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What?s New in Educational Technology ? November 2024
November is always a busy, shortened month. As you know, Thanksgiving break takes three days including a half or minimum day on Wednesday. And the students are restless! Plus, there is National Origami Day to further upset the week!
What follows are articles about the impact of transgender versus cisgender students' social-emotional health, how NASA uses origami in space, a new version of Microsoft Forms/Quizzes, and much more. And a discussion about moving forward with AI. Also, plan now for National Computer Science Week and The Hour of Code in December.
1. How do transgender students compare to cisgender students in social-emotional health? ?During the last 7 years, ?coming out? has become easier for those students who do not identify with their birth gender. Schools are much more open to letting students be themselves. Unfortunately, studies show that schools do not provide enough support. Those students often need help with their academic progress and, more importantly, social-emotional health. (A high percentage report poor mental health.) ?Overall, there is a long path ahead for these students and for schools to provide the right atmosphere and support for them: This article goes deeper: Here's How Many High Schoolers Are Transgender?and How They're Faring in Schools
2. Nov 11th, National Origami Day One NASA engineer, Robert Lang, looks at Origami as an extension of mathematics. Essentially it boils down to how many balls can fit into a given volume. Remember that balls cannot overlap though they can be almost any distance apart. I found the article interesting. Folding NASA Experience into an Origamist?s Toolkit | NASA Spinoff
The modern incarnation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is less than 2 years old. Although AI goes back to the early 1990?s with NASA. It was implemented using mainframe computers, to monitor and guide space exploration. Now, between cloud computing and neural processors in many laptops and PCs, AI is available to everyone.
There is more AI news every week with almost every implementation stating how useful it would be for teaching. Recently we?ve seen new designs meant to integrate into a school or school district's LMS (Learning Management System) thus saving time for the teacher. At the same time, some students have discovered AI but are not using it properly. And there is no ?best? or leading AI classroom implementation. Meanwhile, teachers who give AI a try find features they like and hate with every implementation.
My advice: A. First, look at the AI Starter Kit link below. It is a list of education-oriented AI applications. The list runs from Large Language Model (LLM) generative applications to subject-specific education support products. Some applications determine whether AI was used to create a report or presentation. There are a wide range of products listed. AI Starter Kit for Teachers | Tech & Learning
B. Start a teacher group in your district or school to discuss AI in the classroom. Everything from student use and expectations to teacher use needs to be reviewed. As a group, you can set standards and define expectations. This information should be reported to the whole teaching staff.
C. Try the AI models already included in your existing software. (Typically: Microsoft Co-Pilot and Google Gemini). How difficult is it to create a useful prompt? Are the results useful? Can you create lesson plans? Assessments? Can results be easily reported to the LMS? What else is important to your classroom?
D. Next, try those products with the longest free trials. Some offer 30 days, while others are longer. ?(And some are free.) Again, how easy are they to use? How well will they integrate into your LMS?
E. This is optional; I want to learn more about how AI works in your school. Include RegardingAI@tcclass.com in your email reports to your teachers. (Maybe this should be a BCC address.)
What follows are some recent new entries and one update of an existing AI model that may prove useful.
3. Unique AI processors that are meant to support teaching. This article describes 4 unique generative AI tools that can replace time-consuming tasks. For example, if you need to create a transcription of a meeting, Otter.AI is available. Similarly debunking the fake news and claims from this season's elections takes time, DebunkBot is available to find the truth. There are 2 more.? 4 AI Tools For Education That Are Nothing Like ChatGPT | Tech & Learning
4. Google LearnLM for Education. Google?s Gemini AI product will soon have a version specifically designed for the academic environment. This includes its own LLM (Large Language Model) called LearnLM. One of the new features will be the ability for LearnLM to adjust to the needs of the learner. The idea is not to just provide an ?answer? but to deepen understanding. This will be done by a series of Gemini ?Gems? meant to provide a more individualized experience based on user needs. Here is an overview of what is coming: How Google?s LearnLM generative AI models support teachers and learners
5. Practical uses for generative AI Using Adobe Express (free for education) the built-in AI component will help to create interesting graphics to represent collected data. Teachers may find this useful for creating attention-getting versions of classroom charts and other messages. It can function like an automated version of Photoshop or even do video editing. ?Visualizing data in fun infographics (adobe.com)
6. TeacherMade ? Prep and Grade Learning Activities. Whether it is practice materials, blended learning plans, a virtual or hybrid environment, in school or home school, a large group, or a small group, teachers must plan and prepare. And, the more materials that can be put into the hands of students, the better student engagement becomes. TeacherMade was created with these ideas in mind. Now they have added an AI component to make it faster and provide more features. There is a 30-day trial period available and a lot more information about how it works on their website. ?TeacherMade App | Create Engaging Digital Activities
7. New -- Microsoft Forms/Quizzes? A 7-minute overview Newly updated, Microsoft Forms can also create quizzes. The data collected can be automatically scored and appear in an Excel spreadsheet. There are lots of choices, including multiple-choice, ranking, paragraphs, and more. Forms can also be used for data gathering and things like event registration (who has signed up for the field trip?). For those who are weak readers, Immersive Reader is built in. You can try it out at forms.office.com or microsoft365.com/forms.
The educational version is included with academic license holders. Check out the introductory video here: How to use the ALL NEW Microsoft Forms | Tips and tricks
8. Sanity-Saving Classroom Management Tips We all have those days, or periods within a day when students are ready for anything but learning. Sometimes the tried-and-true approach to regaining control over the room and student focus is less than ideal. This podcast includes an interview with Linda Kardamis (about 5 minutes into the podcast) a teacher and classroom management expert. (Note that the podcast is over 30 minutes long.) Shake Up Learning Podcast
9. More from Linda Kardamis? ?Teach 4 the Heart? website While Ms. Kadamis? website is focused on supporting parochial schools, her advice and lessons are useful in any school environment. These are Free trainings and very useful. Teach 4 the Heart
10. Pedagogical AI by Merlyn Mind One more education-focused AI to look into. Merlyn Mind helps to create personalized lessons. The teacher creates a lesson plan. Merlyn Mind creates the materials to accomplish the lesson. Should a student require modification of the plan, perhaps to catch up with the rest of the class, or, something more advanced to keep the student-focused, the teacher can speak to Merlyn to revise the plan to fit those needs. Of course prompts can be modified using the keyboard too. Here is the website: About Merlyn Mind AI
11. Lessons and Benefits from the Apple Education Community It is hard to say no to anything free to use. Each of the ?big 3? technology companies and many others offer materials for teacher use. Something unique about Apple Education is the lessons tailored for the iPad. Become a Member - Apple Education Community
12. Sparkfun Education Resources Sparkfun sells small single-board PCs and controllers. They also offer many accessories and complete kits that include power adapters, sensors, wires, and cases to keep them in. Most importantly, they provide full course curricula (dependent upon the grade you need). The curricula are free. Check it out here: SparkFun Education - Maker Education Curriculum
December is National Computer Science Month, with December 9th through 15th being National Computer Science Week. That is the week many schools offer the ?Hour of Code? to interested students. There is a lot of material available for teachers to use. These cover the grades of K thru 12 and can be sorted by grade. Here are some links to look at; 98 plans can be found here: Explore activities
This link connects to 100s more, including coding using the Raspberry Pi, micro-Bit, Arduino, Mindscape, MIT Scratch, Python, and more: Additional activities
Also, coming in December: Rosa Parks Day, Special Education Day, World Computer Literacy Day, the UNICEF Day for Change, and much more? I seem to remember that the new year starts soon too!
Please share these messages with those who can benefit from them.
Mitch Ravitz
mitch@tcclass.com
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