Tech EDGE, AI in the Classroom: Four Ways to Teach About AI This Year

Tech EDGE Author

07/23/2025 Added

1 Plays

Description

On AI in the Classroom, Guy explores four practical tips to get you ready to teach AI this year. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) | College of Education and Human Sciences (CEHS) | Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education (TLTE)

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.383]Coming up
[00:00:00.984]on AI in the Classroom
[00:00:02.419]Four ways to teach about AI,
[00:00:04.854]this coming year.
[00:00:05.939](upbeat music)
[00:00:11.177]Hi, my name is Guy Trainin,
[00:00:12.979]and I'm a professor
[00:00:14.114]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:15.949]And I want to talk about the four ways
[00:00:17.650]you can get ready to teach about AI.
[00:00:21.805]Even this summer
[00:00:22.706]or beginning of fall.
[00:00:24.207]The first thing you should definitely do
[00:00:27.143]if you haven't done it already,
[00:00:28.511]or if you haven't done it
[00:00:29.863]recently, is use AI.
[00:00:32.065]Choose any of the models that you want.
[00:00:35.685]Depending on your preference
[00:00:37.253]on access,
[00:00:39.055]you don't have to pay.
[00:00:40.106]Choose a free model
[00:00:41.474]and just use it for a few things
[00:00:44.444]that are professional.
[00:00:45.945]Just to see how it reacts
[00:00:47.714]and what it can do.
[00:00:48.581]I think that interacting with AI really
[00:00:51.251]gives you a sense of what's going on,
[00:00:53.536]what is possible,
[00:00:54.471]and a little bit about the limitations.
[00:00:56.356]And speaking from experience
[00:00:57.707]is really important.
[00:00:58.825]You probably
[00:00:59.893]don't have the opportunities
[00:01:01.277]to expose your students
[00:01:03.246]to AI very much.
[00:01:04.547]It really depends on age
[00:01:05.982]because much of it is age gated.
[00:01:07.884]It also depends on what
[00:01:09.102]your school system
[00:01:10.070]allows and doesn't allow.
[00:01:11.321]So you having the experience
[00:01:13.223]at least allows you to have something
[00:01:16.426]to lean back on
[00:01:17.811]and to speak from some experience.
[00:01:20.029]The second thing that I would recommend
[00:01:22.182]is doing a short course
[00:01:24.734]that is self-paced
[00:01:26.352]and doesn't require you to go to school
[00:01:29.089]somewhere or anything else.
[00:01:31.191]There are very few experts about AI, right now.
[00:01:33.643]We're all wandering
[00:01:35.712]somewhat in the dark about
[00:01:37.730]what's going on.
[00:01:38.465]And the models keep changing.
[00:01:40.517]So I wouldn't necessarily
[00:01:42.235]pay for anything
[00:01:43.586]but try to get a source that gives you
[00:01:47.240]an overview of what it is.
[00:01:48.925]The more you know, the better
[00:01:50.477]you can talk about it,
[00:01:51.828]and not just from grasping about things
[00:01:54.080]you hear in the media.
[00:01:55.398]There are.
[00:01:56.432]The media is really fixated
[00:01:58.251]on these narratives of
[00:02:00.086]AI is going to save us
[00:02:01.254]from everything and solve everything
[00:02:04.124]all the way to
[00:02:05.091]this is the end of the world.
[00:02:06.226]And AI is going to take all of our jobs
[00:02:08.545]and control all of our lives.
[00:02:10.797]This might be true,
[00:02:11.831]but this is not a really functional way
[00:02:13.967]to talk about AI right now.
[00:02:15.702]And knowing a little bit
[00:02:16.903]more would help you
[00:02:17.871]talk more intelligently
[00:02:19.556]and really have help problematize
[00:02:22.575]those media narratives,
[00:02:23.693]whether it's the positive
[00:02:25.645]or the negative.
[00:02:26.713]I think both are not true.
[00:02:28.882]One such
[00:02:29.682]example is in the training course
[00:02:32.385]AI Basics for K-12 Teachers.
[00:02:34.420]It's from Common Sense Education,
[00:02:36.072]which is one of the more
[00:02:37.790]reliable sources out there.
[00:02:39.559]And they've collaborated
[00:02:40.793]with many other resources
[00:02:42.946]teaching about
[00:02:44.447]technology and media
[00:02:46.516]to put together
[00:02:48.284]a basic course that you can take online
[00:02:50.570]that does not require you to pay
[00:02:52.972]and gives you
[00:02:53.806]a basic understanding of what it is.
[00:02:57.143]So you can see that you have to
[00:03:00.196]you have to create an account.
[00:03:01.648]I do have an account,
[00:03:02.932]so I'll go, I'll go forward and get in.
[00:03:07.720]So what you can see is
[00:03:09.489]there are very specific
[00:03:10.540]learning outcomes outlined.
[00:03:12.275]And you can start
[00:03:13.459]going through the module.
[00:03:14.978]And really,
[00:03:17.413]you can see that this is not super long.
[00:03:19.265]And the idea behind
[00:03:20.500]this is to provide some basic information
[00:03:22.902]and to get you going
[00:03:23.987]without really overlaying
[00:03:26.356]too much detail or, really applying,
[00:03:30.577]so much information
[00:03:31.844]that it becomes untenable.
[00:03:33.529]So you can think about this
[00:03:35.348]as a really good resource that you can do
[00:03:38.434]in your spare time.
[00:03:39.786]Summer is a good time,
[00:03:40.870]but maybe the beginning
[00:03:41.771]of the school year
[00:03:42.522]is you getting everything else ready.
[00:03:44.023]If you have enough time,
[00:03:45.258]take a few minutes every day to kind of,
[00:03:48.461]get up on AI basics for teachers.
[00:03:52.065]And remember, these are basics.
[00:03:53.416]This is not going to make you
[00:03:54.517]a master of all AI,
[00:03:55.718]and that is not the goal.
[00:03:56.886]The goal is to be able to talk
[00:03:58.421]to our students about AI,
[00:04:00.556]also known as AI literacy.
[00:04:02.709]So that's the first thing
[00:04:04.127]that you can use is, this mini course.
[00:04:07.580]Of course, as I said,
[00:04:09.048]keep using
[00:04:09.732]AI in ways
[00:04:10.967]that make sense to you, in ways
[00:04:12.435]that feel ethical to you.
[00:04:14.120]And,
[00:04:15.905]it is important, though,
[00:04:17.173]when you consider
[00:04:18.074]the ethics
[00:04:18.558]is also to remember that
[00:04:19.876]we have to teach our students about this.
[00:04:22.211]So some interaction is justified
[00:04:24.163]just because we are learning.
[00:04:26.115]So we can be intelligent
[00:04:27.467]in the way we talk about it.
[00:04:28.968]The second resource is as we switch
[00:04:32.088]and start thinking about our students,
[00:04:34.057]is to use Code.org.
[00:04:35.458]Code.org. with a few other
[00:04:36.826]partners, created a series
[00:04:38.928]of courses and opportunities
[00:04:40.580]to interact for students, to interact
[00:04:42.365]and learn about AI or interact
[00:04:45.184]in a closed system.
[00:04:46.235]So it is an AI, but it is the kind of AI
[00:04:49.389]or a chatbot
[00:04:50.206]that is very limited
[00:04:51.274]that it has poses no danger
[00:04:53.176]and they cannot do their homework
[00:04:55.061]with it, for example,
[00:04:56.029]because it's tailored
[00:04:57.046]for a specific task.
[00:04:59.015]And so you expose them
[00:05:00.466]to the way you interact with the chatbot
[00:05:02.168]without having any of the dangers
[00:05:04.120]or any of the permissions that are needed
[00:05:05.922]because it is in a protected space.
[00:05:08.558]And what you can do as you look at this,
[00:05:12.095]I do have an account on Code.org.
[00:05:13.730]You do have to do that. It is free.
[00:05:15.965]Take, take advantage of it.
[00:05:17.984]I can say, for example, I am teaching
[00:05:20.770]third grade
[00:05:21.854]and I want something that will take,
[00:05:25.992]one week between an hour and a half
[00:05:28.094]and four hours.
[00:05:28.778]That's what I have.
[00:05:29.979]So let's select that.
[00:05:32.115]And that will give me a few options
[00:05:35.018]for teaching things.
[00:05:37.754]This is of course about CS,
[00:05:39.706]but there's also the course
[00:05:41.107]about how AI makes decisions.
[00:05:43.393]And this is exactly what you want,
[00:05:46.512]to use
[00:05:47.480]for teaching kids at that grade level.
[00:05:50.116]You can then get a quick view,
[00:05:52.568]which lets you see
[00:05:53.720]what the lesson plans are,
[00:05:55.238]the fact that they have also slide decks
[00:05:57.040]and everything else.
[00:05:57.857]You can try it, get access to it again,
[00:06:00.009]access is free
[00:06:01.244]so you can get access for you.
[00:06:03.196]You can also get access for your students
[00:06:05.448]if you so desire.
[00:06:06.582]But you have a set of materials
[00:06:08.568]from Code.org that can do this.
[00:06:10.686]Of course,
[00:06:11.254]if you have more time, if you're saying,
[00:06:13.506]I actually have 4 to 16 hours,
[00:06:16.125]you will have different options.
[00:06:17.627]So it allows you to really filter
[00:06:19.779]what you're interested
[00:06:20.780]in based on grade, on topic, on duration,
[00:06:23.649]what devices you have, and all of that.
[00:06:25.868]So that's from Code.org.
[00:06:27.103]And the last thing I want
[00:06:28.504]to highlight this is the fourth
[00:06:30.073]thing is to use Common
[00:06:32.825]Common Sense Media.
[00:06:33.976]We used it for the teacher course.
[00:06:36.429]But what I'd like to say
[00:06:37.964]is they also have lots of information,
[00:06:41.150]just like they do about movies
[00:06:42.585]and video games,
[00:06:43.519]which is where code
[00:06:45.054]Common Sense Media really started is
[00:06:47.206]who gives parents
[00:06:48.875]some guidelines
[00:06:49.842]about what's available there
[00:06:51.644]and not just a rating,
[00:06:52.962]because ratings are always
[00:06:54.313]we're not sure why, but the detail.
[00:06:57.049]So here in Common Sense Media,
[00:06:59.202]they also have reviews of the different,
[00:07:02.989]AI chatbots.
[00:07:04.207]So this is, for example,
[00:07:05.258]one of my favorites, Claude.
[00:07:07.760]And you can see that it gives a general,
[00:07:11.314]you know, the one liner.
[00:07:13.516]And you can see they also
[00:07:14.984]have the AI review team
[00:07:16.369]and they tell you
[00:07:17.320]this is for age 18 plus.
[00:07:19.122]So obviously if kids are younger
[00:07:20.857]they should not use it.
[00:07:22.425]But it also has a higher level of detail.
[00:07:25.745]What is it? How does it work?
[00:07:27.914]And there are links in each one.
[00:07:29.348]So you can actually understand
[00:07:31.267]how these work.
[00:07:32.235]And then talking about risks
[00:07:35.104]and talking about limits to use.
[00:07:38.207]So for example it talks about under 18
[00:07:41.978]and not allowed under 18
[00:07:44.981]and a message limit and all of that.
[00:07:49.152]Some of my,
[00:07:50.436]my brain is right now
[00:07:51.637]wondering how updated it is,
[00:07:53.322]because these things
[00:07:54.290]keep changing for example,
[00:07:55.658]Google just lowered their age limit
[00:07:57.860]on some of their AI.
[00:07:59.295]So I'm wondering whether that should be,
[00:08:05.134]that should be a way to think about it.
[00:08:07.420]But this is, again,
[00:08:08.387]giving you as a teacher access
[00:08:11.057]to some basic information
[00:08:12.725]that includes safeties
[00:08:14.076]and most of the worries.
[00:08:15.428]They do the work for us,
[00:08:16.879]so we don't have to do
[00:08:18.664]the actual detective work,
[00:08:20.082]because that might take quite a bit
[00:08:22.218]of time
[00:08:23.135]to understand how it works,
[00:08:24.971]to understand
[00:08:25.655]what the potential risks, risks are.
[00:08:28.841]And so,
[00:08:30.760]this is another great resource
[00:08:32.828]from Common Sense Media.
[00:08:33.996]So just to summarize,
[00:08:36.015]I think you should start
[00:08:38.017]teaching about AI this year.
[00:08:40.753]And the four ways you can do that.
[00:08:42.855]Is one, use an AI chatbot
[00:08:45.858]just to get to know it.
[00:08:47.660]Second one is
[00:08:49.028]use one of the freely available,
[00:08:52.215]short courses for teachers.
[00:08:53.950]The one that I give as an
[00:08:55.484]example is from Common Sense Media.
[00:08:57.186]But there are others.
[00:08:58.571]Three
[00:08:59.438]Code.org has a series of lessons
[00:09:02.024]that you can adapt
[00:09:04.393]to how long you have
[00:09:05.745]to work with kids on this,
[00:09:07.246]knowing that
[00:09:08.164]we don't have infinite time with kids,
[00:09:10.216]and we have many other things
[00:09:12.285]that we have to do.
[00:09:13.419]And the last one is
[00:09:14.687]using the Common Sense Media ratings
[00:09:17.106]and reviews to make sure you understand.
[00:09:19.992]If you do choose to use something,
[00:09:21.577]what are the limitations and concerns.
[00:09:24.130]And I'll see you next time
[00:09:25.298]on AI in the Classroom.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Tech EDGE, AI in the Classroom: Four Ways to Teach About AI This Year

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments