AI and Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a relatively new presence in K-12 education, gaining widespread attention in early 2023 with the release of free, public-facing Generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

As a digital-age educator, it’s important to understand two distinct but equally important aspects of AI in education:

• Using Generative AI to support your professional practice: AI can serve as your pedagogical copilot, instructional support system, or digital assistant, helping with lesson planning, generating feedback, streamlining communication, and handling administrative tasks. These tools are designed to enhance your workflow, save time, and support more personalized learning experiences. 
  
  
• Teaching students about AI: means helping them understand how it works, processes data, and generates information. This involves building information literacy to critically evaluate AI content, learning to use AI as a tool to support and enhance human thinking, never to replace it, and exploring its ethical, economic, and cultural impacts on society.

Since we’re in a lifelong learning profession, it’s on us to stay informed and adapt to emerging trends. The changes are already underway, and we’re living in exciting times. So, let’s dive in!

Machine learning from code.org

Watch and Do: Teaching Students About AI
(REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT – Assignment #3)
Submit your Certificate of Completion and Reflection as outlined in the assignment description on eLearning.

In this activity, you’ll complete linked short, eight-step unit from Code.org designed to help you, and your students, explore key concepts in Artificial Intelligence. The unit covers:

• Types of machine learning
• Training data and pattern recognition
• Classification models
• Ethical concerns like bias in AI
• How AI can be used to address global challenges

This assignment is not just about learning how AI works! It’s about preparing to teach students how to think critically about AI’s role in society, its limitations, and its potential.

Extra: Play AI Quest, a free, game-based learning program developed by Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning to teach AI literacy to students aged 11–14. It places students in the role of researchers solving real-world challenges (like flood forecasting and health diagnostics using simulated data)

To read: 15 Times to use AI, and 5 Not to.

Ethan Mollick argues that "AI is often most useful where we're already expert"- Why? 

Read his notes on the Practical Wisdom of AI Use-  As future educators, it’s essential to understand how to use AI and guide your students to use it responsibly. This article shows when AI can support learning and when judgment matters most:  https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/15-times-to-use-ai-and-5-not-to

A Human-Centered Approach to AI: Teaching Students to Think Critically About Technology

A human-centered approach to AI emphasizes that artificial intelligence should serve people - not replace them. It prioritizes human well-being, dignity, and equity in how AI systems are designed, used, and regulated.

When teaching students about AI, it’s important to help them explore these values and understand the broader societal context. UNESCO’s 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of AI offers a powerful framework for this kind of learning. It encourages educators and students to consider:

• How AI can amplify human capabilities through collaboration, not substitution
• The importance of human rights in guiding AI development and use
• The need to protect human dignity and cultural diversity
• The role of regulation and ethical oversight in ensuring AI supports inclusive, just, and sustainable futures

By engaging students in these conversations, we prepare them not just to use AI, but to shape its future responsibly.

Watch: (2 min.33s) Machine Learning and Human Bias - How it can perpetuate human bias, why it is important to know, how Google approaches this problem, and what you can do about it. 

In our lecture on thinking skills, you learned about Bloom’s taxonomy. You probably understand that the importance and context of reaching each level of LOTS and HOTS shifts over time, influenced by technology and easier access to basic information. As a result, the balance between lower- and higher-order thinking changes too. With basic facts now just a click away, the emphasis moves toward critical thinking, especially analysis and evaluation, to help students use technology wisely and avoid being misled by it.

Read: How AI is changing Bloom Taxonomy - a TEFL teacher shares practical ways AI can support critical thinking at every level of Bloom’s framework. This resource helps you see how AI tools can streamline planning, boost engagement, and make learning more meaningful. 

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) for K-12 initiative (AI4K12): https://ai4k12.org/ :

Organize the topics surrounding Artificial Intelligence and organize them into 5 Big Ideas. Each Idea has a progression chart similar to DOK that can help you teach about AI in a different grade level.  

To do: Go to this link: https://ai4k12.org/gradeband-progression-charts/ and open a progression chart for each idea. Try to make sense of what kind of AI concepts and topics should be taught in each grade. Would you be able to teach them today?

To do: Please create a free account on magicschool.ai—we suggest using a private account. We will evaluate it in labs. 

To read:  Inside the AI Factory. Behind even the most impressive AI system are people. Vast numbers of low-paid people label data to train it and clarify data when it gets confused. As the technology becomes ubiquitous, a large tasker underclass is emerging:

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Other Resources (not required, but useful) 

To bookmark and use: Approaches & Guides to Prompt Engineering in LLM like ChatGPT

• ChatGPT cheatsheet list of prompts organized by topics from QuickRef.me
• Study smarter, not harder 13 techniques to use ChatGPT Prompts For Studying- YouTube
• Prompt Engineering in ChatGPT: A Comprehensive Master Course

• The "5S Model" is another a little more advanced model of Prompt Engineering for educators (Set the Scene, Be Specific, Simplify your language, Structure the output, Share feedback)
• As you can see, there are lots of models. Microsft put together the elements that are consistent in writing a good prompt:

• Microsoft's Image Prompting 101

To browse: Resources from aiedu.org The AI Education Project. We used some resources from there while working on Digital Citizenship activities. 

To listen: Pondering AI podcast: How is using artificial intelligence (AI) shaping our human experience? Kimberly Nevala talks with diverse innovators, advocates, and data scientists.

To read, think, and interact: Is the modern development of "god-like technology" a new fire?  A philosophical question for the insomnia minds: Read and consider posting your response 

To read: 3 Ways Educators Can Use Artificial Intelligence. 

To browse: Secondary Idea for English 12: An Exploration of British Classic and Contemporary Science Fiction Literature Focusing on Artificial Intelligence: 

To read: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Computer Vision.

To browse and bookmark: Applied Digital Skills with Google.

UNI resources for AI in Teaching & Learning: https://ai.uni.edu/

Train a computer to recognize your own images, sounds, & poses with a Google Teachable Machine

ISTE standards for Educators' connection:

• Standard 2.2 Leader: Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning.
• 2.2.c Model Digital Tool Use: Model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation, and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning.
• Standard 2.3 Citizen: Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world.
• 2.3.b Evaluate Resources for Credibility - Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources, and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.
• 2.3.c Teach Safe, Legal, Ethical Practices - Mentor students in safe, legal and ethical practices with digital tools and the protection of intellectual rights and property.
• Standard 2.4  Collaborator: Educators dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues and students to improve practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve problems.
• 2.4.b Learn Alongside Students: Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources, and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.
• Standard 2.6 Facilitator: Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students.
• 2.6.d Model and Nurture Creativity: Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.