It's all the RAIge
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The start of term has seen a focus on GenAI but with some ALL IMPORTANT human centric handholding!
We began with a half day INSET sharing a range of GenAI features that could be used to support planning and enhancing outcomes in the classroom.
Resources included many familiar to those keeping in touch with AI developments – Napkin, Co-Pilot, Notebook LM (how do they do those podcasts??), Quizizz and MindJoy. There were also opportunities to see how GenAI prompts could be used to create quiz questions that can be imported via csv/Excel/Word files into the likes of Kahoot, Blookit and Canvas.
As an incubator school, hopefully on the path to becoming a Microsoft Showcase school, it was also good to share several online training courses in Microsoft Learn where staff can look at other AI opportunities.
The day also included a staff survey to find out our AI confidences, experiences, interests and future ‘ambitions’. The survey drew on ideas in a few 'recent' surveys and reports - https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/most-teachers-reluctant-to-use-ai-for-learning-and... and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-in-education-educator-and-expert-views . I am always happy to share the template (done in Microsoft Forms).
One of the tools we looked at during the INSET was Mindjoy. We purchased a site license for MindJoy Tutor ChatBots in August. I have been hugely impressed by the product, the support and the training. Teams from every subject area have been developed their own tutor bots, often refining the prompts to ensure students get the most from their helpful digital friend. It has been fantastic to see some very imaginative use of chatbots across all areas and especially in English, EAL and Careers. Each chatbot is assigned to a classroom of students. The process of adding students is made so much easier as MindJoy is integrated with Teams. Teams is integrated with our Canvas VLE, so every course has its own Team which is automagically created when the courses go live. We’ve also created a link to Mindjoy that appears on the navigation menu of every Canvas course. It sends out a strong and positive message about AI to students. We are embracing it, we want its use to be transparent and most importantly, it is being developed hand in hand with the experts - teachers!
The INSET Day also allowed us to take a first look at Quizizz AI. We have embarked on an extended trial with Quizizz to allow staff to fully test out all the different features. Whilst I am excited by its AI opportunities and toolkit, I was drawn by the promise of a deeper integration of Quizizz with our VLE. There are currently three opportunities of linking Quizizz to Canvas
- as a link in Canvas modules
- embedded in a Canvas page
- as a Canvas assignment which reports back the grades
The assignment feature used together with Quizizz mastery model, means we have a more engaging way of assessing learners’ understanding that we can then build into our digital badging framework.
The week ended with a TeachEat, like TeachMeet but takes place at lunchtime and you can bring your food. Hearing teachers talking about what they are doing in the classroom is always a privilege. When someone begins with the words, “I’m not sure that this is…..”, you invariably know you will be watching the best thing you’ve seen all week!
It was wonderful to hear first-hand from an EAL teacher on how MindJoy ChatBots have helped break down the barriers of learning in a new language by giving students a voice and make them more confident and independent learners.
Their enthusiasm was matched by a Languages teacher talking about the impact Quizizz has made in the creation of quizzes involving audio and video. Ever mindful of the need to have a greater say in shaping the content for the students, the teacher was most impressed by what they saw. Not only did Quizizz provide the audio transcript of an uploaded video, but it produced a set of questions which the teacher said, on checking, could have been their own!
On a similar theme of confidence in AI generated outputs, an English teacher shared their recent work creating Quizizz quizzes by uploading a file of their own notes. The output not only exceeded their expectations but has given them confidence to use the feature for other areas. Whilst AI has created the output, it would not have come about without the initial teacher input!
One lunchtime was never going to be enough to hear the amazing things going on and we look forward to a future session to discuss AI generated gamification in Maths, flipping the learning AI style in Biology with Notebook LM and MindJoy, and finally AI supported feedback for Economics exam papers….
The AI theme continues this week when we survey all our students about their own AI experiences, asking questions ranging from “Do you have an AI tool open on your device during your lessons even if the teacher has not suggested using one?” to “Is AI helping you learn and understand better?” It would have been remiss of me not to ask “Do you think that AI could replace teachers?” so I’ve included that one too. I look forward to hearing their views, opinions and insights.
The following week, some of our parents drop by for a coffee morning and a hands-on AI series of workshop involving some of the tools we are using. We’ve called it Cafe au lAIt. One activity we will definitely be using, thanks to recent posts, is creating a prompt to produce an image of someone writing with their left hand.
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