As AI begins to grow more and more it is essential to understand the fundamentals of the new tool and how its application in the classroom can aid not only educators but students as well. In breaking down the ten rudimentary areas of AI and its impact it becomes much easier to digest. The ten being;

1. Human Trained AI vs Deep Learning Models
2. The True Power in Student – AI Collaboration
3. The Impact AI Can Have on Learning Differences
4. The Role of Coded Bias
5. The Job Market Impact
6. The Importance of Improving prompting Skills
7. How to Enhance Pedagogy with ChatGPT
8. AI is More Than a Worksheet or Presentation Generator
9. How to Use AI to develop Critical Thinking in Students
10. Soon, It will be a common assumption that all written pieces involved the use of AI

Everyone of the concepts open up the conversation for what AI use will become in the near future. They provide key examples of how students will be able to work with AI to complete assignments, or how as educators we will be able to turn to AI to generate resources for lesson plans, projects, and more. The new changes to AI that have transitioned it from the human trained AI used all over the world, have now become systems that are capable of learning from themselves. This will allow students to collaborate with a reliable source of information that may generate ideas and concepts for the best result when working on assignments. As the article states, it brings benefit to students who may have disabilities as well and due to this it will soon be included in most if not all IEP’s. 

By coming to understand the ideas in this article, I was better able to visualize how as an educator I will be able to use AI in my classroom. In becoming comfortable with the resource, it will allow me to create better lesson plans and overall a better learning experience for my students. With AI generated resources, it will become a much easier way to also implement the idea of AI to students and open them up to other opportunities as well. The main focus will be on prompting the AI systems in order to retain the most accurate information. After reading the article, I now see the importance of including AI activities and allowing students to familiarize themselves with a tool such as AI.

Original Article: https://www.hollyclark.org/2023/09/13/10-things-all-educators-should-understand-about-ai-in-the-classroom/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Written proficiently well by author Emma Green, Virtual-Reality School Is the Next Frontier of the School-Choice Movement details the newest approach to technology with the classroom itself. This idea is to take the online format created during the overall global pandemic and enhance it. While we have in the past used VR to overall enhance the classroom by integrating with in person lessons, the idea is to now take it to the students’ homes to get rid of the old school module of schooling. Now you may wonder how this will benefit the student educational, but you must see how it also promotes economical and community involvement.

Student Education

• The State of Florida has already integrated this concept with their school-choice system showing a vast improvement to the learning and education of the student.
• Many classes within Optima are synchronous allowing the group classroom setting that many are familiar with to not deter families to think the student is learning on their own while providing a vast amount of different classes.
• The afternoon classes are purely asynchronous to allow students to gain self-paced knowledge to enhance on portions needed to be looked at by the student more and promote outside interests and family time.
• The ability to connect globally to other students allows an engagement of global communication that many would not be able to have due to restrictions of social media and approachability.

Economical and Communal Involvement

• Families will see the payment of Optima Ed through their taxes similarly to school taxes for public schooling.
• This allows an excess of money to occur through the limiting of transportation for the student
• The ability to not purchase extra clothing for uniforms throughout the school year.
• Promotes allocations to enhance activities for students to try new hobbies and interests that the student may not have been previously able to do.

Overall global integration of VR as the overall new way of school will indeed take time. Many obstacles will be faced with the overall providence of internet and technology to those in lower world countries. However, it has been undoubtedly noted the positives this type of learning can have on a student and the possibilities the learning could go. However, what do you think? Do you see this overall taking overall the style of teaching as a whole? Please feel free to let me know in the comments!

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The following post is related to content from the article Today’s Kids Are Inundated With Tech. When Does It Help — and Hurt? by Jeffrey R. Young. From a personal standpoint, I completely avoided being in school during the shutdown by pure coincidence. I graduated high school in 2018 and returned to Stockton in the fall semester of 2021 – right as in person classes started back up. Despite this, I still feel as though the effects of the pandemic on education can be felt. In the simplest of ways it was wearing masks to classes for the first two semesters and further it is the sharp increase of technology required to participate in class assignments. Some of the increase in tech can be attributed to the natural development of now five years passing, but it is impossible to deny that the pandemic catapulted reliance on technology.

The article linked above is part of a podcast, EdSurge, and calls upon an interview with Katie Davis. Davis is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington with 20 years of child development research under her belt. More recently that research has found itself focusing on the appropriate use of technology throughout different age groups. Her book detailing this information in depth can be purchased through Amazon here: Technology’s Child by Katie Davis.

Davis refers to the technology features that have adverse real world effects as “dark patterns”. These patterns are things that we can become familiar with and forget to question their role in children’s lives. One such pattern discussed in the interview, and subsequent article relating, is the autoplay feature on YouTube; with constant access to content with minimal effort it can be hard for a child’s mind to draw a line of when enough is enough. Even with adults, people can get sucked into rabbit holes of information and end up realizing they have spent hours consuming content mindlessly (we see this with TikTok often). Routing back to younger age groups, it is harder for them to separate the fifth video in a row from the video they started with creating difficulty around convincing the child to remove themselves from the device(s).

The above image is one that likely feels familiar to anyone looking at it, classrooms like this exist all over Stockton’s campus – students facing a screen while the professor stands behind a screen working a projector – but there are still even more technology reliant set ups; such as computer labs. In many ways this form of using technology can be very useful. For example, being able to present typed instructions takes away the need for legible hand writings and offers the option to increase font size at any given time if the need presents itself. There are also downsides such as the lack of professor to student connection, standing at the front behind a podium there is an inherent disconnect between the two. This duality is the main focus of both Davis’ research and this particular article by Young. Technology is a skill that is necessary to have in today’s world, but there is a balance that must be found to be able to use these resources for good without inflicting harm in the classroom. Students still need to know how to use a pen and pencil, how to write, how to interact face-to-face with other people, and these are things that technology simply cannot do. This is an ever evolving problem that is undoubtedly going to see a lot of regression along with the progress but watching it all unfold as we prepare to enter the classroom ourselves is an exciting and daunting task.

Follow this link for a webinar on AI in education 9/19/2023: AI Webinar

In this article, The Nature and Building Blocks of Educational Technology Research, a focus on researching the ways in which technology may support and improve educational processes is discussed. Using a wide range of topics and approaches a relationship is found to be made between how educational technology can connect into this physical activity.

Interdisciplinary Nature

When using building blocks for academic purposes such as counting, hand-eye coordination, and more it is a powerful tool for students to get a basic understanding of their educational journey. The patience and disciple that a child faces when using the blocks fuels the research that can be examined closely. This enhances both the learning and teaching processes.

Research Methods

A broad area called educational technology research examines how technology might improve teaching and learning. It uses a range of research techniques to look into its objectives and goals. Its building components include technological tools, instructional tactics, learning theories, evaluation methodologies, and ethical issues. The future of education in the digital age is greatly influenced by this field.

Closing

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