Educators as AI Guides: Crafting Resources for Families and Communities
Edtech Throwdown
Episode 198: Educators as AI Guides: Crafting Resources for Families and Communities
Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 198 called Educators as AI Guides: Crafting Resources for Families and Communities. In this episode, we will walk through a step by step process that educators can follow for creating AI resources that are not just for staff and students, but the community as a whole. This is another episode you don’t want to miss, check it out.
Segment 1:
We are concluding a 3 year journey that has attempted to establish AI policy, share the ai policy with staff and students, teach staff about ai, teach students about ai, and the final phase … teaching the community.
One thing that still surprises me is the number of people (usually adults) who don’t use AI. Maybe they disagree with it, maybe they don’t know where to go or what to do, or maybe they just don’t care. But everyone has a stake in at least knowing what these tools are capable of.
A local library reached out to the school district and asked if we would collaborate on creating, sharing and presenting resources from the school so that the community could learn from them AND be aware of what schools are doing with AI.
This is our journey, laid out in a step-by-step manner so that it might help others trying to accomplish the same thing.
Segment 2:
- Establish policy at the highest levels possible (board, superintendent, etc).
- Must start here so you have a legally backed document to fall back on
- This can be slow and painful
- Start identifying the stakeholder’s opinions
- Teachers,
- Students
- Administrators
- Parents
- Have a focus group to help with wordsmithing
- Identify proper use/misuse
- Establish an “AI director” for the district
- Not a new position, someone who already has a tech role
- This person is responsible for maintaining and updating the resources and plan that follows
- This person may also want to recruit a small team to help them build out and present the materials (tech coaches, media specialists, etc)
- Create a public space to clearly communicate that policy
- Website is probably the best option, social posts are too fleeting
- Could also be a document that gets linked somewhere, like a school website
- Create easily digestible versions of that policy
- “Infographic” that policy! No one likes to read policy, so make it digestible in the form of an infographic
- Shoe-horn it as an FAQ page
- Beautified PDF or Canva doc
- Canva slide deck - make it presentable and informative since this is what people will likely go to for policy information
- Create a public hub that collects AI resources for everyone
- To me, website is the only option here
- Needs to be linked to the school districts website
- Must have …
- The actual board policy language
- Sections for staff, students, and community
- Quick links for commonly accessed information
- Share with staff
- Surveys and focus groups in the early stages - make them feel heard, this is a hot topic
- Multi-pronged approach
- In-person PD on in-service days
- Ready-made classroom materials like posters
- Differentiate the options they have for accessing info and sharing with students: video AND slides AND docs AND …
- Examples of how this policy affects real things like a syllabus, assignment directions, second chance learning, use of computers, etc.
- Specific information about what they can do to help stop AI use and what to do when students are misusing it
- Regular reminders
- Share with students
- Create common language used between all stakeholders
- Appropriate usages
- Inappropriate usages
- AI policy at the district level, school level, classroom level
- Different modes of communication
- Syllabus
- AI policy website
- Student handbook
- Classroom poster
- Share with community
- First, share your resource hub on social media
- Second, create a schedule for social media posts that contain information from the policy. Keep it positive! For example, a post that shows how a well known teacher is using AI to help support student learning.
- Third, create resources that teach people about AI, what it is, how it is used in schools, how they can use it in their everyday lives
- Final stage: collab with local groups like libraries, AI night for parents to join
- Continuing updates and education
- Showcase new tools, policies, and guidelines
- Social media
- Superintendent Newsletter
- Website update
- Videos
- Back to School night
- Teacher communication emails/newsletters
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Music Credits:
- Intro and Outro Music-American Idle - RKVC
- Segment Identifiers-Duck in the Alley - TrackTribe
- Edtech Throwdown-Born a Rockstar (Instrumental) - NEFEX
Need a Presenter?
As experienced presenters and content creators, you can contact Nick and Guise to speak at your school, event, or conference. They can customize a workshop that meets your organization’s unique time and content needs. While no topic is out of bounds, we are best known for sessions on:
- AI For Teachers, Admin, and Parents
- 1:1 Chromebook Integration
- EdTech Throwdown
- TargetED Learning
- Gamification (Badge Systems)
- Game-Based Learning (Escape Rooms, Amazing Race, and more)
- Google apps and extensions
- Personalized learning and Choice Boards
- Teacher productivity (Lesson Planning, Online Grading. and Feedback)
- Digital content creation
- Student Podcasting
- Screencasting
- Flipped Classroom
- Student-Centered Learning
