Control Alt Achieve: EdTech Cool Tool

This post is Day 13 of my "Cool Tools 2023" series where we are exploring some of the year's best tools for teaching and learning.

This year we are focusing on artificial intelligence tools and how they can be used in schools.

You can access all of the cool tools in the series as they come out at bit.ly/cool-tools-23 and in this Google Slideshow.

For this entry in the series we are taking a look at: Snorkl

See below for details, directions, uses, and links for this artificial intelligence resource. If you have used this tool, please consider sharing your experiences, how you have used it, tips, tricks, and more.

▶️ Video Demo (12 minutes)

🤿 Snorkl

snorkl.app

With Snorkl, students record and share their reasoning then receive instant AI-powered feedback to drive deep and meaningful learning. In short...

You create a problem, question, or prompt for your students.
Students record themselves solving the problem or answering the question while explaining their reasoning.
If needed the student can draw on the digital whiteboard while speaking.
The AI then reviews the student's explanation based on the guidance you have provided.
The AI then provides personalized feedback for the student on their work.

Having students record themselves to explain their understanding is an excellent way to truly assess what a student knows and can do, while helping to address academic integrity concerns. The challenge has always been how long it would take a teacher to watch the recordings for every one of their students. With Snorkl this is no longer a daunting task.

🛠️ Creating an Activity

As a teacher you can create an activity for students in Snorkl.

From your "My Library" tab you can click on the "Create Activity" button.
Begin by entering a "Title" for the activity.

Next you can edit the whiteboard as needed for the activity.
This can be used to state the problem and/or add a diagram or image for the activity.
The whiteboard toolbar includes options for pen, highlighter, text, shapes, lines, and images.
Click "Done Editing" when finished.

Next type in the "Instructions" for the activity.

Next you will work on the advanced AI settings. These will include:

AI Feedback to Students - Choose if you want AI to provide feedback on the student's work, and whether that feedback is automatically displayed for the student to see or if the teacher needs to approve it first.

Subject and Grade - Choose these from the drop-down menus. At the moment you can choose from math, science, and general, although Snorkl can support a wide range of subjects.

Prompt/Question - Here you will type in the prompt or question for the AI. This will likely be very similar to what you typed earlier for the student, but this is specifically used by the AI to understand what the activity is.

Expected Answer - Finally you will type in an exemplar of what a complete, correct answer should include. Again, this is being sued by the AI to know how to assess the student work so it can provide proper feedback.

When all done you can click "Done" to save the activity for later, or click "Assign" to assign it to a class now.

💡 Helpful Tips for Activities

Below are some helpful suggestions from Snorkl on how to create activities that the AI can properly assess. You can also view these in this Google Slideshow.

💬 AI Feedback for Students

After you assign an activity to students...

Students record themselves solving the problem or answering the question while explaining their reasoning.
If needed the student can draw on the digital whiteboard while speaking.
The AI then reviews the student's explanation based on the guidance you have provided.
The AI then provides personalized feedback for the student on their work.

The AI will provide three forms of feedback for the student:

Rating - How well the student explained their understanding on a 1 to 4 scale
Correctness - Whether the final answer was correct or not
Text comments - Personalized feedback linked to different portions of the student recording

This feedback is available to both the student and the teacher.

🖐️ Try Out Snorkl

If you would like to try out some sample Snorkl activities as a student, you can join my demo class using the link below. There are several sample activities in the class that you can try out and receive AI feedback.

Eric's Demo Class - student.snorkl.app/i1xdfc

If you would like to sign up for a teacher account, you can fill out the form link below to request a demo. Snorkl is also doing free school pilots for 4-6 weeks for schools interested in rolling out Snorkl at the school level.

Demo Sign Up Form - snorkl.app/request-demo

💰 Pricing

At the moment Snorkl is free while in its early access phase.

🧰 Resources

Snorkl website - snorkl.app

Be sure to check out the other blog posts in the "Cool Tools 2023" series at bit.ly/cool-tools-23 and in the Google Slideshow.

For additional AI videos, resource documents, blog posts, and more, be sure to check out my main AI resource page at:

www.controlaltachieve.com/ai

And if you are looking for AI professional development, please consider bringing me to your school, organization, or conference. I have a wide range of AI-related training sessions which you can see in my PD catalog here:

bit.ly/curts-pd

Post by Eric Curts

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