Increasing Student Engagement with AI Starts with Defining Engagement

In our global AI course, we focus a session on the topic of driving student engagement using AI. Using AI just to use it, or to know how to use it without understanding the "why of AI" doesn't help instruction become more effective. It doesn't help teachers solve pedagogical challenges. In this case, our "why of AI" is consistently a top pain point for teachers and leaders alike. We hear it in our work with teachers, and we see it in reports like EdWeek's Market Brief survey of nearly 500 district or school leaders and over 450 teachers who rated student engagement in their top 3 priorities and pain points.

But we start the conversation with a critical question set - What is student engagement? What does it look/sound like? How do you know it's happening? This is a really important question set to think about before we use AI to increase student engagement because we too often equate student engagement with compliance (quiet, on-task behavior) when in reality a student can be fully compliant and "good at school" and totally disengaged from a learning perspective. If we want to define engagement by any measure of "on task", then the task quality is highly relevant to that assessment. Beyond that, authentic engagement is personal and depends greatly on the peer to peer, student to teacher, and student to topic/task relationships.

So how can we leverage AI for higher quality learning tasks and relationships? That is really the driving question behind increasing student engagement through AI. Here are a few ways we can leverage AI to engage students in higher quality, higher relevance learning:

1. Personalize content: Students are more likely to engage in content if it is of higher interest and relevance to them. With AI tools such as Yourwai's Vocabulary Based Text Generator or Math Stories Generator, teachers can create a variety of content that is more engaging students through very little effort.
2. Plan for authentic learning: We can use AI tools to create learning paths and tasks that are more aligned to real world applications of learning. This has been a hallmark of effective project-based learning, but AI allows for this process to be even more accessible for teachers to create multiple pathways for students to find the most relevant point of engagement. This Yourwai PBL Planner is an example of AI powered PBL planning for greater authenticity in learning.
3. Connect with learners: Engagement stems from strong relationships with our students, and there are a number of ways we can strengthen connection with students using AI. One is by planning for more culturally responsive and sustaining learning. Though bias in AI limits the way reliably unbiased content can be generated, we can use expert tools such as this Culturally Responsive Planning Tool to generate lessons with more responsive pedagogy to strengthen connections with students. We can also use AI tools like this Connection/Icebreaker Generator to create activities designed to enhance student to student or student to teacher connections
4. Integrate differentiation and choice: Students engage at higher levels of learning with greater levels of student agency. It's time consuming to make learning assets like personalized playlists or choice boards which differentiate the topic, process, or product of learning. With AI tools such as the Yourwai Personalized Playlist Generator or Choice Board Creator, teachers can efficiently integrate choice and various learning modalities into their lesson design.
5. Scaffold safe student use of AI: There are a lot of tools popping on the radar for students to engage in the direct use of AI, but I believe educators are rightfully approaching this use with caution. We do not yet know whether these tools, whether AI tutors or other chatbot interactions, are safe and beneficial for individual student learning. However, while the critical security and policy work is being conducted to lay the foundation for safe use, using AI alongside students with clear purpose can enrich the task at hand and engage students as agents of safe and responsible use of AI. For example, having a teacher feedback tool which provides initial suggestions to students during teacher-student conferences can engage the student in the supported use of AI for self-assessment. I write more about this topic in my last post Empowering Students to Understand and Use AI Responsibly.