Engaging Educators with AI in the Classroom

In this special summer episode of ChatEDU (Crash Course - Building Your AI Professional Learning Plan), Matt and Liz explore strategies for developing effective AI professional learning plans for educators.

Intro

Matt welcomes Liz back and then quizzes her with a paragraph full of “AI tell words” to see how many she can identify. 

Liz puts Matt in the “hotseat”, as she inquires about how he approaches AI professional learning for back-to-school and beyond. They discuss a range of issues including:

1. Foundation and Baseline Understanding

• Matt unpacks his approach to establishing a baseline understanding of AI for educators

• Covers the "great everything making machine" concept and demonstrates AI capabilities

• Addresses how teachers have responded to AI in the past year

2. Differentiated Learning Approaches

• Elementary school focus: Productivity tools and building AI literacy foundations

• Middle and high school: Durable and vulnerable assessments, potential student-facing AI pilots

• Advanced users: Exploring Leon Furze’s AI assessment scale

3. Academic Integrity and Guidelines

• Importance of consistent, district-wide guidelines for AI use

• Implementing guidelines: Human steps and procedures for addressing potential misuse

4. Engaging Professional Learning Techniques

• Matt shares his approach to making AI professional learning engaging and relevant

• Emphasizes the importance of humanity, humor, and vulnerability in presentations

5. Ongoing Professional Learning Strategies

• Connecting AI to district priorities and ongoing initiatives

• Suggestions for embedding AI learning into regular school activities (faculty meetings, lunch and learns)

• Importance of continuous learning due to rapidly evolving AI landscape

6. Special Populations and AI

• Brief discussion on AI tools for students with special needs and multilingual learners

• Mention of translation tools and their ease of use

• Skills21.org/prompts - Prompt library

• Skills21.org/AI - AI resources page

• AI student scenarios document

• Professional learning survey (Google Form)

• AI policy/guideline examples

• AI literacy resources for K-12

Have a question or comment? Please email Matt and Liz at chatedu@edadvance.org

UDIO.com - AI music generation tool

Suno.ai - Another AI music tool mentioned

Skills21.org/ai - Destination for Matt’s AI tools, resources and contact for PL support