EdTech Links of the Week - 7-23-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Recorded Webinar - Hipster Google

I recently had the pleasure to present sessions at the High Impact Conference for Educators, which is an event we put on through the Educational Service Center where I work. All of my sessions were recorded, and over time I hope to share several of the videos.

Please note that the recordings are a lot more casual than some of my other videos, as this is from an in-person conference with a room full of attendees, so there is some chatting and questions and such. Hopefully though you will still find the content helpful.

For this recording, this is the session:

Hipster Google - Tools You Probably Never Heard Of

Everyone knows about Google Docs, Gmail, Search, and other common Google tools. But there are also loads of smaller, lesser-known, but powerful tools that can be used for teaching and learning. Learn about 70+ hidden gems such as nGram, Trends, AutoDraw, Chrome Music Lab, Toontastic, Landlines, Reverse Image Search, Instant Search Cards, Semantris, Art Palette, Timelapse, Interview Warmup, GameSnacks, Data GIF Maker and more (List subject to change based on how cool and unknown the tools remain.)

See below for the full recording, as well as the resources from the session. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or suggestions you have on this topic.

World Snorkl Day - Virtual PD

Snorkl has been one of my favorite AI tools for education since even before it officially launched.

If you are not familiar with it, Snorkl was one the featured AI tools in my "Cool Tools 2023" series. For more details you can read that original blog post and watch my 12-minute tutorial video all about the tool.

In short, here is how Snorkl works:

• You create a problem, question, or prompt for your students and provide an exemplar answer for the AI.
• Students then record themselves speaking as they solve the problem or answer 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 grades and feedback are all collected for you as the teacher to review.

The great news is that Snorkl is running a free virtual PD event on July 30th with a wide range of sessions to help you learn, explore, and apply Snorkl even better.

I am super excited to be part of one of the sessions, the "Snorkl Innovation Slam". See below for all of the details and how to register for this free event.

EdTech Links of the Week - 7-16-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

My 2024 CFISD Digital Learning Conference Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again present at the 2024 CFISD Digital Learning Conference this year.

This year the CFISD Digital Learning Conference is

• Entirely virtual with over 100 EdTech sessions
• Held on July 24th and 25th
• Open to all educators
• FREE!

You can get all the details on the conference website at: www.cfisd.net/DLC

• All sessions for 7/24 - https://cfisd-dlc-24.glide.page/dl/d0a5f4
• All sessions for 7/25 - https://cfisd-dlc-24.glide.page/dl/da19fa

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting for the 2024 CFISD Digital Learning Conference, along with any associated resources and the live stream links for each session.  I look forward to sharing and learning with you!

Recorded Webinar - Accessibility Tools to Support All Learners

I recently had the pleasure to present sessions at the High Impact Conference for Educators, which is an event we put on through the Educational Service Center where I work. All of my sessions were recorded, and over time I hope to share several of the videos.

Please note that the recordings are a lot more casual than some of my other videos, as this is from an in-person conference with a room full of attendees, so there is some chatting and questions and such. Hopefully though you will still find the content helpful.

For this recording, this is the session:

Accessibility Tools to Support all Learners

There are many tools, apps, extensions, and features available to assist all learners. In this session we take an in-depth hands-on look at a wide range of technology tools to assist any and all learners. These can include text-to-speech, speech-to-text, readability, reading comprehension, artificial intelligence tools, audio support, organization, focus, and more. Learn what tools are available and how to access and use these free tools with your students.

See below for the full recording, as well as the resources from the session. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or suggestions you have on this topic.

EdTech Links of the Week - 7-9-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Recorded Webinar - Storytelling Activities with Google Tools

I recently had the pleasure to present sessions at the High Impact Conference for Educators, which is an event we put on through the Educational Service Center where I work. All of my sessions were recorded, and over time I hope to share several of the videos.

Please note that the recordings are a lot more casual than some of my other videos, as this is from an in-person conference with a room full of attendees, so there is some chatting and questions and such. Hopefully though you will still find the content helpful.

For this recording, this is the session:

Once Upon a Google: Innovative Storytelling with Google Tools

Google tools provide many ways for students and educators to create and share stories. Slides can be used to create storybooks, e-books, comic strips, stop-motion animation, and story soundboards; Docs can be used for "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories, emoji rebus stories, and black-out poetry; Sheets can be used to create random writing prompts for inspiration, and more!

See below for the full recording, as well as the resources from the session. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or suggestions you have on this topic.

EdTech Links of the Week - 7-2-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Creating Educational Songs with AI Tools

A lot of times we focus on how AI tools can generate text, such as lesson plans, rubrics, assessments, leveled reading passages, and more. As awesome as those uses are, AI can create much more than text.

Recently AI has become more and more multi-modal, meaning that it is also able to understand and generate media in other forms such as images, audio, music, and video. Each of these deserves its own blog post (or several) but for this entry we are going to explore making a song with AI.

Specifically I decided to see if I could use AI tools to create an educational song that could be used to help teach a concept to students. The plan was to use ChatGPT to write the lyrics for the song, and then use Udio to generate the music and to sing the completed song.

For this test I used the water cycle as my topic, and I am so excited with the final product! See below to listen to the water cycle song, and for the directions and tools I used to create it. I hope this will inspire you to create a song, and I would love to hear what you make, as well as any suggestions you have for making this project better.

Recorded Webinar - Today's Special Classroom Guest: Mr. A.I. Chatterbot

I recently had the pleasure to present sessions at the High Impact Conference for Educators, which is an event we put on through the Educational Service Center where I work. All of my sessions were recorded, and over time I hope to share several of the videos.

Please note that the recordings are a lot more casual than some of my other videos, as this is from an in-person conference with a room full of attendees, so there is some chatting and questions and such. Hopefully though you will still find the content helpful.

For this recording, this is the session:

Today's Special Classroom Guest: Mr. A.I. Chatterbot

AI access for students is often limited because of the students' age or because of school policies. However there are lots of engaging ways for a teacher to use AI in class for interactive learning activities where the students are participating but the teacher is still managing the AI. In this session we will see how you can "invite AI into your classroom" for interactive projects including debates on any topic, live interviews where the AI takes on a role, "20 Questions" games on subject area content, co-writing activities, and more.

See below for the full recording, as well as the resources from the session. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or suggestions you have on this topic.

My ISTE 2024 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again present at the 2024 ISTE Conference in Denver this June 22nd through 26th.

I always look forward to this opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can attend ISTE in person this year, or take part as a virtual attendee. Registration opens in January. To get more details and register for the conference go to:

• conference.iste.org/2024

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at the ISTE Conference, along with any associated resources. I will continue to update this list with any changes and additions to my schedule.

Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

Recorded Webinar - Guided Grading with AI

I recently had the pleasure to present sessions at the High Impact Conference for Educators, which is an event we put on through the Educational Service Center where I work. All of my sessions were recorded, and over time I hope to share several of the videos.

Please note that the recordings are a lot more casual than some of my other videos, as this is from an in-person conference with a room full of attendees, so there is some chatting and questions and such. Hopefully though you will still find the content helpful.

For this recording, this is the session:

The Future of Feedback - Guided Grading with AI

One of the biggest challenges in education is the time required to provide detailed feedback on student work. Thankfully we now have powerful AI tools that can generate personalized feedback for student work based on the guidelines, rubrics, and style we suggest. This can include feedback on student writing from short answers to full essays, as well as feedback on spoken student explanations. In this session we will explore AI feedback tools such as Class Companion, Snorkl, EnlightenAI, and more.

See below for the full recording, as well as the resources from the session. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or suggestions you have on this topic.

What's New in Google - May 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from May 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our May 2024 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the May 2024 meeting:

Elevate Critical Thinking with AI Debates in the Classroom

Although I often share about the beneficial ways AI can help educators and students, I also focus on the potential concerns about AI in schools, and how we can address those issues.

These concerns often arise during my professional development sessions or workshops, particularly in my "Artificial Intelligence / Natural Misuse: Managing AI in Schools" workshop. You can access all the resources for this workshop at https://bit.ly/curts-aimisuse

I will often ask the educators what their concerns are about AI in schools. In addition to the common responses of cheating and data privacy and biases, many times the attendees will mention they worry that AI might discourage critical thinking in students. If AI can do so many things so efficiently, it could be a temptation for learners to just let the AI do the thinking instead of themselves.

My normal response to this is that yes, that is certainly a possible outcome, but it doesn't have to be. Ultimately AI is just a tool. It is not good or bad. Just like a hammer can be used to destroy or to build, AI can be misused or it can help students grow.

One of my favorite ways to demonstrate AI's ability to encourage critical thinking is the "Debate an AI" activity. Let's take a look at the prompt and directions for this activity.

Recorded Webinar - Chromebook Accessibility Tools

Over the years I have had the opportunity many times to present sessions on accessibility tools, accommodation options, and resources to help support all learners.

These have always been some of my most popular sessions as everyone can benefit from these tools.

Over time these resources have also continued to develop with new tools, features, and options. With all of these continual updates, I was excited to have the opportunity to present a webinar for Trafera on "Chromebook Accessibility Tools".

In this 1-hour training we did a deep dive into all the ways Chromebooks can support all learners through built-in accessibility tools and features. See below for the recording, as well as all the resources for the session.

AI Policies, Guidelines & Frameworks for Schools

Although ChatGPT became readily accessible to the public back in November of 2022, we are still in the early days of exploring and understanding these new powerful AI tools and their implications for education.

For most schools around the world that means developing policies and guidelines that clarify how AI can and should be used by their students and educators, as well as which uses are prohibited or limited in a school setting.

If your school does not have AI guidelines yet, you are certainly not alone. Many districts are still digging into this task with committees and pilot groups and more.

Thankfully there are many organizations and schools that have been blazing a trail in this area by developing and sharing their own AI policies, guidelines, and frameworks. I have been collecting links to these resources as I come across them and will share them below in this post.

These resources provide templates, examples, and guidance that you can use when developing policies for your entire district or just your own classroom. As I come across more resources I will continue to update this page, and encourage you to share similar resources through my Google Form.

AI Prompting: Collaborative Prompt Technique

I have shared a lot of resources recently to support AI prompting for educators. These have included my collection of AI prompt libraries and my AI super prompt.

In both cases the idea has been that prompting an AI chatbot can sometimes be a challenge, as we are not always sure what to type in to get the best results.

Recently I learned about another great suggestion to improve prompting, which came from one of my edtech colleagues, Chris Deis from Grandview Heights Schools. I have been playing around with this new technique and have really been impressed with its ease of use and the quality of the results.

For lack of a better term, I am calling this process the "Collaborative Prompt Technique". Instead of trying to come up with the best prompt yourself, the idea is to:

• Tell the AI chatbot the task you want to accomplish
• Ask the AI chatbot what information it needs from you to do this
• Provide that additional information to the AI chatbot to get your result

This collaborative prompting technique is a great way to work with the AI to determine all the details needed for the best results. See below for the template I have been using for this approach, as well as three examples of how this works.

EdTech Links of the Week - 5-7-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Join me for Week of AI 2024

With AI in education constantly evolving, it is always great to have new professional development opportunities to stay up to date and keep learning.

I am excited and honored to be part of a free week-long virtual PD opportunity called "Week of AI" that anyone can participate in.

Here are the essential details:

Week of AI

• Registration - www.weekofai.ai
• Dates - May 13-18, 2024
• Times - 5pm-9pm EST (M-F), 11am-7pm (Sat)
• Cost - Free (except for Saturday workshops)
• Delivery - Virtual live-streamed sessions
• Schedule - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

I will be providing two sessions during the Week of AI:

• Friday - 5:30-6:30pm EST - "The Bionic Educator" Keynote
• Saturday - 1:00-2:00m EST - "Today's Special Classroom Guest: Mr. A.I. Chatterbot"

I look forward to learning with you!

Recorded Webinar - "The ABC's of AI"

I recently had the privilege to do a webinar in conjunction with Vivacity - vivacitytech.com - on the topic of "The ABCs of AI - What Educators Need to Know".

If you missed the live webinar, no worries! The recording of the session is now available on Vivacity's YouTube channel (embedded below).

In this one-hour session we explored the ABCs of AI including: 

• A) About AI - what AI tools are currently available and how they work
• B) Benefits of AI - practical and powerful ways to use AI for teaching and learning
• C) Concerns of AI - how to address potential misuses of this transformative technology

If you are new to the topic, this is a great video to cover all of the essentials about AI in education. However, if you have been using AI already, this video will help you pick up some new tools, ideas, and resources to go deeper.

See below for the free recorded webinar…

EdTech Links of the Week - 4-30-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

What's New in Google - April 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from April 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our April 2024 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the April 2024 meeting:

Chromebooks Unplugged - A Day in the Life of a Student Chromebook

Chromebooks are used by 50 million students and teachers every day in schools all around the world. But are you and your students getting the most out of them?

To explore this question I used a student Chromebook for an entire day as my primary device. To keep things realistic I also did it ... unplugged.

What I mean is, when a student is using a Chromebook at school, they may not always have a power outlet to plug into. This is why many schools ask students to make sure their Chromebooks are completely charged before bringing them in each day.

So for my day using a student Chromebook, I kept it unplugged from power and simply used its battery for the entire day. Then every couple of hours I stopped to record a short video to see how well the battery was doing, and to demonstrate some powerful Chromebook features that can help students with learning and creating. I ended up covering:

• Accessibility tools
• Screencast and Chrome Canvas
• Android apps (including Minecraft)
• Video editing
• Offline access

See below for the recorded video of my day unplugged, as well as other Chromebook resources. And a big thanks to MediaTek for providing the student Chromebook for this experiment, and for sponsoring this post.

Rubric for Evaluating AI Tools for Schools

Ever since the launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, there has been an explosions in the creation of AI tools for schools. It seems that every week I am hearing about a new AI product launch designed to help education.

Over time I have shared many of my favorite AI tools in the "Cool Tools" series - bit.ly/cool-tools-23 - and in my resource document "The AI Toolbox: Best AI Tools for Schools" - bit.ly/curts-aitools

All of these products promise to improve teaching and learning by assisting teachers, creating educational content, personalizing learning for students, and more. But how can a school evaluate these tools to see if they really do provide safe, educationally sound, cost effective solutions?

To assist with this process I have created a "Rubric for Evaluating AI Tools in Education" which covers 18 essential criteria for assessing these products. The rubric is freely available for anyone to use or modify as needed.

See below to get your own copy of the rubric, as well as detailed directions on how to make the best use of it. As with anything AI-related, this is always a work in progress. I welcome your suggestions for improvements to make this an even more valuable tool for educators.

EdTech Links of the Week - 4-8-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Googley Poetry Projects and Tools

April is the time of year

For kids to write a poem.
There's loads of fun activities
Here for you to show 'em.

Google tools can be used
To make the perfect rhyme,
With templates, tools, and writing prompts
To save your students time.

Draggable Drawings, random Sheets,
And Google Docs highlighting
Will give your students inspiration
For their creative writing.

So look below to find out more,
Then get your students on it,
Writing their ode, haiku, free verse,
Their ballad or their sonnet.

Super Prompt - An AI Prompt to Create AI Prompts

Recently I shared a blog post with a list of some of my favorite AI Prompt Libraries for Educators.

The idea is that it can sometimes be a challenge to come up with a good prompt for AI chatbots, and thankfully people have been kind enough to share high quality educational prompts that they have developed, tested, and refined.

I decided to go one step further with this. I wondered… would it be possible to come up with an AI prompt that could be used to generate AI prompts?

Sort of like "Promptception". Or maybe "One prompt to rule them all" if you prefer a Lord of the Rings reference instead.

So after lots of trial and error, I did manage to come up with a "Super Prompt" that seems to work pretty consistently and generates useful educational prompts. You simply fill in what sort of task you need, such as a rubric generator or lesson plan generator or student writing feedback generator, and the super prompt will create the prompt you need.

See below to get a copy of the super prompt, along with usage notes and examples. Chances are I will continue to tweak the super prompt to improve it, and would welcome any suggestions you have.

What's New in Google - March 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from March 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our March 2024 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the March 2024 meeting:

Chromebook Accessibility Tools Webinar

Over the years I have had the opportunity many times to present sessions on accessibility tools, accommodation options, and resources to help support all learners. 

These have always been some of my most popular sessions as everyone can benefit from these tools.

Over time these resources have also continued to develop with new tools, features, and options. With all of these continual updates, I am excited to once again have the opportunity to present on this topic.

I am thrilled to be presenting a free webinar in conjunction with Trafera on May 8th at Noon ET (11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT) on "Chromebook Accessibility Tools".

See below for all the details on this great learning event…

Recorded Webinar - "The ABC's of AI"

I recently had the privilege to do a webinar in conjunction with Fobizz on the topic of "The ABCs of AI - What Educators Need to Know".

If you missed the live webinar, no worries! The recording of the session is now available on the Fobizz website.

In this one-hour session we explored the ABCs of AI including: 

• A) About AI - what AI tools are currently available and how they work
• B) Benefits of AI - practical and powerful ways to use AI for teaching and learning
• C) Concerns of AI - how to address potential misuses of this transformative technology

If you are new to the topic, this is a great video to cover all of the essentials about AI in education. However, if you have been using AI already, this video will help you pick up some new tools, ideas, and resources to go deeper.

See below for how to watch this free recorded webinar…

AI Prompt Libraries for Educators

AI chatbots are powerful tools to assist teachers and students. But as the name "chatbot" suggests, it is a two-way conversation, and what you say to them has a big impact on the quality of the response you get back.

Prompts are important. But good prompts can also be challenging. When you are using ChatGPT or Gemini or any other chatbot, you might not be sure what to type into the blinking cursor to get the best output.

Thankfully as people have been using these tools over the last year, they have been testing out options and refining their prompts. And many people have been kind enough to share what has worked best for them.

In this blog post I have collected together some of my favorite AI prompt libraries for educators. Each of these has a wide range of prompt templates that you can copy, and then modify as needed to personalize with your grade level, subject area, standards, and more. You can then paste your new prompt into the AI chatbot of your choice.

This can be a great way to get ready-to-use, high quality prompts, as well as get new ideas for how you can use AI, and pick up tips on how to improve your own prompts.

As always, I am learning right alongside you, so please feel free to share your favorite prompt collections. For convenience you can submit your resources in this Google Form.

Flippity "March Madness" Bracket Template

Although I am not much of a sports fan, I can't help but notice the building excitement surrounding college basketball this time of year. With March Madness beginning, people everywhere are studying the tournament bracket and making their predictions.

Beyond sports though, the bracket format actually has a lot of educational applications for student learning. Besides college basketball teams, a wide range of topics can be placed into a bracket and then the students can compare each item to determine which they think best meets a criteria.

This can be a fun activity that ties into something they are already familiar with, while encouraging critical thinking skills and content knowledge.

There are many tools and templates for creating such a tournament bracket activity, but one excellent option is the free template provided by the Flippity website. In this blog post we will take a look at how to use the Flippity template for a March Madness style learning activity.

My UCET-UELMA 2024 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again be presenting at the UCET / UELMA 2024 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 19th and 20th.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can get all of the details about the conference including registration, presenters, sessions, and more on the conference website at:

https://ucet.org/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at UCET / UELMA 2024, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

AI Tools and Student Data Privacy

Artificial Intelligence tools can be such amazing time savers for educators, helping to generate assessments, create lesson plans, develop rubrics, re-level text passages, draft emails, and so much more.

However, in the excitement of running everything through an AI chatbot it can become easy to get careless with the information we share with it.

When educators use an AI Large Language Model chatbot in a K-12 educational setting, there are several types of information we should avoid submitting to protect student data privacy and to comply with laws such as FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) in the United States or GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the European Union.

In this blog post we will take a closer look at this issue including examples of data we should not share and suggestions for protecting data privacy while still being able to benefit from these helpful AI tools. As always though, I am exploring and learning about these topics right alongside you, so please share your ideas and suggestions.

My MACUL 2024 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again be presenting at the MACUL 2024 Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 13th through 15th.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can get all of the details about the conference including registration, presenters, sessions, and more on the conference website at:

https://maculconference.org/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at MACUL 2024, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

My NEOTech 2024 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again be presenting at the NEOTech 2024 Conference in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on March 12th.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

Here are the key details:

• The conference is FREE!
• You can attend in-person at NEOnet in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
• Or you can watch the sessions virtually through a live Zoom stream
• Or you can watch the recordings afterwards

Whichever way works for you, this is a great event that is not to be missed! You can learn more about the conference and register for FREE at: http://neotechconference.org/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at NEOTech 2024, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

What's New in Google - February 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from February 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our February 2024 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the February 2024 meeting:

Responsible Use of AI in the Classroom

When it comes to artificial intelligence in education, I like to consider myself an optimistic realist. 

I see the positives and I see the negatives, but I believe that in the end we will be able to properly address the concerns, while using the benefits to improve teaching and learning for educators and students.

Many times I talk about the benefits of AI, which you can see in many of the videos and resource documents I share. For example see:

• AI-AI-Oh! Engaging AI Uses in Education - bit.ly/curts-aiuses
• Super Tutor: AI to Support all Learners - bit.ly/curts-aisupport
• Cyber Assist: Your AI Teaching Assistant - bit.ly/curts-aiassist

On the other hand I also address the potential misuses and concerns about AI, such as in my session:

• Artificial Intelligence / Natural Misuse - Managing AI in Schools - bit.ly/curts-aimisuse

Recently though I had the chance to dive a little deeper into what it means to use AI responsibly in the classroom. Specifically this dealt with addressing legitimate concerns about bias and inaccuracies that can come up when doing AI activities with students.

As a result I took some time to expand and revise the directions I provide to teachers for doing projects such as the AI roleplaying interview or AI debate activities. I also had the privilege of speaking about these ideas in more depth on a recent episode of the "Shukes and Giff" podcast.

See below for all the details on my updated teacher guidelines, as well as the recording from the podcast discussion. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on these topics, as I am learning right along with you as we explore how to use AI responsibly, but powerfully, in the classroom.

AI Prompts for Differentiation

Artificial intelligence tools can be used in many ways to help support teaching and learning. You can check out my resource document "The ABC's of AI: What Educators Need to Know" at bit.ly/curts-ai for a wide range of practical examples of how you can use AI in your classroom.

One of the examples I share is using AI to assist with differentiation.

Many times when we think of differentiation, we might focus on how it can help support learners who may be struggling. However, differentiation is about supporting all learners. This can include:

• Students who are currently struggling
• Students who are on track
• Students who are excelling in their mastery of the content
• Students who learn in a variety of modalities
• And more

Below are five prompt templates for differentiation that you can copy, modify, and use however you need with your choice of AI chatbot. These include:

• 🌼 Bloom's Taxonomy
• 🚧 Zone of Proximal Development
• 🔱 Choice Board
• 🎚️ DOK Levels
• 🧩 Content, Process, and Product

Please feel free to share your suggestions for improvements to these prompts, or other prompts that are helpful in differentiation. You can always connect with me at ericcurts@gmail.com

ABC's of AI Webinar

The capabilities and availability of Artificial Intelligence tools have skyrocketed in the last few years. 

Although I have presented and shared on this topic most every week for the last year, every time I do the content has changed with the constant progress of tools and resources.

With all of these changes, I am once again excited to have the opportunity to present on the topic of AI in education.

I am thrilled to be presenting a free webinar in conjunction with Fobizz on March 21st at 7pm EST (4pm PST) called "The ABCs of AI - What Educators Need to Know". In this session we will explore the ABCs of AI including: 

A) About AI - what AI tools are currently available and how they work

B) Benefits of AI - practical and powerful ways to use AI for teaching and learning

C) Concerns of AI - how to address potential misuses of this transformative technology

See below for all the details on this great learning event...

Free Resources to Teach Your Students about AI

As artificial intelligence has become more popular in schools, we have seen lots of great support materials for educators. I have provided many hours of PD, as well as videos, blog posts, resources docs, and more.

You can access all of my AI resources at www.controlaltachieve.com/ai

In addition to training educators, we also need to make sure our students are being well educated on AI. This can involve lessons and activities on:

• What AI is and what tools are available
• How they can use AI to assist them
• What are appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI
• Identifying potential misinformation and bias in AI
• And more

Thankfully we are not on our own in providing this information to our students. Many organizations have created lessons, activities, videos, and more to cover these topics in engaging ways for our learners. And best of all, the content is free!

See below for a collection of free resources to help educate students about AI. Although this is an excellent list, I am sure there are many other resources that could be added. Please share any resources you know of ( to me at ericcurts@gmail.com ) and I will be happy to update this post to include them.

Podcast Spotlight: Tech Unwreck

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the "Tech Unwreck" podcast.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love podcasts and am always mentioning something new I learned from one of them, so I was super excited to get to join an episode of this podcast.

The podcast is hosted by Nicky Acevedo from Vivacity Tech and is described as follows:

Tech Unwreck is a podcast for educators and technology experts in the K-12 space to learn, share, and grow in their knowledge. Hear from experts in their field about K-12 technology in the classroom and learn about new and exciting tools, classroom techniques, and more.

I had a wonderful time chatting with Nicky all about artificial intelligence in education including the AI tools currently available, the beneficial ways they can be used in schools, and ideas for addressing potential concerns..

Take a look below to listen to the episode, access the resources that I shared in the episode, and explore more about the podcast.

EdTech Links of the Week - 2-12-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Googley Valentine Activities

With Valentine's Day coming up, this is a great time to highlight some activities I really love! In this case I am talking about technology activities for students that tie into the holiday theme while also promoting creativity, math, and writing.

I this blog post I will be sharing four Valentine-themed projects that use Google tools. Each of these are ideas I have shared in the past, but I thought it would be helpful to bring them all together in one place.

• 📊 Hearts and Charts Google Sheets Math Activities
• 😍 Valentine Emoji Rebus Stories in Google Docs
• 🧲 Valentine Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings
• 💌 Valentine Cards with Google Drawings

Hopefully you find all of them to be fun ways to engage your students, while working on practical skills.

See below for a description of each activity, access to all the templates, and links to the original blog posts for the projects I am re-sharing. Hope you love them!