Weekly Reflection Blog Post #3

AI as a Time-Saver (With Caveats)

Using Gemini to create my lesson plan last week saved a lot of time. What might have taken over an hour took about 15 minutes. But this efficiency only works if we bring our own pedagogical knowledge to the table.

For example, I usually tell AI something like, “act as a grade 12 teacher and create a calculus lesson.” Normally, I don’t spend much time on prompts and just tweak things as I go. However this time, I set out all my goals and expectations at the start as expected by the workbook and really worked on the prompt before asking AI to generate anything. Doing this saved a ton of time because the AI gave me exactly what I needed on the first try, instead of going back and forth.

Connecting AI to Instructional Design Frameworks

This week’s frameworks also revealed how AI can support each stage of instructional design with proper guidance. When I used Gemini, I jumped straight to development without working through ADDIE’s analysis and design phases. Looking back, I can see that skipping those steps meant that I missed thinking carefully about what students already knew, what they needed to learn, and how best to structure the lesson. Using AI is way more effective when you plan first and let it help you build on that plan, instead of just asking it to generate content out of nowhere.

Here is a five S model from aiforeducation.io to write an effective prompt as an educator!

I think if students use GenAI for school work, they should be taught how to use it well, specifically how to write prompts and evaluate responses. Teachers also need to learn how to use AI effectively without cutting corners in the education that they are providing. It should be a learning process for both parties, and we have to keep on improving so that we can give the students the best support and guidance.