Founder and EdTech innovator, Janet envisions a world where every teacher has a virtual personal assistant that frees them to focus on the human side of teaching.
In my leadership experience, I’ve worked with teachers to embrace inquiry and PBL. The change requires years dedicated to vision, courage and a culture that sees small ‘failures’ as opportunities for growth. As I watch AI continue to emerge, I can only see schools and classrooms choosing one of two paths. One path is for teachers to revert back to handwritten assessments and assignments, limiting the use of AI so that they are certain students aren’t ‘cheating’. This approach misses the question of whether or not the original tasks/assessments were authentic demonstrations of learning in the first place. And, it ignores the skills and capabilities students will need to manage time and energy in future, non-school projects. The other is to embrace a PBL framework like this one. Do meaningful work. Through the process of doing meaningful work, learn to harness the personal strengths and acknowledge the limitations of AI. Harness the strengths and recognise the areas for growth of the human who is doing the work. Learn social skills to harness the strengths and empathise with needs of other humans with whom you both work and socialise. I predict that AI will eventually force those on the first path to move to the second. I feel for those who have not yet started - it is a long, complex cultural and pedagogical shift. But worth it. Really.
🇨🇦Educational & Curriculum Development || Program & Project Leadership || EDI Development || AI Curriculum & Pedagogy || Research Development || Media Communications Design || Educational Technology Design🇨🇦
🚨A don’t-miss paper🚨A framework for inclusive AI learning design-2024 ⚠️As educators we have been dealing with a challenge! ⁉️How to design an accessible and engaging learning experience with/on AI that ☑️resonate with diverse learners, ☑️enable all to reach deeper levels of understanding, ☑️and empower them with practical knowledge and skills ✅There is a new UDL-grounded framework for that! 🟢 the framework has the "AI Five Big Ideas" at its core, supported by the three UDL principles of ☑️Engagement (the "why"), ☑️Representation (the "what"), ☑️and Action & Expression (the "how"). ❇️The three "praxes" under each UDL principle provide concrete examples of teaching strategies with/on AI that align with that principle! ❇️For example, the engagement principle includes methods such as project-based learning to promote authenticity, collaborative tasks, and self/peer assessments! ⚠️In my view, we can also consider the following ways for more accessible, engaging and inclusive learning experiences: ✅Meaningful learning & personal connection: How about incorporating learner-centered projects that mirror our students' lives? wouldn't it make the concept or use of AI more meaningful? ✅Authentic engagement: when students apply a concept (i.e., AI) to the issues they really care about, they get more engaged! This is the power of a personal investment in the learning process! ✅Context relevance: by designing tasks that develop a sense of cultural and social relevance, we make learning with/on AI more relevant and approachable! ✅Collaboration & Community-building: having projects with/on AI that can build supportive communities of learners who grow together, challenge one another and share a collective understanding! ✅Multimodal learning: getting our students engaged with the information in multiple ways! By using visuals, simulations and hands-on interactive activities, we can translate complex concepts with/on AI into engaging learning experiences! Let’s not forget the accessibility agenda! ✅Project-based learning: having them to solve (their) real-world issues through projects with/on AI, they can develop a sense of agency and belonging through applying concepts in their own world! ✅Empowering learning: by connecting AI concepts to our students' social and cultural contexts, we support a constructivist approach! Through that, they can develop a sense of agency from building knowledge on their own experiences! ✅Culturally Responsive Learning: by designing projects that can help them to see concepts (i.e., AI) through a lens that aligns with their social and cultural background and the needs of their communities! a critical lens that reflects their world and their role in it! ✅Experiential learning: how about projects that engage our students in experiential learning cycles with/on AI: 1)concrete experience, 2)reflective observation, 3)abstract conceptualization, and 4)active experimentation! e.g, an unplugged activity! ⁉️What do you think⁉️
Your perspective on using setbacks as learning opportunities resonates deeply. Let's keep pushing the envelope on how we educate, ensuring we're equipping our learners for the complexities of the future.