“The way of the future”: Gifted students explore AI’s potential for education

A GER²I Summer Residential course for 7^th & 8^th graders

Every summer for over 40 years, the College of Education’s Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute (GER²I) has engaged gifted, creative, and talented American and international students in residential camps designed to stimulate their imagination and expand their abilities. This year, students who had completed 7^th or 8^th grades explored artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of learning.

Offered as part of GER²I’s Summer Residential Camp, the new course “How to Train Your AI Learning Coach: A Personalized Learning Adventure” helped students discover their unique learning preferences, explore personalized projects, and harness the potential of AI learning coaches. A major goal of the class was to empower students’ minds to take control of their education and ignite their curiosity.

Instructor Susan Solomon taught the June 30-July 13 course at Purdue University. “This course is about using AI tools to deepen knowledge acquisition and help students get better at using these tools for learning purposes,” Solomon said.

During the school year, Solomon specializes in teaching gifted, talented and creative students at J.K.L. Bahweting Anishnabe Public School Academy in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where she’s taught since 2006. About eight years ago, she began teaching personalized learning projects.

“In 2016, I started with a paper-printed personal interest survey, analyzing the results myself and holding conferences with students to determine their top areas of interest and suitable project ideas,” Solomon explained. “Over the years, this process evolved into a digital format using an online tool called the Renzulli Interest-A-Lyzer from Renzulli Learning, which helped establish learning profiles for students. I incorporated AI tools for the first time with my own students. The AI provided numerous personalized learning project examples, which I reviewed with students to develop a customized learning pathway for their projects.”

However, this summer’s GER²I course was the first time Solomon taught students who were able to directly use AI tools themselves, primarily ChatGPT.

“My evolution with Personalized Learning Plans began with a paper and pencil version of the Renzulli Interest-A-lyzer, then I found the digital version on Renzulli Learning, then came the adapted survey that I created as a Google Form – based on the Renzulli version but updated to be a better fit for my specific population of students and to reflect more modern career pathways and interests,” Solomon said.

“This has been incredibly exciting and has streamlined the process even more,” she said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to evolve this approach and am excited to see where it leads in the future.”

Solomon thinks that students should take the GER2I summer course because, as she says, “AI is the way of the future, and learning how to use AI tools effectively will prepare them for the evolving educational landscape and future careers.”

When her GER²I students realized how AI could personalize their learning experiences and make the process more engaging and efficient, they were able to develop learning pathways they enjoyed.

Nielsen Pereira, director of GER²I, believes this course is a great addition to the Summer Residential program because it focuses on using artificial intelligence in education – which aligns with Purdue’s strategic initiatives.

“AI has the potential to revolutionize education, and I think it can bring enormous value to gifted education as one of our goals is to provide more personalized learning experiences to gifted students,” Pereira said. “AI tools can make it easier for teachers to differentiate instruction and provide customized resources to individual students after analyzing their data. This class is a great example of how to do that!”

Student Lorelai Kachur was very interested in the AI course because she had her own questions about the benefits and ethics of AI.

“I wanted to learn how it could be used to help us learn,” she said.

In the past Kachur had seen other students struggling with math concepts, so for her AI course project she developed flashcards of sample algebra problems and explanations. The AI course helped her learn how to formulate math problems, how to ask AI specific questions in order to get a desired answer, ways to troubleshoot with AI, and more.

“The course was very self-directed and very personalized to each student,” Kachur said.

Another student developed a project to “Make the Most Growth Academically and Personally over the Summer”, which helped the student to focus on weekdays on academic sessions with balanced breaks, educational gaming, and relaxation in the evenings; and to use Saturdays for review and consolidation and Sundays for relaxation and rejuvenation.

A third student created a Personalized Learning Pathway to learn about the Andromeda Galaxy, which included research, visual learning, media development, collaborative learning, review and feedback, polishing and presenting the final project, and reflection.

A fourth student wanted to improve digital photography skills and developed a Personalized Learning Pathway to explore basic skills needed, science documentation, mathematics, science, language arts, extracurricular activities, time management, and journaling.

Solomon encouraged them to join their school’s AI policy development committees, so the students practiced demonstrating AI’s helpfulness to their own learning and advocating for the use of AI tools to teachers who might be reluctant to use them.

Several parents told Solomon they thought the content was very practical and applicable for today’s educational environment.

“I think that teaching students and educators alike about AI is important,” said Kachur, the student who created the algebra flashcards. “It taught me more ways in which AI can be used ethically such as being used to brainstorm, create a course of study, or help generate a study guide.”

Kachur is an alumna of other GER²I programs and would like to attend another camp in the future.

“GER²I made a great impact on me because it helped me make friends from different communities who think the same way as me and who I relate to on many levels,” she said.

What’s next for these students? Solomon hopes they will advocate for using AI meaningfully in their schools, take the initiative to be in control of their own learning, use AI tools to learn more deeply and in more meaningful ways, and design learning paths for themselves that they can use academically and personally to make learning more enjoyable.

“This GER²I summer course has been an exciting opportunity for students to explore the potential of AI in enhancing their learning,” Solomon said. “It has empowered them to take control of their educational journeys and develop skills that will be valuable throughout their lives.”

Sources: Susan Solomon, ssolomon@jklschool.org; Nielsen Pereira, npereira@purdue.edu