Dr Brian Ballsun-Stanton and Dr Jodie Torrington discuss how to use AI effectively to support your planning and assessment design for your classroom. Learn how to retain an internal AI-Locus of Control while using AI technologies.

Remember to:

-know your goal

-provide all the details and context

-use an auto-interview technique

-use your own judgement and reflection throughout the process

-ask yourself: “Am I happy to put my name to this output?”

Additional resources to support your AI journey:

Prompting tips and strategies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PKNoM8tc_A&list=PLsicw0ghQckgHREOX2uCDaRTDaxNZFyNK

Prompting poster: https://zenodo.org/records/17373463

AI-Locus of Control framework: https://zenodo.org/records/17823628

In this episode, we are talking about out-of-field teaching in high schools, focusing specifically on teaching Geography.  Dr Susan Caldis and Kathy Jones talk about their new microcredential that provides comprehensive support for new-to-geography teachers. Find out what makes a geography lesson geographical, and how AI can be used effectively and authentically to support teacher planning and assessment design. 

Enrol in our “Help! I’m teaching Geography for the first time” professional learning microcredential here: https://microcredentials.mq.edu.au/courses/help!-im-teaching-geography-for-the-first-time 

Find the GEOG standards here: https://agta.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/geogstandards.pdf  

Susan’s fan diagram can be viewed here: Caldis, S. (2022). What makes my geography lesson distinctive and powerful? In M. McInerney, J. Butler, S. Caldis, S. Cranby, M. Law, A. Maude, & R. Nicholas (Eds.), Teaching secondary geography (pp. 201-217). Cambridge University Press (CUP).  

In this episode, Dr Jodie Torrington chats with The Gale History Museum at Macquarie University’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, Dr Yvonne Inall to explore practical ways teachers can integrate community resources like museums into their programmes. Yvonne shares tips on making the most of museum visits and discusses how the museums, such as the Gale Museum at MQ can be a powerful educational tool for your classroom. 

In this episode, Professor Sheila Degotardi, the Director of the Centre for Early Childhood Education at Macquarie University chats with Dr Catherine Jones, who is the preschool room teacher and educational leader at Goodstart Kurri Kurri about the benefits and challenges of applying for external funding to support your ECE context. 

Have you thought about engaging your language learners by harnessing real-life examples that they view on social media? Listen to Dr Yeong-Ju Lee talk about how to use technological innovations in language education, and how you can promote informal language learning using TikTok and Instagram. She shares pedagogical strategies for teachers to integrate multimodal and real-life practices into language classrooms and encourages students to “play” with language using social media.  

Here is the link to her book that we talk about in the episode: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003543541/social-media-language-learning-yeong-ju-lee  

**Special 20% discount (valid until 31 Oct 2025): use code 25SMA3** 

In this episode, Professor Fay Hadley chats with Sene Gede, Centre Director at Boundary Lane Children’s Centre and Akram Eshaghi, Centre Director at Uniting Airlie Preschool Oatlands as they share their advice and strategies about engaging with culturally and linguistically diverse families. 

Professor Deborah Youdell, Dean of the Macquarie School of Education chats with Dr Tamara Bibby about psychoanalytic approaches in education. Tamara invites educators to think beyond rational “self-knowing” to the “incompleteness of knowing” in real, living classrooms using psychoanalytic ways of thinking. This episode is valuable listening for both new and experienced teachers. 

For more teacher resources and education inspiration, visit the Macquarie University Teachers’ Learning Hub. 

Following from our last episode about teaching in rural and remote schools, in this episode we discuss Early Childhood Education in rural locations. Dr Loraine Fordham chats with Michele Carnegie, Chief Executive Officer of CELA (Community Early Learning Australia) about supporting early learning in regional and remote communities across Australia. 

Visit the MQ Teachers' Learning Hub for more professional learning resources.

Ever thought about teaching in a rural location? Michael Fisher, placement coordinator for Far West NSW schools, talks about what it’s like teaching in rural communities and shares his vast experience of teaching and living in Broken Hill. 

Please find below the links to the programs and initiatives we discussed: 

Join Professor Matt Bower, Dr Jodie Torrington, and Dr Tamika Worrall as they follow up on the “Empowering education through AI: Revolution or evolution?” Arts After Dark event held recently at Macquarie University. We received an insightful range of questions from the audience on the night, and while we were unable to get to all of them, we are delighted to address them in this special episode of Hub Chats. 

Listen to the live event here. 

Find resources for AI in education at the Teachers’ Learning Hub.