Work Smarter, Not Harder

 Prior to this class I actually had quite a bit of experience with AI, but I never really thought about it from that perspective. As I was reading over this week’s coursework, I realized that I use AI all the time! I have a fitness tracker, I use Siri and Alexa regularly, GPS on my car, a backup camera, etc. However, I did not really use it to enhance my teaching until more recently. 

Last year at one of our institute days we had a speaker come to discuss AI and, more specifically, ChatGPT. I had never used the tool before in my own classroom, but I was very interested to see what our speaker had to say. At first I was skeptical, and believed that I would never use AI in my own classroom. However, by the end of his lecture I realized that was untrue. ChatGPT has a ton of capabilities that I had never considered! Since his speech I have now used AI to generate practice problems, brainstorm different lessons I could use that incorporated stop-motion animation, plan an itinerary for a vacation, and more! I still am a little hesitant to use it to have it do other things for me, because I still like the idea of generating my own ideas and lessons, but I am way more open to using AI than I ever thought I would be!

While I have never actually used it in a lesson with my own students I know that they love to use AI! Last year I had a student in my class who was very self-motivated. He decided that he wanted to switch his schedule for the following year, but he knew that he would need to contact the assistant principal of Curriculum and Instruction. Even though the student is very confident, he did not usually have regular conversations with the assistant principal, so he turned to AI to help make this communication seem more professional. He typed in the stipulations for the email that he wanted to send, and ChatGPT generated a letter. The letter sounded very professional and thoughtful. I think he used AI in an appropriate and effective way! It was cool to see him thinking outside of the box!

Image Source: Simplilearn

I think that technology, and AI Specifically, is a great way to enhance learning and create opportunities that were previously impossible. AI has made my own life so much easier, but I never want it to take the place of learning. I think that if you use AI appropriately, to help you brainstorm, answer a question that you are having, etc. it is great! However, it should not take the place of hard work and learning. I feel like at times students use AI to write them an essay that they just did not feel like writing, or summarize a story that they did not want to read. In this case I just think AI is promoting laziness and unpreparedness. However, overall I think AI is a powerful tool that can help make students understand concepts at a deeper and more meaningful level. 

Architects of Education

Every teacher is like an architect. While architects build houses, office buildings, parks, etc., teachers build knowledge. However, both teachers and architects need to take many things into consideration when they are designing their “projects.” 

A teacher has to ask themselves many questions before they begin to design their lessons, and here are just a few: 

• How do my students learn best? 

• What is the objective of the lesson? 

• How can I differentiate in order to make sure the lesson is meaningful and accessible to all of the students in the classroom? 

• What tools do I have available to me to help make the learning experience more valuable?

In my previous job I worked as a Special Education teacher in a middle school. My job was essentially to create lesson plans that met the learning standards of the district, while also making sure that the material was accessible to all of the students in my classroom. Throughout this time I became very familiar with tools that Google has embedded into Chrome that help students read, understand, and navigate text in a meaningful way. My students often used text-to-speech, translating, and voice-to-text  extensions on Chrome to make their learning experience valuable. 

Image Source: Google Play

One of my favorite students of all time struggled with written expression. He was able to read without any issues, but when it came time to responding to prompts, writing essays, or even Googling a question he could not seem to put the letters in the correct order. However, that did not stop him. He would always use the Read&Write for Google tool so that he could speak into the computer in order to get his message across. Additionally, he would use the voice to text tool on Google searches just so that he was able to see the correct spelling of the word he wanted to use in his writing. 

Due to my background as a special education teacher, I feel like I have gained so much insight as to how I can accommodate students in order for them to really understand the material that we are focusing on at a given time. I try to provide students with multiple explanations of the same material in order to appeal to all different types of learners. For example, sometimes we draw pictures, graphs,  and diagrams of what we are learning so that they can see how changing a variable or number really makes an impact on the figure. Other times, we sing songs to help them remember a formula that we are using to solve problems. Additionally, something else that I do regularly is assign students videos for them to watch independently, and then ask questions. This is generally their homework assignment, but what I love about it is the student is in full control of the video. They can put on closed-captioning if that helps them understand the material better. They can replay the video as many times as they want, change the speed, ask me private questions rather than having to ask in front of the whole class, etc. I think setting up my classroom in this manner is also my strength. 

That being said, I still have a lot of room for growth. The area that I would like to improve the most is incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into my classroom as an accessibility tool. I strongly believe that in the next few years AI is going to be a huge part of education, and I would like to figure out how I can plan lessons in such a way that the students are utilizing AI to enhance their learning, understanding, and knowledge. 

Image Source: Ashley Shaw

5 Google Accessibility Tools

The Good Old Days?

Close your eyes, and let’s go back in time to the year 2003. It was, in my opinion, a much simpler time. I was in eighth grade gearing up for high school, and the summer was mine! I had a brand new cell phone, but that cell phone only made phone calls, no texting, no internet. My friends and I would wander around our town all day, and then go home on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and chat all night. Although we were connected to one another it was not the same as it is today. 

Now, students are connected to each other 100% of the time. Which, I think, makes being a teenager far more difficult than it ever was before. Bullying is not a new concept, but when students are doing it virtually it is much harder to monitor and much easier to be done in a covert manner. According to Pew Research Center, 69% of parents and 44% of teens agree.

Image Source: Pew Internet

That being said, there are definitely aspects of being a teenager that are easier now, and in this case 15% of parents and 12% of teens feel that way. Students have access to so much more information at their fingertips than ever before. Artificial intelligence (AI) was not even on most people’s RADAR three or four years ago, but today it is something that a large percentage of our population is very familiar with. 

Image Source: Pew Internet

In another article that I read, Common Sense Media reported people’s perception of AI. At this point slightly more than half of people ages 14-22 have used AI, but only 4% of those people use it everyday (Teen and young adult perspectives on generative AI). I myself, while I do not fall into that age range, would definitely fall into the category of someone who uses AI occasionally. I think it can be a great tool to advance learning, but it should not replace learning. In the same article, 53% of people use AI to gain information, which is essentially the same as Googling a question (which is what I have always done). I think that is a great way to implement AI, because students are learning using AI as a tool rather than a replacement for learning. The same article also reported that 51% of people use AI to brainstorm! Once again, I think this is a great use of the technology! Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with multiple ideas for a project, and having the help of Artificial Intelligence makes the beginning process so much easier. I used AI this summer when I had to create a lesson plan that featured stop-motion animation. Since that is a strategy that is new to me it was wonderful to have AI available to help me come up with new and interesting ideas. 

In the end, it is my belief that technology has definitely made some aspects of life far more difficult than it needs to be. I am very grateful that I was a teenager in the 2000s! That being said, professionally, technology (like AI) has given me the ability to take my students places that would have been impossible just a few years ago. 

References

Faverio, M. (2024, August 27). Why many parents and teens think it’s harder being a teen today. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/feature/why-many-parents-and-teens-think-its-harder-being-a-teen-today/ 

Teen and young adult perspectives on generative AI. (n.d.). https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/teen-and-young-adult-perspectives-on-generative-ai.pdf