessment and classroom management. The AI provided feedback on a variety of tasks, including discussion boards, assignments, and reflections. One of the key takeaways was the positive reception from students concerning their general satisfaction with the feedback as measured on a 6-point Likert scale. The majority of participants were highly satisfied with both the quality (5.69/6) and quantity (5.59/6) of the feedback they received. More importantly, students felt that this feedback improved their learning (5.20/6) and promoted professional growth (5.25/6). These findings underscore the potential of AI to enhance student learning experiences when used thoughtfully. Transparency and Trust Transparency was a key theme in my approach. Students were made aware throughout the course that some of the feedback they received would be AI-generated. It was essential to protect their data and privacy, so I ensured that no personal or identifying information was fed into the AI system. Additionally, human oversight remained integral throughout the process, providing a "human in the loop" model for feedback. While AI provided the initial feedback, I reviewed and supplemented it to ensure its accuracy and relevance to each student’s work. Despite this transparency, one of the more surprising findings was that only 57.5% of students remembered that some feedback was generated using AI-assistance. This highlights the importance of clearly communicating when and how AI is being used, especially as we continue to integrate these tools into our teaching practices. Student Reactions: Curiosity, Impressed, and… Cheated? Interestingly, student reactions to AI-assisted feedback were varied. While a significant portion of students reported feeling curious (46.23%) or impressed (42.45%) by the feedback, a smaller percentage (13.21%) felt cheated. Upon further investigation, we discovered that these feelings of being "cheated" were often linked to misconceptions about the AI’s role. Students who felt cheated believed they had correctly identified when AI was being used, but in reality, they were less accurate at detecting AI-generated feedback than pure guesswork would suggest. These findings point to the need for greater clarity in how we present AI-assisted feedback. Students need to understand that AI is not a replacement for human evaluation but rather a tool that can enhance the feedback process. As educators, it’s our responsibility to model how these tools can be used ethically and effectively. The Future of AI in Education The integration of AI into education is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s happening now, and the early results are, in many ways, promising. As we continue to explore the balance between the human touch and the digital edge when providing learners with feedback, we must remain focused on the ultimate goal: providing meaningful, personalized feedback that supports student growth. By leveraging AI, we can make strides toward achieving this goal, but we must do so thoughtfully, with transparency and care. After all, no matter how advanced our tools become, the heart of education will always be the relationships we build with our students. Relationships that, above all, no AI can replace. The results of this informal study showed a general interest among pre-service teachers in using AI to provide feedback to their own future students (4.01/6). However, there are still some reservations, and it's crucial that we continue to seek feedback from current and future educators, as well as students at various levels, on how these tools, and their use, can be improved. In the meantime, we must continue to refine our use of AI in teacher education, always with a focus on ethically enhancing learning outcomes for our students and professional development for our educators.
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Thank You I am honored and deeply humbled to be recognized as this year’s recipient of the “Scholarly Advancement of Teacher Education and Educational Technology” award from the Teacher Education Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). This award is a reflection not just of my work, but of the collaborative efforts and support I have received from so many remarkable people. In the six years since publishing my first peer-reviewed article, my journey has been shaped by collaborations with researchers from 19-20 different universities and partnerships with over 70 P-12 teachers, whose transformative practices have inspired my work. I’ve had the privilege of helping 20 of these teachers become authors, sharing firsthand accounts of their innovative teaching methods with others, broadening our collective understanding of educational technology in P-12 classrooms. My scholarly contributions have been cited over 750 times in the last five years, and I recognize that this pale's in comparison to the citation metrics obtained by previous winners of this award. However, I am glad that my impact is being measured beyond my research to also include my service. Among the key highlights of my career thus far are serving as Co-Chair of the K-12 Online Learning Special Interest Group for the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) during the pandemic. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to have been a founding contributor and planner of the SITE Interactive conference. I have also gratefully been elected Vice President of Communications for the Teacher Education Division (TED) of AECT. This position also allowed me the opportunity to be a proud part of the team that facilitated AECT's transition to High Logic, increasing AECT's ability to work beyond division walls and more continuously connect members around the world. My work with TED also led to me being a founding member and Co-editor in Chief of the Journal of Technology-Integrated Lessons and Teaching and this year, has allowed me to be the lead conference planner for AECT’s inaugural Teacher Mini Conference. I want to express my deepest thanks to the many people who have supported and guided me thus far in this journey. My colleagues in the field of educational technology, the amazing P-12 teachers I’ve collaborated with, and the leaders at AECT and SITE have all played a vital role in helping me achieve this milestone. For help in Research: My mentors and blended teaching co-authors: Dr. Charles R. Graham and Dr. Jered Borup Past TED Presidents and co-authors: Dr. Craig Shepherd, Dr. Kalianne Neumann, and Dr. Jacob Hall K-12 Online Learning Expert and Co-author: Dr. Michael Barbour Former Scholarly Advancement Award Winner and Co-Author: Dr. Royce Kimmons OER Scholar and All-Around Great Guy: Dr. John Hilton III OER Scholar and AECT Past President: Dr. David Wiley Amazing Graduate Students, Peers, and Co-authors: Dr. Karen Arnesen, Dr. Michelle Jensen, Dr. Emily Pulham, Instructional Designer Douglas Archibald, and Researcher Courtney Hanny For help in Service: For their guidance in leadership: Dr. Jered Borup, Dr. Leanna Archambault, and Dr. Michael Barbour For their guidance in conference planning: Dr. Jake Cohen, Dr. Liz Langram, and Planner Extraordinaire Sarah Benson For their collaboration in Higher Logic: Linda Wiley, Kristin Herman, Dr. Laura Stapleton, and Dr. Beth Oyarzun For his partnership in launching and leading a new practitioner-focused journal: Dr. Craig Shepherd For her faith to plan an entirely new AECT mini conference: Dr. Tonia Dousay For the Nomination I am especially grateful to those who nominated me for this award and provided such kind words of support, such as: “Dr. Short is most worthy of this award for his scholarly contributions’ widespread impact on the blended learning practices of K-12 teachers, the theoretical innovativeness of his personalized learning framework, and his tremendous leadership through many edited teacher education publications.” and “Dr. Short continues to successfully lead our field to create and sustain scholarly spaces that better recognize and authentically empower the voices of K-12 teachers.” Thanks Most of All I would not be able to work with any of the above collaborators if not for the amazing and blessed partnership of my wife and bride, Shelby Short. It is her support that allows me to have the energy needed to share my time with so many wonderful colleagues. She is the person who deserves the most thanks in all of this. So thank you, wife! In Conclusion, I Do Not Think This Is About Me This recognition is not simply about my personal accomplishments, but about the incredible impact we can have when we work together to push the boundaries of teacher education and educational technology. It is an honor to be at this part of my academic journey, and I look forward to continuing to contribute to this field in ways that empower P-12 educators and learners. I invite you to please watch the video below, where I share my thoughts and gratitude for receiving this award. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey—I wouldn’t be here without your unwavering support and belief in the work we’re doing together. |
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This blog presents thoughts that Cecil has concerning current projects, as well as musings that he wants to get out for future projects. For questions or comments on his posts, please go to his Contact page. Archives
October 2024
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