Two questions, one document set

In Now Make It Useful, I wrote about an AI plan that referred to tools and workflows no longer in use. A person caught the mismatch. It is a useful starting point for an educator-team exercise: can we explain when an older document is the wrong source and when it is exactly the source we need?

I would try this with a fictional school club, two short notices, and a question that changes halfway through. This is a proposed rehearsal for adults to adapt, not a classroom trial or a claim about learning outcomes.

Set the table

Write two clearly fictional notices about a club meeting. In the older notice, the club meets on Tuesday in Room A. In the replacement, effective November 1, it meets on Thursday in Room B. Give both notices dates and label the second as replacing the first. Add a third note that mentions a possible room change but contains no approval or effective date.

Keep real student and staff information out of it. Paper is enough for the exercise. If an AI assistant joins, use an approved tool and only information permitted under local rules.

Start with this question: where and when should a member go on November 12?

Ask each participant to select the source, identify the words that support the answer, and explain why the undated possibility does not settle it. The task is to make the evidence visible, including the limits of what the notices say.

Now change the assignment

Leave all three documents on the table. Ask what changed between October and November.

The older notice now matters. It supplies the earlier arrangement needed for a comparison. The document did not become more trustworthy between questions. Its relevance changed because the question changed.

That distinction gives the discussion somewhere concrete to go. Which date governs the answer? Is this a statement about what applies now, what used to apply, or what someone is considering? What would we need to know before treating a proposal as an instruction?

Let the assistant show its work

If you include an assistant, ask it to answer both questions separately and cite the exact notice supporting each answer. Then give participants the sources and have them check the response. An attractive summary should not do the checking for them.

For another round, remove the replacement notice's effective date. A useful response might ask when the change takes effect. Have the group explain what is missing and identify the person who could resolve it in the fictional scenario. Do not reward a confident guess merely because it happens to match the answer you had in mind.

Keep the record small

A useful record could fit on one page: the question, the source selected, the supporting sentence, and anything unresolved. Compare those records before discussing how fast anyone finished.

The exercise is worth adapting if it helps people explain their source choices. It does not need a new platform or a score that pretends to measure more than you observed. Ask participants to try one question without the assistant, too, so you can see the reasoning they can carry into the next task.

What question would make an older document useful in a discussion your team already has?

Ciao, Jason.