Auckalnd Matematics Association Saturday session

I just gave up my Saturday morning to attend another really informative morning with the great team from AMA.Being a very wet winters morning did help. I joined Vince Wright on his expertise around Geometry or Space as it is now called in the refreshed curriculum. He had a focus around 3D shapes . He made the connections between the 2007 curriculum levels for 2,3 and 4 to the new phases of the refreshed curriculum. He really emphasised the use of language and using the correct terminology. Also the importance of getting students to group 3D shapes and explain why they belong? Building up the attributes or as he called it the features, properties and characteristics. Sometimes being explicit with the language face, vertex, edge, opposite, adjacent, parallel. He talked about visualizers- objects and spatual. Using nets and allowing students to visualise the action of folding with knowledge of properties. Also the importance of students creating their own nets. Then I joined the Tāhūrangi workshop with Kylie Begg from the ministry. This was great to be given a run through all the options and filters for the new one place shop for resources. But also the run down on the why behind creating it. We had 70 different places for NZ educators to go to with different layouts and formats. Putting them all in one place seems a sensible thing to do. I really liked the filter options; they were easy to use and had a great variety. If you use your ESL login you can make folders on your profile and add your resources there and there is also the ability to share with others. It was great to have the opportunity to have a play and a search with the expert there to ask questions. Currently there are over 2566 resources on the Mathematics and statistics part of Tāhūrangi.With many more to be transferred across.

Term 2 Toolkit-Microsoft designer

 

For a change I decided not to do a maths workshop and try something new. Ditch that text book Matt Millar shared a great idea of Microsoft designer a great text to image AI tool. He also shared the prompts that you could edit to suit you. I wasted so much time in the holidays playing with the prompts and creating fun images I decided to do a toolkit around it. I only had 5 register and 4 turn up. But it is very popular and they had fun creating and could see the value of using it in the classroom. Maybe if I had added that it was an AI tool into the discription I may have had more register for the workshop. I must admit having low numbers was much more personal and fun. A lot less stress than with big numbers. Giving them lots of time to play and explore was important. My creations 

18 Sleeps to Go. ISTE 2024 Denver.

 

The countdown is on, suitcases are out and packing is started. As we are heading into summer it is easy to start packing. 

I am trying to stick an itinerary together for the 5 days and with 100s to choose from for each session and with such a wide array of subjects, year levels, labs, lectures, it is very overwhelming. These are the types to choose from. Some are ones you need to book into and some of the trips you have an extra cost. Do I choose by topic, subject or presenter? Do I have a mixture and try to cover a wide range?

Lots of educators and tech providers are sharing on social media about their presentations at the up and coming ISTE.

The checklist is written and the request list from the family is also getting long. Part of me is so excited and can not wait to learn and experience with some of the best in the world. To get some motivation and inspiration. Also to see and learn some of the latest and innovative education tech I can bring back and share with NZ teachers, students and work colleagues. A small part of me is also nervous and scared I travel from Kerikeri to Auckland and have a night in Auckland. ( just in case the Kerikeri flight is cancelled, it is winter) then Auckland to Houston and Houston to Denver about 20 hours of travel. Also very long days at ISTE with starts at 8:30 am to evening events to 11pm. I will have to pace myself I am not in my twenties anymore.  Look out ISTE here I come! 

Brisk AI

After Dr Craig Hansens worshop I have been exploring Brisk and completted the Brisk AI professional microcredentail. This was good to cover more details and tricks on how to use Brisk to its fullest potential. With so many AI tools out on the market and more being added. It is hard to keep track of them and the updates. I can see that one tool that does multi purposes is usefull. 

 

Craig Hansen AI Workshop

 What a great presentation from Dr Craig Hansen at the secondary connect. He went over Brisk AI and teachaide.

Brisk is ahead of others with the chrome extension and just being able to click the extension and direct it from there. It is very simple to use and create from. It also works very nicely with the google apps and tools. 

Craig also went over the importance of the prompts you use this is something that is comming through all the trainng on AI his guide was:-

1. Define who you are (e.g., a grade five science teacher).

2. Specify what you want the AI to create (e.g., a 30-minute lesson plan on the water cycle).

3. Describe how you want the information presented (e.g., structured text table, lesson plan with headings and bullet points).

For more information on Prompt engineering visit Anthropic 

This is the link to the secondary connect with a recording of the presentation and other usefull links and guides.

Generative AI for Educators Course

Completed the Google Generative AI for Educators Course. It was good to go over all the types of AI systems and the history behind AI. Then moving onto how  AI can be a unique teaching assistant for educators

It covered the instructional strategies prompts using the acronim PARTS- Persona-role, Aim-objective, Recipients-audience, Theme-style tone Structure-formate of output.

We also unpacked the Limitations unfair bias, Hallucinations and unreliable info, academic integrity cheating and privacy and security. 

It also introduced adapting output and how to incorporate shots and request chain-of-thought outputs.

They shared a good PDF glossary, responsibility check list, and prompt library. 

It was great to explore with AI and learn about the types and how to utilise them as an educator.

These are some other great resources they shared.

• Google for Education’s AI for Education site details the benefits of AI for educators and provides information about using AI responsibly and ethically.

• Visit ai.google.com to explore more about AI development, its applications in various fields, and open access to research and tools.

And here are some additional resources to get you started with AI in your practice:

• The Day of AI website, dayofai.org, promotes a global initiative empowering educators and students to navigate AI through curriculum packages and professional development opportunities. Use this resource to help your students be productive and responsible users of AI.

• Experience AI, experience-ai.org/en, offers free resources and challenges to introduce AI and ML concepts to students ages 11-14 in an engaging and interactive way.

Highlights and workspace and AI...Oh My!

I attended a great online webinar from Hapara showing how to use AI tools in workspace and Highlights. Linda Hockenbary from intechgratedpd.org She talked about the pace at which AI is changing and developing and how we can intergrate it into the teaching and learning. In the states AI Literacy is part of the education curriculum and they have to teach it. AI literacy is Knowledge and skills that enable humans to critically understand, use, and evaluate AI systems and tools to safely and ethically participate in an increasingly digital world. Digital Promise AI Literacy Framework She talked about the latest updates for AI in March 2024 OpenAI’s Sora Figure + OpenAI = Figure 01 humanoid robot Neuralink EU AI Act AI regulation mentioned in U.S. State of the Union Claude beat GPT Rumors of GPT 5 release She talked about the What and How? The example she gave in a literacy workspace was good to see bit.ly/4cK4ioK it showed the power and how you can use AI to guide and support student learning not do it for them. She also talked about how to use focus and guide browsing to control and guide the students to AI tools. You can limit the time and access. These where some AI tools she recomended SchoolAI: Spaces Magic School’s Magic Student: Tools Chat for Schools: Tutors GuardRailz It was a great introduction and literacy example. I could see a toolkit being designed out of this.