AI Learning I Am Doing

If you are in education, I'm sure you have been inundated with AI tools, resources, how to's, why/why not, do/do not's, and so much more. I know I have been.  ChatGPT was release on November 30, 2022. A little more than 2 years ago. I did a search on Amazon for "artificial intelligence books" and it returned over 20,000. Wow. 

I am not opposed to AI, but I'm super hesitate to just go all in. I have serious concerns with introducing AI far too early to our students only to find out in a few years that we've unintentionally weakened their educational foundation. I'd like to take a slower approach and be mindful with what and how I incorporate AI in the classroom.

I have been in the ed-tech world for at least a decade and I have my favorite resources so I have been sticking close to them in this world of AI discovery and learning. Catlin Tucker comes out near the top. She and Katie Novak have recently release a book, "Elevating Educational Design with AI: Making Learning Accessible, Inclusive, and Equitable". What I am most excited about this book is that it is not pushing a tool or prompts to feed o AI. 

In their own words, this book wants to  "empower teachers with an adaptable and rigorous educational design framework that embodies the best ideals of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and blended learning". 

I have not yet gotten my hands on this book, but I have listened to a couple of Catlin's podcasts where she shares about the book and it really piqued my interest. I think they might be of interest to you, too. Here are the two I've listened to:

• 12/17/2024: Designing for Equity and Engagement: A Preview of Elevating Educational Design with AI (14 min) 
  
  
• 01/14/2025: Preview of Elevating Educational Design with AI (18 min)

I'd love to know if you have read Catlin's book. Is it helpful? Do you have other resources you'd like to share? 

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AI You Can Do - but ...

I was lucky enough to attend my first conference in awhile this past week. It was the Schoolwide AI Conference. It was a good one & I'm going to share my thoughts here as a way to help myself process it, but also capture and share them with you. AI is definitely a hot topic these days ... including in education. 

Matt Miller - of Ditch That Textbook - was the keynote and boy did he have a great keynote! Matt had a lot of great ways to use AI as a teacher. He shared some pretty cool tools, including image generators that really made some amazing images. AI can help make several teacher tasks much easier and save us all some time.

But ...

Matt also shared some drawbacks to AI. Since I subscribe to his newsletters, I'd just read the recent news stories he shared. You can read his newsletter about this topic here --> "🗑 AI, students, relationships and manipulation". It's more than eye-opening. 

It's shocking. 

It's wild. 

It's sickening. 

It's troublesome. And it needs to be shared. 

And it needs to be discussed.

I went to the conference in the hopes of learning more about AI. I recognized a lot of names of presenters. I was excited. And I saw some great sessions. Quite a few of the sessions shared how AI can help create lessons, provide prompt suggestions, assist creating rubrics and assessment questions, and help with differentiation. They were good.

My favorite session was with a lawyer who shared about Ohio's AI Toolkit. He also shared the Federal Governments newly released guidance, "Empowering Education Leaders: A Toolkit for Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration". I know for sure I want to dive deeper into this toolkit.

The final session of the day was pretty enlightening. It was a student panel. There were four high schoolers and one 8th grader. They all shared ways they've used AI. A few use AI more than the others. They don't seem afraid or intimidated by it. They all wish their teachers taught them more how to use AI. The 8th grader said he believes he will definitely be using AI more as he gets older.

Wow.

I have to say, walking away from the conference that day, I was a bit disappointed I didn't see sessions that focused on my biggest concerns: 

• At what AGE is AI developmentally appropriate? 
• At what AGE "should" students begin using AI?
• WHY would a teacher use AI with a young student?
• Do the benefits of using AI outweigh the risks?
• AI has only been around for a couple years (for the general public) ... what are long term ramifications of using AI with students? 

I know these aren't questions that have "easy" answers. They probably don't HAVE answers, truthfully. And I'm sure there are teachers on all sides of these questions. This is the dialogue I want to have. These are the areas I want to learn more about. 

Do you have resources I can read or learn from? Articles? Podcasts? People to follow? I'll take it all. I have a Wakelet for things I've collected - AI in Education. Please share if you have more that I can learn from. Thanks!

*** Every Monday, I share a newsletter with a collection of Tech You Can Do resources. It is delivered right to your inbox. Interested? Sign up here!  ***

How MANY Google Classrooms Can You Do?

Nearly a month ago, I shared a reflective activity I had designed to better help teachers think through the process of setting up their Google Classrooms. I called it "Starting Google Classroom You Can Do." It is a great step-by-step process you can do individually, as a teaching team, or even as a leadership team to better guide your teachers. Feel free to make a copy of the slides so you can get right to work! I included 8 topics to consider, gave some specific thoughts on each one, and then asked a reflective question.

Since I've published it, I have presented on this at the EdChange Global virtual conference and incorporated it into my webinar "Tech You Can Do: Intro to Google Classroom". Both times, it has been well received. You see, as teachers, now more than ever, we need to Stop. Think. Reflect. Question. Discuss. Think. Reflect. Discuss. We have taken the blinders off and, hopefully by now, we've all accepted the fact that education is changing. And while change IS scary, change CAN be good! We can grab this change by the horns and MAKE it great!

I have had numerous conversations with teachers the past several weeks regarding the number of Google Classrooms to have -- wouldn't it be nice to just have someone tell us the "right" answer here? 

That's the tough part ... there ISN'T a right answer.

Each class is unique. Each teacher is unique. Be ok with this.

Embrace this!

Now, since you DO have to set up Classroom(s), let's dive in deeper on this. Since there is no magical formula, you need to consider a few things. I've created a Slide deck to walk you through this thinking. I don't have all the answers ... I don't know the best situation for you ... but I can help you doing some solid thinking. I can give you some pointers to jumpstart your planning, so you can make the best decision for you! Good luck!

If you have questions, you'd like additional help, or if you'd like to have a discussion with me to best decide your path, please reach out! Comment below, email me, Tweet at me, or Facebook me! All my contact info is to the right.

Would you like a link to share with others? Here you go! (I've also use a new URL trick I've learned to remove the navigation menu!)

I have been staying busy this past month or so with quite a few presentations & I still have a handful more coming up! Please check out My Presentations tab if you are interested in hearing more from me.