technology integration

Flipped Learning with AI

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment
Student uses AI at home to research a topic.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about AI and its role in education.

I’ve read my share from the nay-sayers, cautiously optimistic users, as well as those who are leading the charge with AI adoption in the classroom. I also have some insight into how the private sector is viewing AI, including those in the cryptospace. To be clear, I am not professing to be an expert in AI — I am very far from that. But I am well-versed with practical experience in how teachers can harness the power to technology to make learning meaningful and relevant for students.

Now, what I’m going to be posting here are just my thoughts which will likely change and/or be refined over time as the conversation on technology tools and AI continues to evolve. So here goes…

Remember flipped learning?

I had the wonderful opportunity to see Jonathan Bergmann speak about how to flip your classroom back in 2012-ish. What I gained from that session (besides his very informative book) was the idea that I could have my students watch mini-video lectures (no more than 9 minutes) at home, take notes, and then bring them back to class where we could apply what they learned. They did the mundane (but very important task) at home, and in class they got to actively apply what they learned with the assistance and collaboration of their peers along with my guidance.

Having students watch those short videos at home and take notes served multiple purposes:

  • Students could work at their pace ✅
  • Students could determine where and when they wanted to watch the video ✅
  • I gained about 15-20 minutes back in instructional time because I didn’t have to wait for all of my students to copy my notes down before we could move on to the application phase ✅

It was a win-win-win situation.

Now here is what I’ve been thinking about. There have been so many conversations about the benefits, challenges, and negatives when it comes to AI use in the classroom — in particular, I think the main challenge rests with AI use in the classroom itself. Meaning, students are using AI to do their work for them, including providing answers to questions that they should be trying to work through themselves. And if students are allowed to use AI while in class, I don’t see how teachers can prevent any of that happening.

But what if we took the flipped lesson approach?

What if we encouraged students to use AI at home to research a topic and/or use it as a thought-partner for generating an idea for a project AND THEN when they returned to class the very next day…they share their findings with their peers and/or collaborate on a project or activity without any AI assistance. Meaning, no access to technology. Students have their notes that they may or may not have taken when using AI at home but nothing else. This way, they have to internalize what they gleaned from their AI use at home in order to apply it in class the next day.

Here is an example…

The lesson topic is the Five Themes of Geography. Instead of reading the definitions of the Five Themes of Geography in their textbook (boring!), students have two options: (1) they can watch my flipped videos on the Five Themes of Geography and take notes or (2) they can use AI as a thought-partner or tutor to learn the definitions of the Five Themes and take notes. Students who choose the AI option will have parameters to help them create prompts so that they don’t go down a rabbit hole.

Regardless of which option they choose, when they come back to class, students will have a developing understanding of the Five Themes of Geography that they will then apply. Students would work together to draw and identify personal examples that demonstrate their understanding of Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region before we apply that learning to our upcoming units in the following days.

Students apply their learning in class the next day with their peers.

Now, to be clear, AI may not provide the most relevant or most accurate definitions and examples for the Five Themes of Geography (e.g., ChatGPT 4o provided so-so results, Gemini offered better definitions and examples). But I think that’s okay because when students come back to class the next day, they’ll get to have those conversations with their peers and who knows what other teachable moments may come up?

In this scenario, I see AI as being beneficial for several reasons:

  • Student voice and choice — they can choose to watch teacher-created videos or use AI to help them learn particular concepts ⭐️
  • Students can engage in a conversation with AI to drill down further or to expand their scope of exploration (this wouldn’t be the case with a teacher-created video) ⭐️
  • Teachers don’t necessarily have to record videos as students would engage with the AI as a tutor (this would save teachers time because, let’s face it, recording a video using a document camera to do notes can be quite time-consuming) ⭐️
  • Students can see that AI is a tool for learning ⭐️

This brings me to the end of my thoughts on Flipped Learning with AI (for now). But I’m sure I’ll have more to share as I continue to marinate on AI in education. Stay tuned…

Labor of Love: ETT+ Micro-Courses

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

One of the new FUN projects that I’ve had the pleasure to work on for EdTechTeacher is the development of a wide array of micro-courses created by teachers for teachers. These asynchronous, video-based micro-courses are led by teachers who are not only experts in their field, but also passionate about how educational technology can transform learning in the classroom.

Each instructor recorded short videos that explain key concepts and skills, demonstrate how to use various edtech tools, and share ways that technology can be used to empower students in their learning. These micro-courses take approximately two hours to complete (including thoughtful discussion posts and engaging activities). At the conclusion, learners have two options: (1) download a certificate that shows they’ve complete 2 hours of PDP and/or (2) complete a performance task that applies their learning worth an additional 1-hour of PDP credit.

Because these courses are asynchronous, participants have the option to complete them at their own pace. However, if you’d like to go through these courses as a cohort, we can make that happen!

What’s my role in this? I have had the pleasure to work with these amazing instructors take their concepts for a course and transform it into engaging and applicable learning experiences. I’ve done my share of instructional design work while I was still in the classroom — so, it’s been really fun to flex those muscles and skillsets again. On a side note, working with these instructors has provided so many opportunities to learn new things as well — so this fulfills my need and curiosity as a learner. Needless to say, this new product from EdTechTeacher checked off so many boxes for me.

It is my hope that you will take a moment to check out our new service: EdTechTeacher+ Membership. For those who typically sign-up for our EdTechTeacher summer series, this new subscription service from EdTechTeacher includes our usual summer learning pass. 🥳

Come learn with us!

A Time to Reflect

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 10.40.16 PM

This year my department rolled out a fully blended learning program for both World and U.S. History. Each member of my department was given an iPad cart to use with our students. We met over the summer to design our courses using Haiku Learning as our learning management system. The conversation flowed as we threw out ideas about how to make learning more student-centered while staying true to our philosophy of providing a rigorous learning environment with student choice. Integrating technology at this level with varying degrees of techxpertise (thanks @MisterCoyle for the nomenclature) was certainly something that kept us on our toes all.year.long. It forced our department to take collaboration to the next level. On a regular basis (i.e., daily, before school, in between classes), we discussed how technology could help our students practice historical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Luckily, we are all veteran teachers who know the value of flexibility and having an open-mind. Because in the end it’s the students who benefit from all of this work…we’re just the care-takers of the process.

Top 10 Things We Learned This Year

  1. BaiBoard is a awesome app for collaboration – to make it easier to follow along (and hold students accountable), have students fill in a Google Form with their BaiBoard name + password; use the desktop app to monitor progress
  2. Google My Maps though it has great potential in the history classroom, the UI on the iPads is still severely lacking – it’s a bummer to have students create slideshows on a pin only to have it show up on some iPads but not others #csuftcs
  3. Padlet is an easy way for students to display their work – to prevent cheating or stealing of ideas, we found that it was better to require students to post their work first in a discussion forum in Haiku Learning to time/date stamp the entry and then post the assignment in Padlet
  4. District’s default password for GAFE accounts needs to be changed right away – birthdays are a big deal at the middle school level…hence it’s pretty easy to figure out the default GAFE password (mmddyyyy) #duh
  5. Haiku Learning is an easy way to create a blended learning environment for students – use a linear format (e.g, Task 1, Task 2) because it helps students know what to do next and they can progress through the tasks at their own pace
  6. Memes are a fun way for students to practice critical thinking skills – students not only used memes for historical writing but also to demonstrate their creative side; middle schoolers speak memes #truestory #funnestprojecttograde
  7. Student choice is one way to personalize the learning process – using a revised version of Marzano’s learning scales, students were able to chose their learning path: Level 3 (describe/define), Level 4 (analysis), Level 5 (synthesis, evaluation) #leveledlearning #studentchoice
  8. Collaboration is key – having an open-mind is just as important
  9. Technology will work when it wants to, not when you want it to #murphyslaw
  10. Middle schoolers are inherently curious and to a large extent fearless – give them a challenge and they will rise to the occasion…how do you think we’ve learned various tips and tricks of the apps that we use?