Writing creative stories with AI: learning designs for secondary school students

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been considered a powerful tool for fostering language learning and applied to various language-learning contexts. Yet, language teachers might lack adequate knowledge about how to integrate AI into classrooms to facilitate students’ learning effectively. To address the issue, this paper reports on an innovative practice to enhance secondary school students’ creative writing by leveraging AI’s capability for natural language generation (NLG). Specifically, we describe two learning designs for teaching students to write short stories with an AI-NLG writing tool (i.e. Text Generator), with one aiming at providing students with hands-on experience with the tool and the other offering scaffolds to compose short stories. We present the purposes, intended learning outcomes, learning activities, and materials and resources of the learning designs. Besides, we discuss the learning performance and achievements of four students who learnt with the designs. We also analyzed the students’ creativity in the ideas of their short stories to examine the effects of writing with Text Generator. Finally, we reflect on our implementation of the innovative practice, outline the pedagogical lessons we learnt, and provide suggestions for future research on using AI to enhance the teaching and learning of writing. We anticipate that writing educators and researchers can replicate, evaluate and improve the learning designs, to better support students’ learning of writing with AI.

KEYWORDS:

• Story writing
• artificial intelligence
• natural language generation
• learning designs
• secondary school students
• creativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the first author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David James Woo

David James Woo is a secondary school teacher. His research interests are in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, digital literacy, and educational technology innovations.

Kai Guo

Kai Guo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on second language writing and technology-enhanced language learning. His recent publications have appeared in international peer-reviewed journals such as Computers & Education, The Internet and Higher Education, System, Interactive Learning Environments, Education and Information Technologies, TESOL Quarterly, and Assessing Writing.

Sdenka Zobeida Salas-Pilco

Sdenka Zobeida Salas-Pilco is focused particularly on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact in society and its implications for various stakeholders, such as: government, enterprises, educational institutions, communities, citizens, parents and students. Thus, her research is characterized for carrying out a system analysis at micro-, meso-, and macro-level.