Day 15 – School Homework Hacks For Parents – 30 Day AI Challenge 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Edition of the #30DayAIChallenge. This year, we’ll be focusing on making Generative AI more accessible for all. So follow along and give each challenge a try yourself, plus share your own thoughts and experiments with a community of like-minded learners and tinkerers!*

Week 3’s theme is “School of Bots“, tackling AI and education, with a view on improving our ability to learn, as well as teach others (including our kids!).

Today’s Challenge: How Parents Can Help Take The Stress Out Of Helping Kids With Their School Homework Using AI

We’ve arrived at Day 15. Today we’ll focus on using Gen Ai tools to make parents’ lives just a little bit easier. As a parent, assisting with homework can be daunting, especially with subjects that have evolved significantly since our own school days. We’ll explore how Generative AI tools can transform homework assistance, making learning not just effective but also engaging for children.

Beginner’s Guide to Using AI for Homework Help

• Explaining complex concepts: AI chatbots (like ChatGPT) can break down difficult subjects into smaller, easier-to-understand chunks. This means less parental frustration when trying to re-learn long-forgotten algebra!
• Personalized practice problems: AI-powered platforms can generate tailored practice questions in areas where a child needs more work. This pinpoints weaknesses and avoids wasting time.
• Answer checking & step-by-step solutions: Some AI tools can provide step-by-step explanations for math problems or check written work against a set answer, freeing parents from needing to know all the solutions.
• Research assistance: Tools like ChatGPT can compile and summarize information on a topic, which is great for starting essay drafts or getting an overview of unfamiliar concepts.
• Foreign language support: AI translators and language-learning tools can bridge communication gaps and help parents understand instructions or concepts in a non-native language.

Tips for Success:

• Ensure the content is age-appropriate and aligns with the school curriculum.
• Encourage your child to ask AI-generated explanations in their own words to reinforce learning.
• Monitor the use of AI to ensure it’s a supplement to learning, not a replacement.

Interesting Gen AI Challenges to Try:

• Write a silly poem about multiplication: Ask a tool like ChatGPT to write a funny poem about a specific math subject to make memorization more engaging.
• Create a historical rap battle: Have the AI tool write a rap battle between two historical figures, covering their accomplishments and key debates.
• Generate a wacky science experiment: Use ChatGPT to come up with a zany science experiment idea using household items. (Bonus points if you supervise this in real life!)
• Illustrate a story your child tells: Provide an image generation AI (like DALL-E 3 or Midjourney) with a short story your child wrote, and see the visual interpretation.

Practical (Personal) Example:

So here’s a real life school homework problem I took on myself using GenAI:

Our kids take a few foreign languages and sometimes need help at home, practicing their vocabulary and pronunciations. While I’m familiar with some of these languages, having taken them in school, I’m not great…plus probably not doing the pronunciations justice. So here’s what I did to speed up the process for one of these ‘practice’ sessions:

• I took a picture of the page (in this case French) vocabulary and uploaded it to ChatGPT, asking it to recognize the words and output the transcribed text.

• I then asked for a randomized version of the list, so the kids wouldn’t just rely on memorizing the words in order.

• I also put this list of terms into ElevenLabs and had it generate an audio file with the correct pronunciations, so the kids could listen to the whole list a few times.

All this took less than 10minutes and probably ended up saving me a good 30-45 minutes compared to the traditional approach of reading out terms and having the child guess each meaning. The audio file also did a MUCH better job of reading out the foreign language words in the appropriate manner. Win win, I say!

This is just ONE of many examples which can help you speed up the homework and coaching at home.

Gen AI Enabled Learning – Platform Recommendation:

A great learning platform that embraced Gen AI early on was KhanAcademy. Sal Khan and team did a great job of incorporating OpenAI’s GPT 4 into their platform, offering both a student and teacher mode.

As a student, ‘Khanmigo‘, the learning chatbot forces the child to think through solutions rather than simply spit out answers…and in teacher mode, it can help craft the most amazing lesson plans! They even have an amazing feature that lets kids chat with historical and literary figures, to make learning fun and interactive.

Advanced Strategies for Experienced Users

Integrating Multiple AI Tools: Combine the strengths of various AI tools to create a comprehensive learning aid. For instance, use an AI writing assistant alongside educational apps that offer interactive simulations for subjects like physics or chemistry.

Creating Interactive Study Guides: Advanced users can use AI to create personalized study materials. By inputting the syllabus and key learning outcomes, AI can generate quizzes, flashcards, and summaries tailored to your child’s learning style.

Utilizing Data Analysis for Performance Tracking: Use AI tools that analyze learning patterns and performance data to identify strengths and areas for improvement. This can help tailor the learning process to your child’s specific needs, making study sessions more effective.

Wrap Up

It’s about time education shook off its industrial era roots and evolved…for the better. We need our kids to learn to ask better questions and tap into ALL forms of intelligence and creativity, not simply focus on rote memorization. AI can be of tremendous help in education, both for students as well as teachers / parents. For parents in particular, leveraging AI for homework help not only makes the process more efficient but also introduces children to critical thinking and better problem-solving using tech.

If you give any of these tools or challenges a try, leave a comment and share your experience! If you’re using other platforms to post, please tag your Facebook, Twitter / X or LinkedIn post with #30DayAIChallenge so others can find it too.

Till tomorrow…

*Please note: Participation in the 30 Day AI Challenge is at your own discretion and responsibility. Always ensure that no sensitive personal information, confidential, or proprietary company data is shared. Adhere to all applicable local laws and company policies. Enjoy exploring AI responsibly!