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...