Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Ep 98: The Smart Ways Canyons District Students, Teachers are ‘Keeping it Real’ with AI
Artificial intelligence is new, fast-evolving, disruptive — and, for some — a little scary.
It should be some comfort to know we’ve been here before. Think back to the birth of the printing press, color TVs, personal computers and the Internet. The rise of anything this pervasively transformative is either heralded as the answer to all our problems or labeled a perilous threat.
Whatever the risks or benefits: AI is certainly here to stay. A recent Walton Family Foundation poll, in fact, found 46 percent of teachers and 48 percent of students say they use ChatGPT at least weekly. So the question becomes: how do we use it in a way that’s responsible, informed, and aligned with our educational goals and values?
In this Connect Canyons episode we explore those very questions with Canyons District’s AI experts, Digital Teaching and Learning Specialists Emma Moss and Jonathan Stewart. They touch on a number of topics and cover:
2:24 How AI is being used by teachers to work more efficiently and tailor instruction to meet students’ needs.
5:10 How AI is being used to democratize adaptive technologies and bring learning accommodations within easy reach for special education students and students with learning disabilities.
11:18 Steps Canyons schools are taking to mitigate the risks of AI, from plagiarism to the spread of misinformation and deep fakes.
20:20 Tips for parents in monitoring their student’s use of AI at home.
22:23 The different AI tools approved for districtwide use in Canyons classrooms in alignment with the District’s Strategic Plan and federal data privacy and security standards.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyons School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, kirsten Stewart. For today's episode we are talking about AI, or artificial intelligence. Ai is new, it's fast evolving, it's disruptive and as such it's a little unsettling. We've been here before. You can think back to the birth of the printing press color TVs, personal computers, the internet. You know the rise of anything this pervasively transformative is either sort of heralded as the cured all of our problems or sort of labeled as a perilous threat. So, whatever the risks and benefits, I think we can all agree AI is here to stay. We know schools are using it. A recent Walton Family Foundation poll in fact found 46% of teachers and 48% of students say they use ChatGPT at least weekly. So the questions become how do we use it in a way that's responsible, informed and aligned with our educational goals and our ethics? So with us today to explore some of those questions are Canyons District's AI experts. We have two digital teaching and learning specialists, emma Moss and Jonathan Stewart. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Welcome. Welcome. Thanks, Kirsten.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks for being here, excited to be here. For the record, this is real. This is not computer generated, but I did actually use AI to help me organize my script and my questions.
Speaker 3:And she let us know that, which we appreciated. Yeah, that's where it came from.
Speaker 4:And when we looked at it, I actually really appreciated that she used the proper formatting. So there's some citation guidelines around how to use AI and she had that there and we were like this is cool, ready to go Well, and the reason I did it because Emma taught me how.
Speaker 2:But so let's start maybe just with a general overview of how AI is being used in schools now, and then maybe just kind of start with giving me a couple of examples.
Speaker 4:That sounds great.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 4:In terms of education.
Speaker 4:It has some really great applications and really good things for the classroom, and so when we're talking about how we're seeing it used, we're seeing it used in two spaces. One is for our teachers and being more efficient in how they're able to manage tasks. I think, specifically, one that I see a lot is like they're using it to generate lesson plans or having a starting point, for I need a rubric for this assignment. Where do I start? And then having it do what I like to say, like we want AI doing our doing, not our thinking, and so using that as the starting point and then building from there and for our students, really seeing it personalize their learning and how they can interact and ask questions and be able to be reached at their level. Jumping back to something I said earlier, but it's been around for a while we just haven't had this generative capability and so some of our tools that you know very well things like your Netflix suggestions that's a predictive AI and it's running in the background, based on what you are learning about.
Speaker 4:It's learning about you really like I really like baking shows and so my Netflix will give me suggestions for different baking shows right, or on Spotify or whatever music player you're using you can it'll give you suggestions on new songs. That's using a predictive AI, whereas we've even had things that are even before, that are reactive AI. So if you take, if you've ever had like an adaptive test in a school where it's like, if you pick option B, then you get this question, that's an adaptive AI. It's based off of programming, but this generative AI that we have is is creating and giving that really sense that it's interacting with you. So I think that's why it's a little different, because it feels much more uniquely human than I think we're used to when we're interacting with a computer, and I think for our educators it also means it has more of a depth of knowledge that it can pull from and create things that are unique to their classroom space.
Speaker 4:I gave you that example of like a rubric generator.
Speaker 4:But it can generate a rubric that's cool for all of your students, but I've seen teachers that have started using specific rubrics based on which student like, which student group they have, so that they can tailor that instruction to what the student needs, which I think is such an amazing thing that they can do that so quickly and be able to adapt to what a student needs in the classroom and respond to that.
Speaker 4:And I think when you look at those implications, it makes AI a little bit less scary and more like wow, it could reach my student. I think, particularly for our, like, multilingual learners. I saw a teacher that they what they did is they used the AI with a chatbot, that they're having a conversation and they put in some instructions for it. So they did that thinking process right and they put in the instructions for it to be able to say like hey, when a student comes across a cognate word for English to Spanish, I want you to define that cognate in this space when you're having the conversation. So for our multilingual learners, instead of just like straight translating it, it's actually giving them the support and the scaffolds they need in the learning process.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's fascinating.
Speaker 3:And then I think, another population that this really helps is our students special needs special education students and I've seen, you know, there's lots of ways where you can ask it to do accommodations and things, but I'm going to use a more personal example. So my sophomore in high school has a learning disability. She has a learning disability in reading and she actually uses AI in several different ways. So she uses the more I'll call it traditional AI, if you want to say it that way. So she uses a lot of speech dictation. I worked for 13 years in special education as a school psychologist and we used to have to pay thousands of dollars and have special equipment and special software to do some of the things that are just embedded in the tools we use now. So she'll use a speech dictation because she's a very good oral processor, but when it comes to the actual physical writing or typing and that sort of thing, she really needs a lot of help.
Speaker 2:So to help her write a paper or something.
Speaker 3:Help her write a paper, a story, anything like that. Anything where she has to get grammar right is painful for everyone involved that includes me. So she'll do the dictation, she'll get her draft there and then she can use an AI to help generate an outline if she needs to, to help organize her thoughts. She'll use it to help with that grammar and punctuation with the Grammarly, or there's another tool that she uses called Quobot that will help clean up some of those things that she's still learning or, quite frankly, will never be good at. But you know, it's gotten to the point where I thought she would struggle with writing forever. She's a terrible speller and you know, the last two or three years she's worked on a book online with her cousin. You know she's got lots of big ideas and lots of thoughts. She'll put it down. She has her cousin be her editor, but she's able to do that because of these transformational technologies.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And it goes from a student that probably would be in a resource classroom, need a lot of support and get really frustrated because she's smart enough to understand the ideas but has these roadblocks in her brain. She's able to accommodate and adapt with that and AI is a part of that to where she's able to be in honors English and it's not an issue.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing. I mean, those are the kinds of stories that I think are important for parents to hear too and understand, right, because sometimes we have these knee-jerk emotional reactions to new technologies and we kind of think about some of the risks. I think most parents probably go straight to this notion of well, my student's just going to use it to cheat and plagiarize or whatever right.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:Have ChachiBT write their paper for them, but what you're saying is no. Students are figuring out ways to use tools to advance their learning right and we're seeing that really across the board.
Speaker 3:I think about the student that you've told me the story about the student when ChatGPT first came out and you were still in the classroom.
Speaker 4:Yes, that is a good story. I had a student that they were using ChatGPT and I didn't know that at the beginning. But they came up and they were like Ms Moss, and I was like, yes, they were like I have something to tell you. So I used to teach eighth grade and he was like I use ChatGPT to write my assignment for me. And I was like, okay, and they're like, but that's not like the whole story. He was like so what I did? Because I didn it to write like me and I realized that I'm actually a really terrible writer. I need a lot of help. I had this like teaching moment of like okay, yeah, okay, let's, let's figure that out. But like the fact that that student went through the process of like I gave it my writing so that it didn't look like cheating, and then realized I need to be better, like that's a feedback mechanism for them and that's what we're seeing with kids.
Speaker 4:I mean the other example I think of we have a student at one of our schools that a coach was telling me about, that they are a multilingual learner and they are in one of our advanced programs and they used it to have them work through a lot of the vocabulary for our medical assisting program and it would give them individualized feedback and then clarify things in their home language and so they could go back and forth in this translanguaging process.
Speaker 4:And they actually were one of the top scorers in the class when they passed that test because they had an AI that was doing that personalized feedback mechanism for them. And I know the teacher specifically was kind of like I don't know about this, and then the student asked and I'm like okay, we'll try it. And after that they were like how do I do this for every student in my room? Because the program was able to reach that kid in a way that a teacher I mean the teacher doesn't speak multiple languages, but it also gave that teacher feedback and data reports and so they knew how to tailor their instruction. And so I think we're seeing multiple ways that those feedback loops are really benefiting both our students and our educators. And I think that's what I think about with AI is it's not replacing teachers ever Like it's really giving back time to our teachers and empowering them in a way to be better teachers because they can use this technology and the things that it can do so quickly.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm sure that I know you all do lots of teacher training, right, and that's part of your role, and so I suspect that there's a lot that you're doing to sort of help teachers understand how to use it to best effect but also how to avoid some of the risks.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So one of them. Maybe it's something as simple as when you're assigning a piece of writing, you make sure that they have to include some kind of personal anecdote, something that ChatGPT can't come up with on its own, or I don't know. Help me understand what some of the tips you give teachers.
Speaker 3:Well, first of all. Actually they could probably get around that ChatGPT can make up personal anecdotes.
Speaker 2:That has sense, whether they're true or not right, whether they actually happen or not.
Speaker 3:Of course, I imagine that also would happen that students would make up their own antidotes. I think some of the tips that we give teachers ironically, there are tools out there like how to AI proof your assignment. That is actually a thing, and some of them will use AI to do that. Sure, but I think some of the things is, first of all, have an honest conversation with your students about what are your expectations, just like you do with what are your expectations with using Google? Are you handwriting or using a Chromebook? You have to do that anyway. So are there parts of the assignment that you would be okay with them using AI and having a citation? Are Is this a? No, we're not using AI for this. Would you be able to use AI and use it completely, like for image generation? That would be a time where you could probably just use whatever the AI gave you. So it's just having the guidelines. We're developing some resources, but we've seen some good ones out there that kind of use like a Talking about the stoplight.
Speaker 4:The stoplight, yeah, like a red, yellow, green system of like green.
Speaker 3:Go ahead in this aspect. Stoplight, yeah, Like a red, yellow, green system of like green. Go ahead in this aspect. Yellow use with caution. Make sure you cite, like you did in the questions you gave us, when and how you were using it. And then the stoplight is no, we need you to do the thinking on this one.
Speaker 4:Okay, interesting Two with those guidelines like it's really important to recognize a lot of those, like for our students and our families, even that are watching. This is explaining why you're not having them use the AI.
Speaker 3:Or why you are using the AI Correct.
Speaker 4:Yes, to give both perspectives, because I mean, right now I'm going to call Jonathan out on this, but he is a terrible artist.
Speaker 3:This is no lie, no secret, no shame here.
Speaker 4:And so him, like him being able to draw something out probably not good, but there's a tool that he can scribble out a happy face and it'll give him a bunch of different options, and so supporting that like is is a good thing depending on what you're doing and something that's totally redefining what that looks like in education. Before you couldn't like here's a flower, and now it's a 3d model with all of the shading and things like that. But I mean, there's some skills that we want our students doing, regardless of AI. We want them to be able to know how to read, we want them to be able to know how to write, we want them to be able to know how. Like those basic skills, but knowing that the world they're coming into is changing, some of those basic skills are starting to shift, or we're building on those basic skills with AI.
Speaker 3:And I think there are other skills. Like I know, one of the questions you'd asked about is like a portrait of a Kenyan scholar. There are some of those other skills that we've talked about in teaching and education for a long time, but I think become even more important Critical thinking, being good consumers of information, knowing what's real and what's fake, and how do we find a source and verify that something is accurate, being creative and problem solving those are the sorts of skills that I think become more important in the world that we're going to be coming into, and that's where I think AI can augment that process, but it will never replace that process.
Speaker 3:Sure, no, and actually I think AI can augment that process, but it will never replace that process.
Speaker 2:Sure no, and actually I think AI is kind of like forcing a lot of those conversations, right? I mean, we're in a world where now we've got deep fakes and it's becoming increasingly difficult for people to determine if what I'm seeing is real. Oh yeah, or you know yeah. So what are we teaching students about how to understand? Has that become more of an imperative for them to be informationally literate? Is that the word yes?
Speaker 4:absolutely imperative. I think what you're talking about. There is something that is being called ai literacy, and it's how students are. I like to divide it into two parts. When I'm talking about ai literacy, one of this one side of that is the creation creation side how are students interacting with ai? And the other part of that is the content side how are they interacting with stuff that has been created by, on the creation side, really helping students understand what ai is, how it works, what it's not, and those appropriate uses, and then having opportunities to interact with it.
Speaker 4:What we're seeing from our end is that the world of work really is changing in terms of the skills that they will need. I was telling a story today about a conversation I had in 2019, so several years ago, five years at this point about how GM was planning that, in 10 years, that every career that they had would have AI integration. So we're like five years out from that and I would dare say that we've probably gone faster than that, but in terms of that, our students are going to need those skills. We are seeing things on, like our everyday tools, where there will be an AI chatbot interacting in the background that a student will need to know how to interact with to get information out about the role they have for their job, and so really, it's teaching those like basic skills of like how do you interact with that? Um, oftentimes with the chatbot. We call that prompting. It's the interaction conversational piece, um how you can take college courses on that you can it'll be a college major soon enough.
Speaker 4:Yes, but like having those, those skills of how do you do that and how do you do that effectively and what processes do you need to work through and we're working on developing some resources for Canyon students so they can have a framework for that of how do I work through that thinking process. And then looking at the interactive part, which is how do they interact with AI-generated content, and that's really talked about being information literate, how to continually ask questions, how to cite information that's out there, how to look for those citations. A lot of people may not realize this, but for the large majority of citation guides that we have out there, you're asked to not only date something but also give the time.
Speaker 4:Like that's how fast things are changing and so just realizing that there's these skill sets, that they need that AI literacy, and for students in Canyons we're having frameworks. We have lessons that are embedded into our digital citizenship week. We have materials that are available for teachers that have been approved and gone through that process so that we make sure that they're getting high quality resources on how to teach these skills.
Speaker 2:So on to diving in a little deeper about how we are there, specific AI tools we've approved for our classrooms and kind of what is the thought process that goes into determining what we are able to use and what we shouldn't use?
Speaker 3:Sure, well, we have a website, okay, so it's wwwcanyonsdistrictorg slash AI Very simple, so I think people are able to remember that. So Emma on the screen shows some of the tools that we have approved, and we have a different list for teachers and for students. Okay, I think it's important to understand that this applies to all technology tools we use in education, not just AI, but that there are state guidelines that we have to follow, and so we have an approval process that looks at student data privacy. What are they going to be doing with the information that's given to the company? There are specific things they can do and they can't do.
Speaker 2:So, in other words, you need to read all that fine print, right, the fine print. Someone has to read that. That's some of the things that we get involved in.
Speaker 3:But I think it's really important for AI because in the past the information is like name, date of birth, address, that sort of personal identifiable information. Identifiable information. An additional component with AI is all the information that you feed it. Depending on the tool, that then becomes something the company can use to train on to improve their product. But improving their product to make money on. There's different thoughts on how that works. Now that's not necessarily what happens. In fact, the tools that we have approved they don't do that because it's part of the state law that we have to follow.
Speaker 2:And federal law right.
Speaker 3:Federal data privacy Federal data privacy, but there are additional state requirements that we have in Utah based on bills passed by the legislature, and so it's a pretty strict process that we have to follow. So everything that's been approved has those safety features, especially when it comes to student data and what happens with it and how it can be used.
Speaker 4:Interesting. I think we're also looking at like we have been training teachers, like when we have these conversations and offer professional learning opportunities. That is one of the key components we always talk about. It's part of our framework, which is linked here on our website that Jonathan mentioned, but we have a guidebook for our district, so it's called the view of AI in canyons and this is just like some of the intro pages.
Speaker 4:But you can see, here we have things set up for educators, we have things set up for students, we have things set up for families that you can go look at. But one of the things I love about our framework is that the second thing on there is first understanding AI and second is looking at implementing safely for your students. Like that I think is so paramount for me when I started working with AI is making sure that it's not just we're handing over AI, it's that we're doing it a way that we want our students, our staff and our families as well to understand what this is, how it works and then how they can use it in a safe way, so that we can mitigate a lot of those risks like the data privacy breaches that we've seen for larger, more broad tools, but not the ones that are approved for use here.
Speaker 2:Right, well, and maybe give me a couple of tips that will be super useful for parents, because we're doing what we can to protect students while they're under our care. But what should parents know about what tools they should or should not advise their children to be using at home?
Speaker 3:Well, the first thing I go to is one thing I tell parents or people in the community, people I meet, the first thing I say is just try it, because as you try it you learn what it will do and it won't do. While it has these person-like features, it's still a bunch of ones and zeros and Xs and Os and programming bits and things. It's not human. It operates on a certain algorithm, a certain pattern of recognition, and so as you use it, you say, oh, it's good for this, it's not good for this, this, it's not good for this. It's great, as what I like to say generally is it's a great starting point, but then you have to add your humanness to whatever it is that you're creating.
Speaker 3:The second thing I say is I know we talked about all the legalese that you have to. It's important to read that, yes, and because a lot of products out there, for example, are meant, are set at a level where it's only for adults. Um, because adults are the only one that can kind of sign their way or rights to whatever they're asking for the information that they're getting back from. So kind of be more particular than you probably would when you just check the box with Microsoft or Apple or whatever Google whatever. Um, you probably want, when you just check the box with Microsoft or Apple or whatever Google whatever, you probably want to pay attention to those. I think sticking with the tools that because, as you said, like in Microsoft, things are embedded, in Google things are embedded. Those are probably good places to start. We also will be demoing a couple of things here in a minute.
Speaker 3:But those are probably some good places to start. We also will be demoing a couple things here in a minute, okay, yeah, but but those are probably some good places to start because those companies like, if they, if there are breaches or there are problems, they have a lot more to lose than some of these startup companies, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you wanted to demo some things. What are? These tools that we kind of are using Sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All classrooms or most classrooms.
Speaker 3:Well, the the one we're going to start with is something where we're exploring some greater strategic partnerships. I'll leave it at that, right now. But this is called Magic School. It's awesome. Let's start there.
Speaker 4:Magic School has two sides to it. So the first side that we have is it has a teacher-facing side, so it has tools that are specifically designed for our educators. It also has a student side where a teacher can set up a room for students to engage with the AI in that space, which means that the teacher receives a report. They know all of the generation that's happening with the student, the conversation. They can look that up. It has some safety features where if a student has brought up something that may be inappropriate or dangerous, it will flag it for the teacher and so there are things safety features in place here.
Speaker 4:But, like Jonathan said, this tool is awesome. It has a lot of integrated features and it takes out I mentioned prompting earlier these because they're education specific. An educator doesn't necessarily have to prompt to get some of the scaffolds that are already in place. So they have a lot of tools here. You can see I've favorited a couple a professional email writer, an email responder but they have a lot of tools that are set up for what teachers might need. So they have a text leveler or a teacher could put in a YouTube video and get specific questions.
Speaker 4:Wait what's a text leveler?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good question. So in a YouTube video and get specific questions. Wait, what's a text leveler? Oh, that's a good question, so go ahead and click on it and we'll show you so let's say that you have an English passage in sixth grade and you have students in your room that maybe are on an IEP and they read about a third grade level.
Speaker 4:I'm going to go pull up a Romeo and Juliet text. Yep, I'm not sure where I am.
Speaker 3:I don going to go pull up a.
Speaker 4:Romeo and Juliet text. Yep, I'm not sure, I don't think we need the entire play.
Speaker 3:Nope, we'll do the prologue, we'll take the prologue.
Speaker 4:There you go. So we're going to take the prologue and I'm just going to copy it in here.
Speaker 3:And then I want to put that on a third grade level to make it more accessible for my students that maybe are struggling readers for whatever reason.
Speaker 4:Oh, goodness, look at that. So then it came up as a story of two families. Once upon a time, in a beautiful city, of Verona, there were two families. Both families were honorable and proud, but they had a longstanding fight that made them very unhappy. That's something a third grader would understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that about sums it up too, doesn't it it?
Speaker 3:really does so, then you're able to take that and then you could have alternative copies for those students so they are able to follow along with the plot and be able to participate with the class because they have the information they need.
Speaker 4:It's like a glossary. They have the grade-level content at a level that they can interact and start to engage with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or an illumination of the text right and then you notice this is one of the reasons why Magic School has additional questions and things you can do. You could actually go to actions and translate that so you could have it in another language, so a student could follow along in both languages, if maybe they're not a native speaker.
Speaker 4:So I know one of our main languages here in Canyons is Spanish. Let's translate that into Spanish. And this is one history of the two families. Oh, that's amazing. And then, yeah, here in the beautiful city of Verona so it's adjusting for that sentence structure as well there's two families. There are two families. Yep, this is they were honorable, and I don't remember what that word is in Spanish.
Speaker 4:But and then it talks about. So you can see that. The other thing that I love about this for our students is it has a read aloud feature so it could read aloud for our students and this is on a teacher end, right, so it's leveling it, but you can also use, but it'll do the same thing for students. It'll do the same thing for students, yeah.
Speaker 2:Interesting, so sort of for the processing right, like if you are better at auditory learning school.
Speaker 3:there's, there's many, many more oh, I bet there's a song generator oh nice there's teacher jokes yes, and they are.
Speaker 2:Are they better than dad jokes or?
Speaker 4:no, they are dead jokes they are on par um, I do like things too, like clear, clear directions, like a teacher could take their directions they have and say, is this more clear? Um, they have one. They have an ai that's trained on common misconceptions, so they could plug in something like maybe you have a first year teacher who hasn't taught something as long, because it's like something you learn over time. Right, and they put in something and it would bring up common misconceptions so they can anticipate those questions Like that would have been so helpful.
Speaker 3:I think there's times I was like I was not expecting that one and so it may not be 100%, but and it helps you with life, like the one she highlights right now a gift suggestion, because you're like I have that person in my life and I never know what to get them. There you go, yeah, yeah, that's great, it could do that.
Speaker 4:They also will give you recommendations for tools inside of Magic School. So if you're not sure where to start, you could click on tool recommendation. You could say this is my grade level, this is some of the things that I need, and it would give you a recommendation based on that it can also for teachers, recommend IEP goals, accommodations, behavioral intervention plans, 504 plan.
Speaker 3:So it can give you suggestions for all of these things and then lets you be able to work with it from there. It can create presentations and images, Wow.
Speaker 4:There's our presentation generators so you can generate those.
Speaker 3:That came out very recently and there's much excitement in the land, I bet.
Speaker 4:I bet. So, yeah, there's a lot of different things here that our teachers can access and be able to use, and this is one of the tools that we've mentioned is approved for both teachers and students, and so a lot of things here that really save some of those steps in time and can make teachers more efficient so that they have more time to spend with our students, and I think that's really what it is is. It's like it's not replacing them in any sense, it's helping empower them, because I really think that for AI like if I pulled down this window, you'd see on the backside of my screensaver, but it talks about that creativity and agency must still persist in this world of AI. And I think, for our teachers, we still want them being creative, we still want them thinking and making choice, just like we want our students to be able to do, but that human element of them is going to come out more because they have more time. They're not spending time leveling text.
Speaker 3:That used to take me hours to do for history lessons and some teachers would give up and they're like I can't do it. I'm not going to sacrifice other things in my life for this.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Show them the magic student.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, let's do that. So let's say we're going to launch a room to students, so I'm going to go in and I'm going to create a room. You can see here that I've done a few of them, but I can actually go in as a teacher and say this is a third grade room, we'll go with that and I can pick which tools my students have access to. So that really helps you as an educator. You're integrating this tool for a specific purpose. We're not just handing over AI.
Speaker 3:The top one right. There is actually one I really like for students. It's called Quizme. Yeah, over AI. The top one right. There is actually one I really like for students called Quiz Me. So you can allow the students to have the AI quiz them to make sure they know the information as a review.
Speaker 4:So we've seen teachers that what they'll do is they have that in there and then they'll put it like all the information for their unit in it and they'll have that up and then at the end of the day, as an exit ticket, their students will go in and they'll interact with it and then it actually gives all that real time data back to the teacher of what they were asking about and then the teacher can adjust their instruction and it's individualized for every student, but this one is actually dynamically adjusting to what the student understands and then giving information back to the educator on where that level is at. It's not just the questions they designed, but the questions the student actually has and I think that's important right well yeah it's.
Speaker 2:It's helping the student understand also right like where do I need to work a little bit more? Right but then also the teacher is empowered with that data so that they can adjust their instruction if need be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so or the parent when you're at home and you're like Dad, quiz me on this. You're like I need to go walk the dog and make dinner and do all the other things, right? Oh, this would be an opportunity where they might be able to be a little more independent. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, they have an AI literacy bot that's in here so they can actually have your students. We've seen teachers start out with that tool. They have this one that I really like. It's called chat with docs. As I hover over it, it'll add it up here, but you can upload a document as a teacher. So, let's say, you wanted to have your students like read a passage like an article about I don't know About plants read a passage like an article about.
Speaker 1:I don't know About plants Like plants.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 4:We'll go with plants About plants and they can actually have a conversation with whatever is in that document so they can ask questions. It will give them questions back, one that I help with this elementary STEM endorsement and we actually gave them. I'm going to search for it. We gave them character chatbots and so what they did is we set them up as career experts. So we have our STEM endorsement students exploring a wetland right now. So we had a chatbot that was set up as from Utah's division of natural resources and gave it some like what gave it.
Speaker 4:The website said go read the information, and so our teachers that are learning in that class are actually having conversations and asking questions about Utah wetlands with this chatbot that was acting as an expert on the field and I actually ran it by a friend who that's what she does for her work and she was like this is really doing a really good job, cause I was like I need to verify before I hand this off to teachers that that it's pulling the right information, right information. But that's an experience you could typically have that you suddenly have an expert in your classroom pretty instantly on information that your students can ask in-depth questions to, so that one is really fun as well. So once you do that, you add in the tools that you want. I can actually customize. So if I wanted to give them specific instructions, like maybe for this character chatbot.
Speaker 3:Harry Potter Because it can be a historical figure, like it says historical figure, real or fictional.
Speaker 4:I can have it be Harry Potter. It'll give me a preview of what students see so I can say, hey, you're Harry Potter and I can generate hello, I'm Harry Potter. I'm really excited to talk to you. Wow, Jonathan, what do you want to know from Harry Potter?
Speaker 3:I want to know who his enemies were at his school.
Speaker 4:Who are your enemies? Okay, I have a few enemies. Most favorite is he who shall not be named.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:He's a dark wizard who wants to take over the seat, but I think things like that. We saw an elementary teacher that they had just done a project on Neil Armstrong and she set up some specific prompting so that it would level for her students and so they were all having individuals conversations, with training on Neil Armstrong after they had done these presentations and it was like interviewing Neil Armstrong and then had them reflect on it and come back and it was such a more engaging and in-depth experience for students to feel like that this historical figure was a real person, rather just like well, there's a picture. They felt like they could connect and interact and ask questions and things like that, and it would give like specific references to certain events, which I really liked as well.
Speaker 3:So when you click done so, when you kind of try everything out, you go ahead and launch the room Once you do. One thing that's really nice is there's no student logins. So they have a website they go to and have a code that they join, but it never asks for any personalized information from them which is really nice, so it kind of removes. It adds an extra layer of privacy on.
Speaker 4:Right, Um, and then join it and I'll show you what it looks like what it looks like as a student.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So they just been there. This is the same process you might join for other technologies. You have in the classroom near pod a Kahoot, a GimKit first name, with a code Um, and then I can join that room and it actually up with. This talks about how to use AI responsibly. Going back to that AI literacy, I have read this about 100 times so I'm going to acknowledge, but I would encourage you to read.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can pause the video and watch this if you want to.
Speaker 4:But they can go in. So, like that character chatbot we just set up Harry Potter's there I could generate and have that conversation with it. You have that conversation with it. You can see here that it got something different and so I can have that. I can also go in and do.
Speaker 4:I don't think I gave it a topic for Quizme, but an AI literacy bot. So if I wanted to know something I don't know why it's giving me an error, but something I'm going to choose that question how does AI learn to write like a human? And I've set this up for a younger grade, so that's a great question Through a process training. Here's how it works. I think it's because I'm connected to a second screen, but learning from examples AI is trained in a lot of text Like this is a very elementary level for how this is working. But again, I can have it read aloud and students can translate. I could summarize that. So I could summarize that into a sentence if I wanted to. Oh, if it's thinking about it, hold on, let's try it one more time. I think it's because I'm presenting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's because you're presenting, there we go.
Speaker 4:It's having issues with the screen, but I'm here for questions in a way that's easy for students to understand, focusing on how it works, its applications. So just shortening all of that down, and so it has tools built in for our students to use as well. But then, as a teacher, I'm controlling that narrative essentially around what AI tools are being used, which again puts more safety and precautions and things in place for our students that are using AI.
Speaker 3:And this is one that we're taking a really hard look at at having a more connected partnership with the district.
Speaker 2:Because right now it's just being used sort of on a test pilot basis.
Speaker 3:Well, it's available free for educators Okay, but we're looking at possibly looking at piloting and looking at using it with some of their paid features, with how it's, more integrations and things.
Speaker 4:We're in the early stages of that, again, wanting to make sure that, as we're proceeding forward, that we're doing it in a way that's most beneficial for students and when looking at that process and making sure that we're communicating and working through. So we say you have this right now, we have beginnings of a plan that's working through and as that comes forward, it'll be shared more and communicated so that everyone is able and aware of what's happening. Because I think that's something that's part of the reason that we had a website so early on is because we wanted to make sure that we were sharing what's happening with our parents and our families and our educators so that they're aware.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that, because one of the things that we've always said in Canyons right is that it's not technology for technology's sake.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:We want to use technology and make sure that it's for a purpose right For an educational goal.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Want to see some other cool tools. We have two more that are really fun.
Speaker 4:So this one is kind of like Nearpod, but what it does is that it uses and gives AI feedback, and so I'm not sure how we're going to show this live, but there's some things in here that you can have drawings. So you can have drawings, so you can draw, and it will like register, based on your drawing, what you have um I wouldn't do that well on that one so like, for example, this is a recent report you can see that they did.
Speaker 4:They got like 100, which means they had some drawings or they did not participate. It gives me their participation level on that particular one. Um on, I'm trying to think of which one has has the ai feedback yeah, I think it's in this one, that one does yeah um give it a second.
Speaker 4:It's going to give me a summary here, but it showed me here, like here's student insights, and then it showed here what are examples of push and pull. I had a sample teacher use this. I pushed the door open and then it gave some AI-generated feedback down here. And what's really cool so this is the report end I just had one student in this class is that it will give individualized feedback to every student in the classroom, and so when you're looking at like an elementary teacher, for example, that you don't necessarily want your third grader interacting with an AI chatbot, right, this is a good way that the teacher could use it, get real-time data back and still have those beginning stages of learning how to interact with AI feedback.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they have some really fun features too. One of my favorite ones is they have as a vocabulary building activity you do a meme battle, oh nice, Nice. Favorite ones is they have um, where as a vocabulary building activity.
Speaker 2:You do a meme battle.
Speaker 3:Oh nice, nice and then the and then again that the ai back end will. Then, uh, you produce something that gives them feedback on whether they they hit did the right meme or not.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'm too old for me to get that one right, but you know I love that um. The other one we wanted to show you is called goblin tools, so this is one that's approved for teacher use in our district, but it has some really fun things that I think our families would like, if you're looking for an entry point. Okay, which one would you like to show first?
Speaker 3:Don't we have to do the chef first. Okay.
Speaker 4:So this one is called the Chef, and you can put in anything that you have in your fridge and it will generate a recipe for you, your fridge and it will generate a recipe for you.
Speaker 3:So Well, parents are not going to want that. Well, working mom is not going to like that Right.
Speaker 4:What things do you have in your fridge right now that you know I'm going to have you use it as an example.
Speaker 2:Okay, eggs, eggs, milk, milk, cheese. Okay, tortillas.
Speaker 3:I already know where this is going to go. What?
Speaker 2:else On. Uh, what else? Onions, tomatoes, lettuce, garlic, okay.
Speaker 4:Is that enough, yeah?
Speaker 4:Go with that. So I'm going to have it suggest. So it's going to think for a second. I know we're used to things coming pretty instantly, but give it a minute while thinking. There we go. So we have a cheesy breakfast quesadilla and it's going to tell you the serving size. This serves two. Give you some ingredients and some instructions on what to do. So, right here we can see, whisk together the eggs and the milk until well combined. Heat a non-stick skillet further and add the diced onions. Saute for two to three minutes.
Speaker 4:Pour the egg mixture into the skillet with the onions, tomatoes yes, it's going to go through all of that process and so this is really fun because it like organizes. I will say some I know we had last year in our department. We had part of like a summer challenge to cook something, the recipe that is suggested, and sometimes they're not a hundred percent. So check your sources. Um, I also feel like we do get a lot of like quesadillas or skillet type dishes. Um, still learning, but a lot of quesadillas or skillet-type dishes.
Speaker 4:Still learning, but a lot of fun. I definitely have used this when I'm like what's in my fridge. I had a teacher the other day that was like I paid for the premium version because it would save menus or something for me.
Speaker 4:So kind of fun. It also has some good things in here, like a magic to-do list. My husband uses this a lot cause it'll break down tasks like larger projects into smaller sections. So I'm just going to use a simple one. But like how long does it take to clean your room? That was something.
Speaker 3:No, this is something I needed when my kids were younger.
Speaker 4:Like that's just one item but then I'm going to come over here and break it down and it's going to break it down. So gather cleaning supplies such as a trash bag, vacuum or broom, remove any items, collect and dispose dust the surfaces, wipe down, organize belongings kind of walks you through that process. I've seen educators use this on how to break down larger projects for their students. So again, it's an educator tool but they would put in directions and break it down and break it down into really manageable parts for our kids that maybe are working through some of that processing.
Speaker 2:That is so important, because we do that all the time.
Speaker 3:Some of our neurodiverse students too oh right, yeah, you know, may have attention issues or have or struggle with that skill of like where do I start that kind of?
Speaker 2:thing. Yeah Well, I mean, all kids are really like how many times have I said that as a parent, clean your room and then it doesn't get done because I probably didn't provide the steps right. What? Does cleaning your room mean Like how do you get from point A to point B? Right yeah, them more like better, because you can do some of these things quicker.
Speaker 4:You can do some of these things. Learn how to do some of these things. I know I mentioned my husband used this a lot at the beginning but he started being like, oh, I kind of anticipate, cause I know how it's going to break this down to make it not so scary and like that's what our students are starting to do as well.
Speaker 4:Right, this really is there as a support and a scaffold, not as, again, as a replacement in any way. It's really just helping take what already makes them uniquely human and like amplify that and empower them. I, I firmly believe like at the end of the day, I have not on this computer, but I have a second screen in my office that like says the AI still needs humanity, and I think that's actually what makes it so amazing is because there's a person behind it interacting with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great point. I think, that's a great place to end, unless you had anything else you wanted to share.
Speaker 3:No, I think that's great yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure this will be a conversation that we continue to have. Right, because what's going to happen tomorrow? Right?
Speaker 3:What do they say that?
Speaker 2:AI is the worst today it'll ever be right.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that we love having you on. So yeah, thanks again both of you for being here today and again you've been here with us for the latest episode of Connect Canyons. If you like this episode, please be sure to subscribe, and if you have any ideas for topics you'd like us to cover, please email communications at canyonsdistrictorg. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks.
Speaker 1:Thanks. Thanks for tuning in, thank you, thank you, thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook or Instagram at Canyons District or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.
