#509 – AI and Research, Step 1: Task Definition

#509 — AI and Research, Step 1: Task Definition

AVID Open Access
15 min

Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated from the podcast audio by generative artificial intelligence.  Because of the automated nature of the process, this transcript may include unintended transcription and mechanical errors.

Paul Beckermann 0:01
Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I’m your host, Paul Beckermann.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 0:06
Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? What’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann 0:13
The topic of today’s episode is AI and Research, Step 1: Task Definition. In the not-so-distant past, information was scarce. Students chose universities based on the quality of their libraries and staff, since those resources largely determined what information students could access. Better resources meant a better education.

Then came the internet, and suddenly information was everywhere. It was available to everyone, not just the select few who could afford to attend the best schools. It was a great democratization of information. Students simply needed a computer, an internet connection, and a few skills for effectively finding, evaluating, and accessing the resources that were available—it was right there at their fingertips. Now AI has entered the equation again, changing how we get answers to our questions. Now a student can ask an AI chatbot a question and get a fully fleshed-out answer drawn from a large number of source documents.

It seems a little bit like magic, but this new functionality has the potential of short-circuiting student thinking and making the process too easy. It’s also less transparent, making it more difficult to discern what is true and what is just a hallucination. Because of the changes AI has introduced into the information-gathering process, students must now develop new skills. They must learn to conduct quality research and seek credible answers to their questions within an ecosystem permeated by AI.

To that end, I’m going to dedicate the next several episodes of this podcast to exploring the role of AI in the research process. I’ll walk you through each step of the process, one step per episode, and offer a few suggestions and options for how you can have your students navigate and complete that step in the age of AI. Sometimes this will mean embracing AI and what it can do, and other times it may mean completing some of the work without AI, or perhaps only using AI after attempting a task without that assistance. In either case, my hope is that it will help you navigate this important and rapidly changing research landscape.

I’m going to start at the beginning with Step One: Task Definition. In Step One, students begin the research process by clearly defining the problem or task at hand. Before students can effectively search for information, they need to understand what they’re being asked to investigate, explain, solve, compare, or create. Sometimes the task will be narrowly defined by the teacher, and other times the student will have more autonomy and flexibility in what they’ll be researching.

If the task is specifically defined when presented to the students, the main student task will be to break it down and clearly understand what is expected. One effective way to do this is to take a pen or pencil and underline or circle the keywords in the task. This may include the topic to be researched, the extent to which it should be researched, the number of required sources, the types of resources allowed or required, and the expected output. What will the student need to do with it at the end of the project?

Students should pay particular attention to action verbs: Are they being asked to describe, compare, evaluate, argue, design, or propose a solution? These words matter. After completing this initial analysis, students might use AI as a task-clarification partner. They might paste the information directly into an AI tool and ask it to identify the topic, required actions, source expectations, constraints, audience, and final product. Students could then compare the AI response with the words and phrases they marked themselves.

Did the AI notice something they missed? Did either they or the AI misinterpret any part of the assignment? This comparison requires students to evaluate the AI response in relation to their own, rather than simply accepting it. AI might also help students restate the assignment in their own words, convert the requirements into a checklist, or ask clarifying questions about parts of the task that remain uncertain. For example, students might ask the AI to explain the difference between being asked to summarize a topic and being asked to evaluate it. They could also ask AI to review the proposed plan and identify any assignment requirements that are not yet addressed.

The goal is not for AI to define the task for students. Instead, AI serves as a second reader that helps students check their understanding, recognize missing details, and develop a clearer plan for completing the research task. Here’s a sample prompt that a student could use: “Here are the directions for my research task: [Paste in the directions]. Identify the topic, action words, source requirements, limitations, audience, and expected final product. Then create a checklist of what I must complete. Do not begin the research or complete any part of the assignment for me.”

If the research task is more open-ended, the student’s work will probably look a little different. They would still need to break down the task into meaningful parts, but with an open-ended question, they would need to go further. For instance, students may need to choose their own topic or develop their own research questions. This is a heavier cognitive lift than simply understanding a predefined task. To do this effectively, students need to identify an area of interest, consider what they already know, identify a research goal, and potentially develop a question that gives their investigation direction.

When doing this, students need to make choices that are focused enough to manage. A topic that is too broad becomes unmanageable and potentially meaningless. A topic that is too narrow doesn’t leave much room for students to research and discover. It should be more complex than something that can be answered with a simple fact. Ideally, the topic should also be of interest and relevance to the student. And of course, it must meet the requirements of the teacher’s assigned research task.

The more a student knows about a topic, the easier this stage will be. However, it’s very likely that the student is not an expert about the topic—after all, that’s why they’re researching it. The students might find that they need to do a little preliminary research about the topic so they can make educated decisions about the direction of their continued research. I’ll dig into this a little more deeply in next week’s episode.

In the situation of a more open-ended task like this, AI can potentially assist students in a number of ways without undercutting their learning. Here are some tasks to consider completing with AI assistance: restate an assignment in clearer language; identify the purpose, audience, and expected product; break a complex task into smaller parts; brainstorm possible topics and subtopics; narrow a topic by time, place, population, cause, effect, or perspective; compare several possible research questions, providing pros and cons of each; and provide feedback on whether a question is too broad, too narrow, or unclear.

AI can be especially useful as a questioning partner. Rather than supplying the final topic or question, it can ask students to clarify what interests them and what they hope to discover. If you want to experiment with AI as a learning partner, here is a nine-step task-definition conference that you might use with students:

1. Give students a research assignment or information problem.
2. Ask students to identify the task’s purpose, audience, expected product requirements, and constraints.
3. Have students select a broad topic connected to the task.
4. Students write an initial research question independently. (Notice these first four steps have all been student-driven.)
5. They use AI as a conference partner to clarify the task and narrow the topic.
6. AI asks questions and offers several possible directions.
7. Students compare the suggestions with the original assignment.
8. Students write their own final research question.
9. Students explain which AI suggestions they accepted, rejected, or modified, and why.

Notice it was student, AI, and then student again. Another approach is to give students a single prompt to use as a starting point. Here’s an example: “I am beginning a research task. Here are the assignment directions: [Paste in the directions]. Help me define the task by identifying the purpose, audience, expected product requirements, and constraints. Then ask me one question at a time to help me narrow my topic and develop a focused, open-ended research question. Do not choose the final topic or write the final research question for me.”

Here you can see the student is mostly in control, with some assistance from the AI. Regardless of the approach you take, it’s important that students do the heavy lifting. AI can be a really helpful assistant, but you don’t want it to take over and do the work for the student. By the end of this step, students should have a clear enough vision of their research task that they can move on to Step Two: gathering background knowledge and beginning to plan their research strategy. I’ll explore that more in our next episode.

Paul Beckermann 10:19
To learn more about today’s topic and explore other free resources, visit avidopenaccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out the article collection “AI in the K-12 Classroom,” and of course, be sure to join Rena Winston and me next week for our full-length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we’re joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.