AI Based Tools

Some of the more common and useful AI-based tools that parents can use, are described below (e.g. ChatGPT, DALL-E). As parents explore these tools, it’s important to be mindful of the age appropriateness of any generative AI tool they use with their children. Additionally, when using these tools to help their children with homework, parents need to check the school’s policy, and ensure that the generative AI tool is used as a learning tool, and not as a shortcut. That is, instead of copying answers from say ChatGPT (which is plagiarism), children should learn how to solve problems with ChatGPT’s guidance.

ChatGPT

One of the most widely used generative AI tools, ChatGPT, can be a valuable tool for parents assisting their children with homework, particularly in subjects like English or Mathematics. For example, to help with reading comprehension, parents can input a passage into ChatGPT and ask it to generate questions, summaries, or explanations to help improve their child’s understanding. In Mathematics, parents can input a mathematics problem along with their child’s answer to see if it’s correct and get explanations for any mistakes. Additionally, ChatGPT can generate similar problems at the same difficulty level to provide additional practice.

DALL-E

DALL-E is an AI-powered image generator that can create images from text descriptions. These images are completely new, and based on the input text provided (e.g. a female rocket scientist). With the guidance of parents, DALL-E can help children visualise science concepts, history scenes or book characters. When writing a story as part of literacy homework, parents can help their child to create illustrations to accompany the story. This can have a positive impact on children as they are more likely to be motivated by the homework task.

Decorative image of a man reading a book

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered assistant built into Microsoft tools, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It can be used to help create text, summarise information, analyse data, and create presentations. For parents wanting to help their child with homework tasks, Copilot can be used to suggest ideas when writing an essay, improve grammar on a variety of writing tasks, help create graphs as part of a data visualisation task, convert written notes into PowerPoint slides.

As with any generative AI tool, parents need to encourage their child to use Copilot as a helper, and not for taking shortcuts. As an example, encourage your child to ask questions, such as “check this work”, so that they can learn from the feedback provided by Copilot (and similar tools), rather than just copying answers.