Veteran multimedia producer and professor Lynn Rogoff has long experimented with ways to bring history alive for young people. So as she saw the rise of AI tools, she was quick to try them.
In her latest film, “Bird Woman: Sacagawea,” viewers not only watch the story of Sacagawea — the young woman from the Soshone tribe who helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition back in 1804 — they can chat with her and ask questions about her life.
At least, they can chat with an animated version of Sacagawea, as well as a series of other historical figures depicted. The film, which began as an audio documentary, is also animated with AI-generated characters.
The animation style is meant to look like something that might be in the latest consumer video game. “We wanted to go where the kids are, where they are on the computers with their games or on their PlayStations,” Rogoff told EdSurge.
Rogoff argues that just like in a video game, viewers will be more engaged when they are given the chance to interact with the animated versions themselves rather than just sit back and watch. “That’s why gaming became such a big genre, is because you’re in it. It’s an interactive experience,” she adds.
But the film and chatbots also raise questions about whether AI chatbots are ready for the classroom, or whether they risk perpetuating stereotypes or stating incorrect facts due to the tendency for the technology to “hallucinate.”
And some educators worry that as more companies offer chatbot stand-ins for historical figures, students will spend less time diving into the raw materials of history themselves to draw their own conclusions.
“I want to see people looking at primary resources. I don’t want to see it going through a filter,” says Jared Ten Brink, a doctoral student in education at the University of Michigan and a member of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi. “If this is for a high school audience, I definitely want them reading journals and looking at primary resources more, and not engaging through the filter of a chatbot.”
For Rogoff, though, the goal is to inspire young people to get interested enough in the subject matter to want to engage with primary materials.
“The Lewis and Clark journals are not easy reading,” she says, noting that the language can feel stilted or out of context to today’s readers. “If you can capture a student’s imagination, and for them to be interested in discovering the stories of American history or any other history, then I think you have a lifelong learner.”
Hear more from both Rogoff and Ten Brink on the pros and cons of chatbots in teaching on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on the player below.