How AI Can Enhance Learning Opportunities for Students

Artificial Intelligence is now embedded into our daily lives in ways that we do not even realize. AI is built into our smartphones, cars, and online experiences. AI is having a moment in the creative space now as well. A platform called DALL-E 2 is now a free open-source image generator site. DALL-E 2’s algorithm is created in a way so that hate images are prohibited. In essence, the programmers never taught the algorithm to recognize hate speech, racial slurs, and or key words linked to harmful images. Thus making it safe for students to use. I had my students consider how coding requires a moral responsibility to the world and then we dug in and created some super cool images based on the word combinations they came up with. Students had to have clear nouns, adjectives, adverbs and also explore different visual styles, such as realism, water color, cartoon, and even styles using Van Gogh. Here are some examples of what we were able to have DALL-E 2 generate for us.

The elephant image had these words as input; “an elephant wearing a crown in the ocean”, and the tiger input was “a tiger riding a skateboard with the style of Van Gogh”. The pig used the statement “a pig on a rollercoaster” for the input. These images are super cool because they are one of a kind and student imagination is the only barrier. You can also upload student artwork and modify it in the style of other famous artists. 

As I explored this site it occurred to me that there might be some ways to include this into our existing curriculum in a quick and seamless way. For the arts, students can visualize their completed artwork in a variety of artistic styles. DALL-E 2 will also transform an image using its algorithm or finish the surrounding space of an image. 

I also thought that using DALL-E 2 might be a great way to make student thinking more visual. Images can be downloaded and used for digital sketchnoting. Another curriculum connection might be teaching parts of speech and the importance of using descriptive language in writing. 

Users must be 18 years or older so this would be best suited as a whole group activity with you, the teacher, inputting their words and then sharing the images with them either with email, G- Classroom or Apple Airdrop.

You can learn more by listening to this podcast with the creator of DALL-E 2 from the New York Times.

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