Summer is a great time for educators to do a little reading and explore a bit in preparation for next Fall. Our grandkids are either out of school or will be within a week. The educators in our family are soon to have more time. I usually offer some suggestions for technology-related and classroom relevant summer explorations at about this time of the year.
I seem to be spending so much of my time lately exploring and writing about AI. It is hard to get away from this topic and the uncertainty related to applications and challenges. Everything about AI seems mysterious and as a consequence, unsettling. As I have written previously, I have been unable to find a book that provided the insights I felt I needed and my related recommendation was to explore a combination of personal experimentation and online blog posts and resources as most productive. What follows are recommendations based on this perspective.
I have divided my recommendations based on two goals. First, I want to understand a bit about how AI works and to understand general “how to do it” skills. I don’t like the feeling of not understanding how things work the way they do. Without some sense of understanding, I have trust issues. At the other extreme, I want specific recommendations I can implement. I want examples and variations on these examples I can apply to content and topics of my choosing.
Second, I want specifics related to applications in education.
Here are some recommendations related to the first goal. The content is free with the exception of the Udemy course which I have found useful. I tend to differentiate Google Bard applications from OpenAI applications in my explorations. It is worth spending some time with each, but because I have decided to use several OpenAI API applications (applications built on the model that AI approach used in ChatGPT) I pay to use, I am more experienced and have spent more time with OpenAI-related resources. Hence, I am more confident in these recommendations.
The AI Canon (Andreessen Horowitz)
Generative AI learning path (Google)
ChatGPT complete guide (Udemy – $15?)
As an educator, you may or may not feel the need I feel to invest time in developing a sense of how and why. The following are sources specific to education. The resource from the Office of Educational Technology focuses on AI in education, but lacks the specifics I want. It is a reasonable overview of the potential of AI in education. I am also somewhat put off by the constant emphasis on the message that AI will not replace teachers and humans must remain in the loop, which I find obvious and unnecessary if there is a successful focus on useful applications. It seems there is a concern that those who would read the document in the first place need to be convinced.
I have included one blog post I wrote a couple of months ago. I added it because it is the type of effort I want to read because of the focus on how AI might be used for a specific educational goal. I cannot evaluate the quality of this offering, but I think efforts concerning concrete uses educators can try and/or assign now are the type of thing educators are looking for. I don’t believe in recipes, but my effort was intended to focus on opportunities to address a need and to encourage exploration. I think we are at this stage with AI use in classrooms and the summer is a good time to explore.
Artificial intelligence and the future of teaching and learning (Office of Educational Technology)
Google Bard for educators (Control Alt Achieve)
AI tutoring now (me)
You must be logged in to post a comment.