Tom's Takes: AI Tools and AI Views

According to the recent HEM Educator Confidence Report, only 1 in 10 teachers have used AI in their classrooms. Furthermore, most teachers envision AI as a tool simply for creating worksheets, lesson plans, and writing prompts - essentially to streamline their tasks. But the true potential of AI is its ability to personalize learning, adapting to each student's unique needs, strengths, and weaknesses in real-time. For that, students must use the AI. At the moment, teachers are hesitant to put AI in their students' hands, but recent AI advances are providing momentum towards the "holy grail" of personalized education.

ChatGPT is rolling out a voice conversation feature and the ability to upload pictures. These two new features create great opportunities for students to use ChatGPT as a verbal tutor, a language partner, a historical colleague, and more. Check out this episode for some new and exciting learning possibilities!

News outlets are reporting that teaching occupations are “the most in danger" of being taken over by robots in the A.I. revolution. Are they right? In this podcast I point out that “high exposure" to AI might actually result in many teachers doing their jobs better, rather than replace them, but that there are currents afloat that pose challenges to the teaching profession. In the end, many teachers will have to forge a collaborative partnership with AI or risk being undercut by its fast-advancing capabilities.

AI lesson plan generators have emerged as a popular tool in the K-12 landscape, helping teachers streamline the lesson planning process. If you're an educator thinking about using a lesson plan generator, this podcast outlines key features to keep in mind and describes three outstanding options: Eduaide, MagicSchool.ai, and Curipod.

Popular quiz and flashcard tools like Quizlet, Quizizz, and Kahoot introduced powerful AI features this summer to enhance their products. Additionally, there are new AI quiz tools emerging with unique features. In this podcast you'll learn about these exciting AI developments.

ChatGPT is an advanced AI chatbot that can write student essays, solve their math problems, and more. It's causing significant angst in schools and many have opted to ban its use. In this podcast, I advocate for analyzing ChatGPT / AI content with students to understand what it is, what it does well, where it lacks human capacities, and discuss how we might forge a productive response.

Tom Daccord of EdTechTeacher explains the importance of anonymous feedback from students not only to gauge their academic progress, but also to identify underlying social and emotional issues that might impede learning. He provides strategic prompts, illustrative stories, and useful tools to assist educators in assisting the whole child.

Learn how to identify a “Target of Difficulty," an entry point into pedagogical innovation for classroom teachers.

In this episode, Tom Daccord and Caitlin McClemore discuss how assessment and grading are being redefined in an age of remote learning. Tom and Caitlin reconsider the balance of formative and summative assessment, reflect on the qualities of effective formative assessment, and explore several tools that can be used to create effective assessment strategies.

While the threat of coronavirus looms, students are stuck at home and educators are left rethinking the role of technology in teaching and learning. A silver lining of this global pandemic is the huge opportunity it provides to rethink the student learning process. Yet, teachers can’t be expected to change without a galvanizing vision of what beneficial change actually looks like. Right now, we need leadership in formulating tech-infused and student-centric learning environments.