of developments in the educational realm is essential in order to‘ keep up with the changing society that our students are growing up in’( Buchanan, 2024). This article will discuss the developing potential for using AI in the Geography context at Sevenoaks, and beyond.
AI in the Geography classroom: An overview of considerations and potential uses.
Elen Steadman Head of Geography and ITL Research Fellow
Considerations for using AI
There are a multitude of AI platforms in existence. ChatGPT will be referred to most commonly in this article.
It is important to note that‘ you only get what you give’ to ChatGPT, so it is important to develop strong‘ promptcraft’ skills( Downs & Campbell, 2024) for each search to maximise the outputs given. Prompts need to be specific. Where relevant, the AI should be given a role and specific outcomes, for example, to‘ provide an example contemporary case study for the Edexcel iGCSE Geography Hazards topic on a volcanic eruption, which should be less than 100 words, in bullet point format’. If there are prompts which you find yourself routinely using, time can be saved by customising your ChatGPT profile( see example in figure 1). This helps the AI know more about you( such as the subject you teach, ages taught( its responses can be set at a specific reading age, for example), awarding bodies for the qualifications you teach etc.) and what you are expecting in terms of style and content, which helps the AI to produce responses more akin to what you require. With every passing search on platforms such as ChatGPT, and with customisation, the AI will produce better responses each time.
Discussion on the use of Artificial Intelligence( AI) in education has gained traction in recent years. Geography has a‘ reputation for being an early adopter of technologies’ as it is a‘ subject with an intrinsic interest in a rapidly changing world’( Lambert, 2021). That said, with AI‘ we are in uncharted waters and there is a need to proceed with caution. It is essential that we must consider how this new tool can be responsibly integrated into Geography education’( Kerr, 2023).
However, many teachers are reticent to think about using AI due to the worry that it could make them redundant from their job as educators or that they are opposed to its use due to concerns that student use may encourage a lack of critical thinking. Others are worried about their technological abilities when using AI. Whatever your stance on AI, whilst there might be different degrees of uptake and understanding, AI is a‘ disruptive technology’ which will‘ reshape our engagement with knowledge and the process of enquiry for years to come’( Griffiths, 2023), so keeping abreast
Figure 1: An example of customising your profile on ChatGPT( author’ s own)
ChatGPT is considered to have out of date data, as it utilises information from ~ September 2021, when it was created( Griffiths, 2023; Hickman & Ghosh, 2024). It also contains errors. Griffiths( 2023) recounts asking ChatGPT a question about the President of Kiribati making a speech knee deep in water. The AI included
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