Why AI session?
The students lacked a strong foundation in basic computer knowledge and were not exposed to current technology despite the fact that 11th standard students each received a free laptop from the state government. This was particularly noticeable among the girls, who were unfamiliar with even basic laptop operations. With today’s technology available to everyone, it could significantly improve self-learning within their curriculum and other areas of interest.
Collaboration with Anando and Mitali:
Mitali has been a long-time volunteer, helping us the most now and then. One day, when she came to meet us, she brought along her friend Anando. While discussing after-school activities with him, we came up with the idea of introducing basic digital literacy skills and AI technology to students and trying it out at our summer mini-camp.
Overview of the session:
Once the basics were grasped during these sessions, we went through what Artificial Intelligence is, how it is used in modern days, and how impactful it will be in the future. Anando highlighted that soon everyone will be accessing Artificial Intelligence like we are accessing the internet today and it would play an important role in the future of technology.
The main goal of the AI session was to help the students utilize AI tools that are present today. We introduced them to the below AI-based chatbot and Image generation tools.
ChatGPT – Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer developed by OpenAI.
Gemini – Gemini, formerly known as Bard, is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google.
Microsoft Copilot – is a chatbot developed by Microsoft.
Midjourney – Midjourney generates images from prompts, similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion.
Craiyon – Craiyon is an AI model that can draw images from any text prompt.
Utilizing these tools, we demonstrated how to use them – Starting from basic natural language prompts to keywords based prompts that can be used to effectively get information from the chatbot. We asked the students to give us an interesting prompt for demonstration, and Sri Ram came up with “why the sky is blue,” and ChatGPT gave us a 3-paragraph answer with a scientific explanation, which was not easy for everyone to understand. We continued with the next prompt to make it short and simple, with a reply to that prompt ChatGPT replied with a one-paragraph answer giving us an idea of why the sky was blue but didn’t make us understand the science behind. So we gave our next prompt to explain to us using a cricket game, and it gave a simplified explanation with the cricket game, and we were able to understand more easily. Next, we taught the students how to create a Gmail account, and they were able to create an account and using that account they were able to login to ChatGPT.
Next, we asked them to interact with AI to get used to it and understand the way how it works. To make it interesting, we asked the students to create a Google Slide presentation and team them in terms of 3 and requested them share access to the slide with members of the team, since they were new to Google Slides, so we guided them to use ChatGPT and learn how to use Google Slides, and make it simpler, and if it’s hard for them to understand, they translated to English to Tamil and turned the speaker to hear the answers. We asked them to pick the title of a country of their own and create the slide and use it in the slide.
The students were filled with curiosity and interest and started learning more about the AI and interacting with the chatbot.
Once they completed the slide, it was time for the presentation. Everyone from the team took part in the presentation explaining about the experience using AI and sharing about what they learned. They even prepared themselves using ChatGPT. The students were happy and proud to share about Artificial Intelligence. At first, they were shy and scared to speak in front of others. But as they got going, they became more comfortable and did really well.
AI Session outcomes:
Overall, the students were filled with enthusiasm for learning new things and were filled with curiosity trying out new things with laptops.
Getting familiar with Technology: This session created a strong foundation for students with technology and how to utilize basic computer applications.
Introduction to AI: The students were able to understand AI and were able to interact with the chatbot effectively, and we gave an overview of what is happening in the tech world.
Passion for Self-learning: With the latest technology through various forms using AI, it created a strong foundation and interest.
Being Proud: Students were able to overcome the fear and shyness and were able to present their slides created using AI and were able to explain how they created them to their classmates.
Collaborative Teamwork: The students were in a team of three working on a slide using different laptops, sharing access to one slide. Sharing their ideas, taking tasks of their own, discussing them helped them to build teamwork and strengthen their bond.
