Veteran multimedia producer and professor Lynn Rogoff has been experimenting with ways to bring history to life for young people for years. So when she saw the rise of AI tools, she immediately tried them out.
In her latest film, Bird Woman: Sacagawea, viewers not only see the story of Sacagawea, a young Soshone woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804, but also chat with her. You can ask questions about her. life.
At least you get to chat with the animated version of Sacagawea, as well as a series of other historical figures depicted. The film, which began as an audio documentary, is also an animation with AI-generated characters.
The animation style is intended to look like something you’d find in a modern consumer video game. “We wanted to go where the kids are, where they’re playing games on their computers and playing PlayStations,” Rogoff told EdSurge.
Rogoff argues that, just like with video games, viewers are more immersed when they are given the opportunity to interact with the animated version rather than just sitting and watching. “The reason gaming has become such a big genre is because you’re participating in it. It’s an interactive experience,” she added.
However, the film and chatbots raise questions about whether AI chatbots will ever be usable in classrooms, or whether the technology’s tendency to “hallucinate” risks perpetuating stereotypes and misrepresenting facts. It also raises the question of whether there is.
And some educators worry that as more companies offer chatbots to stand in for historical figures, students will have less time to dig into raw historical material and draw their own conclusions. I’m concerned.
“I want to see people focus on primary resources. I don’t want to see it pass through the filter,” said Nottawaseppi, a doctoral student in education at the University of Michigan and a member of the Potawatomi Nation.・Jared Ten Brink, also a member of the Huron Band, says: “If this is aimed at high school students, we definitely want them to read magazines and look more at primary resources, rather than engaging through the filter of a chatbot.”
But Rogoff’s goal is to get young people interested enough in the subject matter to be interested in primary sources.
” lewis and clark diary It’s not easy to read,” she said, noting that the language can feel formal or out of context to today’s readers. “I think if you can engage students’ imaginations and get them interested in discovering stories of American history and other histories, they will become lifelong learners.”
Hear more from both Rogoff and ten Brink about the pros and cons of chatbots in the classroom on this week’s EdSurge podcast.
Listen to the episode of spotify, apple podcast Or in the player below.
