UPDATE: WHMT is having signal issues and recommends we watch on the live linear stream – https://www.wmht.org/live/

Back in November, PBS producer Catherine Rafferty and videographer Kyle Miller of WMHT in Troy, N.Y., worked out of Dan Edwards’ classroom at Pine Bush High School. The media professionals were producing a story about artificial intelligence – AI – and how it is being used in teaching for their show, New York Now. Edwards’ classroom was a great place for them to start.

The  show airs Friday, Dec. 15, at 7:30 p.m. on WHMT and is available on demand afterwards.

 

Edwards has been using AI for about a year. He is well-versed in the technology, even presenting about it at the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers (NYSAFLT) conference. He said AI programs are a real time saver for teachers.

 

“It minimizes the tedious things we have to do so we can focus on the more important things, like face-to-face interactions with our students,” said Edwards. “It’s a tool to make education better.”

 

 

Edwards uses AI to aid in lesson planning and he has introduced it to his classes to help with their conversational Spanish. He uses ChatGPT for that purpose.

 

On the day PBS was here, he had programmed AI to act as a character in the story the Spanish 5 students were creating. They would ask questions of the character and ChatGPT would create the narrative answers in Spanish. Edwards gives the program the information it needs to create the character and, based on the questions asked by the students, ChatGPT runs with the narrative.

 

“It’s not perfect,” said Mr. Edwards. “You have to check everything with AI.”

Rafferty and Miller videoed much of what went on in class this day. They talked with Edwards about his use of the technology, its benefits and shortcomings.

 

In a previous lesson, the students wrote speeches as if they were running for president of Peru. Edwards programmed ChatGPT to be the voter base. He fed the speeches through and then AI voted and gave feedback on who won and why.

“It makes things more fun for the students,” he said. And interesting!

 

 

The segment on AI is part of the NY Now program that airs on WMHT Friday, Dec. 15, at 7:30 p.m. It is available on demand using the PBS Video App,  https://www.wmht.org/anywhere/  The show is also posted on the WMHT YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/@NYNOWPBS – and the website – https://nynow.wmht.org/ – about one hour before the show airs.

Here is the full schedule of when the AI show airs on stations across New York:  https://nynow.wmht.org/schedule/