ETS Research Institute’s Post

For past 12 months I've been writing about and using AI powered applications in the classroom. The latest in my AI Bytes series looks at my day-to-day toolkit of AI driven applications. Whatever the tools there are just a few fundamentals that drive my choices and they are all based in sound classroom pedagogy. Differentiation Personalisation Adaptive teaching Knowledge checking Interleaved learning Retrieval practice All of these have been things I have always strived to do, but I have never been as effective at this as I have since I wove AI into my teaching and planning. AI has the ability to transform education and offer wholly new possibilities, but it also offers us the opportunity to do the things we know have direct and immediate impact, but haven't been able to do as frequently or as effectively as we would like. Pedagogy first is the most powerful hook for teachers and school leaders alike.

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀 I’m thrilled to share my latest article, “The AI Revolution in Teaching: How It Changes Everything,” just published by Getting Smart! 🎉 In this piece, I explore how AI is reshaping education, moving beyond traditional methods and empowering students to think critically, ask the right questions, and become masters of their own learning through prompt creation and refinement. AI isn’t just a tool; it’s transforming how we teach, how students learn, and how we prepare them for the future. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dKdKWpma #AI #Education #EdTech #Teaching #AIInEducation #FutureOfLearning #GettingSmart

Teachers are eager for more training on how to use AI effectively and create AI tools of their own to enhance instruction. In a recent The Hechinger Report article, Playlab AI co-founder Yusuf Ahmad said school districts should provide professional development opportunities for teachers on AI, teaching them to ask tough questions about the technology in their classrooms. The most important question, he said, is: “How does this advance their work and student learning?” https://hubs.la/Q02DJc5D0 We couldn’t agree more. That’s why Leading Educators and The Learning Accelerator are launching The School Teams AI Collaborative to equip school teams with AI-enabled instructional best practices. ✍ Apply TODAY: https://hubs.la/Q02DH-G00

🖋️🤖 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘃𝘀. 𝗙𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 I recently read an article claiming, "Schools stopped teaching cursive because AI can't read it." Being interested in both education and technology, I decided to look into this claim. Here's what I found, and why I think it's important to examine such statements critically. 📚 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 (𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸): 1. Cursive education has been on quite a journey: - Schools started phasing out cursive in the mid-2000s, favoring typing skills. - In 2010, Common Core Standards dropped cursive, and many thought it was gone for good. - Surprisingly, it's making a comeback! 24 US states now require cursive in schools. 2. About that AI claim: - According to the article I read, many AI tools can indeed read cursive with decent accuracy. - The article even mentions that iPhones (iOS 15+) can scan and interpret handwritten notes. 🤔 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗠𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: - Why might people be quick to attribute educational changes to AI? - How does this narrative relate to broader discussions about AI's impact on society? 💡 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: - This claim seems to oversimplify the complex factors involved in curriculum decisions. - It's worth considering how technology and education interact in more nuanced ways. - Interestingly, the original post used «guillemets» (a type of quotation mark), suggesting it might not be from an English-speaking source. This raises questions about how information spreads across language barriers and how cultural differences might influence these narratives. 🔍 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗜'𝗺 𝗣𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗜'𝗱 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀): - How do we strike a balance between traditional skills and modern tech literacy in our schools? - Are there compelling reasons to keep or bring back cursive in our curricula? - How can we better understand the real capabilities and limitations of AI in education? I'm curious to hear your perspectives! How do you see AI and education evolving together? Are there other areas where you think the impact of AI on society might be misunderstood? Let's keep this conversation going. Your insights could help shape a more informed view of both education and technology! Here is the original article and it is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the intersection of AI, education, and societal trends: https://lnkd.in/gtvubGFu #AIMyths #EducationTrends #CriticalThinking #CursiveWriting #TechLiteracy

“Reading is a skill so foundational to education, to democracy, and to our notion of modern culture that we judge (and are judged on) how literate our population is compared with other nations. Yet in the near future, we’ll be able to offload close-reading skills to private corporations in exchange for instant summaries tailored to our reading level, and very likely, to our political interests. As faculty members, we will be left with few options to curb AI-assisted reading. There is no detector that can alert you if a student is using an AI reading assistant, nor can I fathom a scenario in which a faculty member could ban this new tech from the classroom. Once again, we’re faced with a slew of AI-powered interfaces that make us pause and consider their impact. These tools have appeared on the heels of think pieces lamenting the lack of reading skills among college students… Take a look at Magic School AI, one of many tools being marketed to K-12 educators. Within it are dozens of preloaded AI features, including their own Text Leveler Tool. The developers decided to load the first chapter of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as the exemplar activity to show teachers how easy it is for the AI to rewrite a text from an eighth-grade reading level to any level they’d like. Instead of trying to ban these new tech tools from our classroom or deny their value, as faculty members, we have to be honest about the affordances that AI reading assistance can bring to students, including those who are neurodiverse and second-language learners. At the same time, we must be wary of the long-term consequences of too many students letting a machine do their reading for them. It’s our job to start being more proactive in this evolving AI era. Can we find ways to protect and promote the value of students learning close reading skills in the traditional way? Can we also adapt to the realities of 2024 and incorporate new AI technology into our teaching to help students learn? I think so. But it will require faculty members to be more intentional when we assign readings. An instructor who assigns students to skim a set of readings for key ideas might allow them to use AI reading assistants on that task. Skimming texts for main ideas and relevant points is a powerful skill, but I don’t see it surviving when you can upload 50 sources into a single notebook in Google NotebookLM and have the AI summarize and even synthesize information. When you think about processing information at that scale, it’s pretty easy to understand how powerful generative AI can be for researchers and how tempting for students… Reading is an act of synthesizing information, and reading isn’t something that happens when all you engage with is neatly generated AI summaries… I don’t know how my reading and synthesis skills would ever have improved if the only material I read had been neatly packaged at a reading level that didn’t challenge me.” - Marc Watkins

Education is the latest profession to benefit from AI. Learn how a free AI and chatbot platform is helping K-12 teachers create lesson plans and save time. #teachers #AI #chatbot #lessonplans

🤖 AI in education: Cheat code or game-changer? Unveil AI's impact on student productivity, debunk myths, and explore ethical AI use in academia here 🔍 - https://bit.ly/3vRh8AX #AIeducation #EdTech #research #chatgpt #Paperpal #academia #writing #EthicalAI

Out today! A must-listen for parents, students, educators, or anyone working in education curious about how AI can be used in the classroom and beyond. As a former educator, I found this a fascinating book to work on. Also, getting to work with Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, was pretty darn cool. Narrated by the author; produced by Brady Emerson for Penguin Random House Audio; directed by yours truly. Click the link below to hear an excerpt from the audiobook. "From the founder of Khan Academy, the first book written for general audiences on the AI revolution in education, its implications for parenting, and how we can best harness its power for good. In Brave New Words, Salman Khan, the visionary behind Khan Academy, explores how artificial intelligence and GPT technology will transform learning, offering a roadmap for teachers, parents, and students to navigate this exciting (and sometimes intimidating) new world. An insider in the world of education technology, Khan explains the ins and outs of these cutting-edge tools and how they will revolutionize the way we learn and teach. Rather than approaching the sea of change brought on by ChatGPT with white-knuckled fear, Khan wants parents and teachers to embrace AI and adapt to it (while acknowledging its imperfections and limitations), so that every student can complement the work they're already doing in profoundly new and creative ways, to personalize learning, adapt assessments, and support success in the classroom."

This article examines the key aspects of AI integration in education and its significant implications for both students and educators. #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Education #future #learning Forward Eye