Edtech Throwdown

Episode 198: Educators as AI Guides: Crafting Resources for Families and Communities

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown.  This is Episode 198 called Educators as AI Guides: Crafting Resources for Families and Communities.  In this episode, we will walk through a step by step process that educators can follow for creating AI resources that are not just for staff and students, but the community as a whole.  This is another episode you don’t want to miss, check it out.

Segment 1: 

We are concluding a 3 year journey that has attempted to establish AI policy, share the ai policy with staff and students, teach staff about ai, teach students about ai, and the final phase … teaching the community.

One thing that still surprises me is the number of people (usually adults) who don’t use AI.  Maybe they disagree with it, maybe they don’t know where to go or what to do, or maybe they just don’t care.  But everyone has a stake in at least knowing what these tools are capable of.

A local library reached out to the school district and asked if we would collaborate on creating, sharing and presenting resources from the school so that the community could learn from them AND be aware of what schools are doing with AI.

This is our journey, laid out in a step-by-step manner so that it might help others trying to accomplish the same thing.

Segment 2:

1. Establish policy at the highest levels possible (board, superintendent, etc).
2. Must start here so you have a legally backed document to fall back on
3. This can be slow and painful
4. Start identifying the stakeholder’s opinions
5. Teachers,
6. Students
7. Administrators
8. Parents
9. Have a focus group to help with wordsmithing
10. Identify proper use/misuse
11. Establish an “AI director” for the district
12. Not a new position, someone who already has a tech role
13. This person is responsible for maintaining and updating the resources and plan that follows
14. This person may also want to recruit a small team to help them build out and present the materials (tech coaches, media specialists, etc)
15. Create a public space to clearly communicate that policy
16. Website is probably the best option, social posts are too fleeting
17. Could also be a document that gets linked somewhere, like a school website
18. Create easily digestible versions of that policy
19. “Infographic” that policy!  No one likes to read policy, so make it digestible in the form of an infographic
20. Shoe-horn it as an FAQ page
21. Beautified PDF or Canva doc
22. Canva slide deck - make it presentable and informative since this is what people will likely go to for policy information
23. Create a public hub that collects AI resources for everyone
24. To me, website is the only option here
25. Needs to be linked to the school districts website
26. Must have …
27. The actual board policy language
28. Sections for staff, students, and community
29. Quick links for commonly accessed information
30. Share with staff
31. Surveys and focus groups in the early stages - make them feel heard, this is a hot topic
32. Multi-pronged approach
33. In-person PD on in-service days
34. Ready-made classroom materials like posters
35. Differentiate the options they have for accessing info and sharing with students: video AND slides AND docs AND …
36. Examples of how this policy affects real things like a syllabus, assignment directions, second chance learning, use of computers, etc.
37. Specific information about what they can do to help stop AI use and what to do when students are misusing it
38. Regular reminders
39. Share with students
40. Create common language used between all stakeholders
41. Appropriate usages
42. Inappropriate usages
43. AI policy at the district level, school level, classroom level
44. Different modes of communication
45. Syllabus
46. AI policy website
47. Student handbook
48. Classroom poster
49. Share with community
50. First, share your resource hub on social media
51. Second, create a schedule for social media posts that contain information from the policy.  Keep it positive!  For example, a post that shows how a well known teacher is using AI to help support student learning.
52. Third, create resources that teach people about AI, what it is, how it is used in schools, how they can use it in their everyday lives
53. Final stage: collab with local groups like libraries, AI night for parents to join
54. Continuing updates and education
55. Showcase new tools, policies, and guidelines
56. Social media
57. Superintendent Newsletter
58. Website update
59. Videos
60. Back to School night
61. Teacher communication emails/newsletters

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Music Credits:

• Intro and Outro Music-American Idle - RKVC
• Segment Identifiers-Duck in the Alley - TrackTribe
• Edtech Throwdown-Born a Rockstar (Instrumental) - NEFEX

Need a Presenter?

As experienced presenters and content creators, you can contact Nick and Guise to speak at your school, event, or conference. They can customize a workshop that meets your organization’s unique time and content needs. While no topic is out of bounds, we are best known for sessions on:

• AI For Teachers, Admin, and Parents
• 1:1 Chromebook Integration
• EdTech Throwdown
• TargetED Learning
• Gamification (Badge Systems)
• Game-Based Learning (Escape Rooms, Amazing Race, and more)
• Google apps and extensions
• Personalized learning and Choice Boards
• Teacher productivity (Lesson Planning, Online Grading. and Feedback)
• Digital content creation
• Student Podcasting
• Screencasting
• Flipped Classroom
• Student-Centered Learning