EdutrAIl – How Can Administrators Utilize AI?

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Administrative teams interact with staff, students, parents and community members on a daily basis. AI could support and be more efficient when working on some of the administrative duties needed to be completed throughout the school year.

Staff Meetings

• Need an engaging presentation? Give Curipod at curipod.com/ai a topic, and it will generate an interactive slide deck quickly, including: polls, word clouds, open-ended questions, and a drawing tool. A great way to get staff involved in offering their ideas on specific topics.

• Want some interesting prompts to spark small group staff discussions? Check out a few different prompts listed by various online personalities and organizations. See https://www.learnprompt.org/chat-gpt-prompts-for-teachers/,  https://writesonic.com/blog/chatgpt-prompts/ and https://classtechtips.com/2023/03/15/chatgpt-prompts-for-teachers/. 

• Require a Meme to start off a conversation or meeting? Go to Supermeme.ai‘s AI Meme Generator (free)! Any text can become a unique and memorable meme that’s sure to bring about conversation.

• Show n Tell. What AI tools are teachers using on staff? What do they like about them? Tap a few shoulders beforehand to have them informally share a quick example from their perspective.

Email/Phone Responses

• Need some creatively crafted responses on particular topics? Go to Perplexity (free) at perplexity.ai and ask it a question or request something. A brief version will pop up first and then you can dig further into the detailed response. I also like the listing of sources. Just like chatGPT, one can ask follow up questions.

Professional Learning

• Want to check out a YouTube video but it is too long? Yes, you could change the speed of the video itself but how about checking out summarize.tech at http://summarize.tech? Add the URL of any long YouTube video and it will be summarized. The summary has clickable timestamps that one can copy & paste to use anywhere.
• Have a staff book study going on and need to create questions for it? Go to QuestionWell (free) at http://questionwell.org. Just input some reading passages, a topic and any learning objectives, and the AI will write essential questions, learning objectives, and aligned multiple choice questions.

 

EdutrAIl – Experts Chime in on AI

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When I have a moment in the car or an outdoor walk, I like to listen to podcasts from a variety of organizations and people. They make me think, learn new things, laugh and even pose a few questions.

Artificial Intelligence has hit the news and online waves profoundly and is changing how society interacts with it. I am appreciative of those speakers below who challenge us to think about AI in our daily lives. While listening or watching these episodes, what do you now wonder about the influence AI has in your own personal and professional life?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5lS9GTIYTMNGB0F6zkqFcA?si=568d700a294d4e03

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6FLi6X8gJPUi7nsBzp8bmz?si=3a39e18dfe5c4f4b

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2FvRuDH40yBjPGqsbl1yy4?si=9ca05e034a794436

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cAGTRd4ZbwbOXGQSKRcQw?si=396fd9a43a674373

What resonates most with you in these TED Talks Daily?

 

EdutrAIl – Thoughts on AI in Education

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Let’s continue to have open conversations, sharing and questions about AI infiltrating our educational environments. AI has opened doors for learning and teaching that we did not even know existed.

My title using the word “edutrAIl” contains a huge amount of significance – education, which is near and dear to me and my professional station, trail which envisions a journey into the new experiences and the AI being the centre of this post.

No matter what resources, tools or experiences that either I have had access to or created myself, ethical uses and efficient means have been part of the screening and choosing of which of these should be used and why. Purpose, relevancy to the curriculum and a safe, engaging learning opportunity should be part of these screening questions. Not just because it is the newest product making waves throughout the educational environment. Let’s think about value, easy of use, privacy, terms of use and reliability.

The ethics of those “edutools” that are found within classroom walls, devices and portables need to be part of this conversation/screening. And it’s much bigger than educators ‘choosing’ to use it.

1. The UNESCO Guidelines on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence provide a framework of ethical principles that should guide the development, deployment, and use of AI technologies.
2. The guidelines highlight the potential benefits and risks of AI, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that AI systems align with human values and promote human dignity.
3. The guidelines also emphasize the need for transparency, accountability, and international cooperation to address the ethical challenges posed by AI.

Educators can follow these guidelines via incorporating cross-curricular Digital Citizenship activities not just with a lens of looking at Artificial Intelligence but all edtech tools and resources. While OpenAI systems are rapidly changing the society we live in, it is important to create conversations and delve into research and resources and question their impact on daily life, local communities, the nation and beyond. One must hold vendors, organizations and the like in high regard as to how they are developing and using AI to enable learners and educators to do things in more efficient ways, to ask even more critical questions, or to get responses and research that were out of reach beforehand.

Staying informed of AI developments in education, continued improvement of teaching practices will allow teachers to showcase the productive sides of AI while also keeping a critical eye on policies, regulatory measures and even ethical considerations. Ensuring that learners are shown how to question AI content that is presented to them or even created by them in order to understand this great digital world that is ever-changing at an unprecedented pace.

Take a few moments to peruse these posts about what some of the larger edtech companies are saying about AI in their own situations.

• Why AI – Google
• Putting Principles into Practice – Microsoft
• What is Artificial Intelligence? – IBM
• AI/ML Education Community Forum – Apple
• AI in the Classroom – Pros and Cons – Forbes
• ChatGPT and Beyond: How to Handle AI in Schools – Common Sense Education

Follow my blog as I delve into actual tools and resources using AI for educators, administrators and in general.

What are your initial thoughts in regards to AI? What are you noticing about all the AI announcements and products and services?

 

VISUAL ARTS: Be a Film Critic Challenge

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People love to watch films/movies and some even create their own movie.  Have you ever made a short video clip before? Have you ever felt pride in creating something and sharing it with family/friends?

Different film genres (romantic, historical, detective, thriller, adventure, horror, science fiction…) are found throughout the world. Record yourself reviewing two films to share with family, friends and teacher.

This Challenge has been designed using Alberta’s Career and Technology Foundations template and was originally made for grades 7-9 virtual learning students. Yet…you can use this with grades 5-9 easily in the classroom environment.

The introductory video below is what would you would show to students (or have them view it themselves) first.

Teacher documents for this Challenge are found below:

Be a Film Critic Challenge TEACHER

Be a Film Critic Challenge rubric

And for those who would like the slide deck, you can find it HERE.

Finally, if you would like to share your experiences with this Challenge, please do so in the comments below or via Twitter. Have fun viewing!! 🍿🎬

 

STEAM: Block-based Coding Challenge

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How does coding interact and influence the world around us? Can you create an authentic experience using block-based coding? Have you ever wanted to create your own code?

Using a variety of digital learning environments, students will learn the basics of block-based coding. Problem solving, citizenship, communication, critical thinking and creativity skills are a must.

This Challenge has been designed using Alberta’s Career and Technology Foundations template and was originally made for grades 7-9 virtual learning students. Yet…you can use this with grades 5-9 easily in the classroom environment.

The introductory video below is what would you would show to students (or have them view it themselves) first.

Here is what you need to get started:

Block-based Coding Challenge TEACHER

Block-based Coding Challenge Rubric

Block-based Coding Challenge Student overview

And for those who asked, my above slide deck from the intro video is HERE.

Finally, feel free to share students coding creations with my via comments below or Twitter.

 

Thinking Routines for Science – Connect-Extend-Challenge

Specific Science examples will be shared during this event. The link to the Connect-Extend-Challenge Handout that is referenced and shared in the above video is https://bit.ly/THINKcec.

And check out the other posts in this PD series using this tag – #PZthinkingroutines.

Feel free to share your samples and ideas when you use these in your classroom or share with your colleagues!

 

Thinking Routines for Science – Frayer Model

Specific Science examples will be shared during this event. The link to the Interactive Frayer Model Handout that is referenced and shared in the above video is https://bit.ly/THINKfrayer.

And check out the first of this PD series on Synectics at https://ottomat3ch.wordpress.com/2022/01/17/thinking-routines-for-science-synectics/.

Feel free to share your samples and ideas when you use these in your classroom or share with your colleagues!

 

FOODS: Gingerbread House Design Challenge

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As part of Christmas traditions, many families build gingerbread houses.  Have you ever built a gingerbread house from scratch? From a kit?  Have you ever felt pride from building something from conceptual design to the actual finished product? What about the pride of altering a design and adding your own “personal touches” to a project?

This Challenge has been designed using Alberta’s Career and Technology Foundations template and was originally made for grades 7-9 virtual learning students. Yet…you can use this with grades 5-9 easily in the classroom environment. Also a great small group project with early years or even Grade 3 (Alberta) Science Structures unit.

The introductory video below is what would you would show to students (or have them view it themselves) first.

Now, for more in-depth information from a Teacher standpoint, please check out the Google Doc that has the overview.

Gingerbread House Design Challenge TEACHER

And there is a Rubric as well if you would like to associate an assessment with this particular Challenge.

Gingerbread House Design Challenge Rubric

If you have judges or peers also as part of this challenge, use the Gingerbread House Evaluation Rubric.

As well the teacher slide deck is available HERE.

Finally, if you would like to show off your students artwork, cc me on Twitter @nlakusta or in the comments section. Enjoy all the unique and scrumptious designs! 🏘️

 

CSEdWeek 2021 Resources

Computer Science Education Week falls in December. This a great time to have students involved in some interesting coding activities both unplugged and plugged. Check out the video tutorial below:

Once you’ve watched this video, get into the actual resources found HERE.

You do not need to be an expert coder to have students experience these resources. Get them to persevere and show YOU what they have learned and done in a particular coding session.

 

Keep on Track with Docs Checklists

Watch this tutorial video as to how you, your students and others keep on track with work easily in Google Docs. (I dare you to watch me 1.2x or 1.5x)