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ASSIGNMENT
Consider one of the AI application examples highlighted and explain how you would introduce this to your pupils. Post a reflective piece (150 words min) to this Module forum as a Reply to this post.
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Consider one of the AI application examples highlighted and explain how you would introduce this to your pupils.
One of the applications I would like to explore more is Khan Academy but for this assignment I am going to focus on the analysis of bias mentioned in the module.
This use of AI to produce a newspaper article depicting the views of the 1916 Rising in Ireland from both An Phoblacht and The London Times. Getting the children to analyse the text for areas of bias and even at a basic level to identify which paper wrote which articles. I would like to do the same with my class on the Aboriginals. In September we study the Aboriginals in Australia. There are many options for inputting prompts here from their thoughts on the English and Irish settlers coming to their territory to live or their thoughts on national landmarks in Australia such as Ayers Rock which they considered sacred. On the other hand input what the views of the English/Irish many who were shunned from their native countries arriving in Australia. Also the Eng/Irish views on the national landmarks would be very different. I think this really consolidates the views of all parties in the children’s minds and they would learn so much from the experience.
I think putting in the prompt with the children and getting the output is good but the reverse I feel is even more powerful for their critical thinking development. Looking at an article/output from AI and trying to figure out in as much detail as possible what the input was is a great lesson and pointed out the areas of bias that would lead you to think of whose point of view the article is written from.
I will definitely use this in my class next year.
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Hi Orla,
Thank you for your post here. You have raised several great points. Its great that you will be able to incorporate some of this into your unit of work on the Aboriginal people. I fully agree with the point you have made regarding the prompt and the output. Making the children aware that the text they are analysing was AI generated and to ask them to identify what the prompt was has huge implications for developing and deepening their critical thinking skills.
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I am really excited about the possibilities that Google Teachable Machines might bring to the classroom. One application of it that springs to mind is for use in SPHE when teaching feelings/emotions. I see this lesson integrating very well with Drama also. We are doing the Zones of Regulation programme in our classroom and this is very heavy on children recognising their current emotional state and that of others based on actions and visual cues. I think it would be great to use Teachable Machine to differentiate between happy and positive or calm faces based on the roleplaying of children in a drama style setting and sad/upset/angry faces with another sample set of children. Following this children could try miming the various emotions to see if the machine recognises the emotions they feel they are expressing.
I also see a lot of applications for the STEM functions. Having Senior Infants this coming year I can see myself using it for teaching/reinforcing number formation. We could teach the machine numbers 1 to 10 for example and then I could call out a number for the children to write on their whiteboards and to check using the machine.
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Hi Shane,
Thank you for your post. The Teachable Machine is such a powerful tool and has so many potential uses. Using it to reinforce number formation is one which I would never have thought of, but would be so useful. It is great to have a selection of teachers from across class levels who can use their knowledge of the different curricula to provide relevant and suitable ideas for us all to learn from.
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The application that I’m going to comment on is Chat Gpt. I realise that it may seem a little obvious to choose that one, but what made me choose this was the aspects of module 4 that dealt with bias highlighted by the two very different pieces of writing from two different prompts. At the level I’m teaching we often do work on seeing things from the perspective of others. However, these are usually lessons which have their basis in English fiction work or in Religion. The fact that something as fact-based as the 1916 rising could be presented in such contrasting ways would be quite an eye-opener to pupils (and probably many adults too). The English scheme that I used with my class had sections on reports. I remember in particular that there were reports based on France and Spain. Having seen module 4 now, I’m curious what sort of report one would get if you asked Chat Gpt for a report based on a prompt where the author doesn’t like France/Spain compared to someone who did. Or, a comparison between a report from someone who lives in the countries as opposed to someone who had just gone there on holidays.
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The application that I am going to focus on for this Module is Chat GPT. I was really intrigued by the way it can demonstrate bias to the students. Students can consider how bias can be formed or created depending on the viewpoint of the creater (students will be able to understand how their input affects the output). When studying the Vikings, the teacher can create articles from different perspectives exploring life as a Viking. Students can then work in groups/pairs to decipher what viewpoint the article was written in and check for bias. These would be great foundations when forming a debate lesson. The output can be used as a starting point, instead of the input as students need to work together to idenifty which perspective it was written in. Similarly, students can be given a AI generated photograph (prompted by the teacher) and have to idenitify what the photograph portrays and what viewpoint was the photograph taken. This lessson can be adapted to many different topics covered in the SESE curriculum.
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The class activity where students work in groups or pairs to decipher the viewpoint of the article and check for bias is an excellent start for a debate lesson. It encourages creative thinking and sharing of knowledge. Other than that, using AI-generated photographs to discuss perspective and bias extends this learning to visual media, which is highly engaging and relevant.
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The application I’m going to focus on is Khan Academy Kids.
Having used this app as an independent station in Numeracy Station Teaching this year, I’ve was impressed by the breadth of topics in Numeracy. I love how units can be assigned to be completed within a certain time frame. I also love how content can be individually assigned so that students who need to work at a lower or higher level are enabled to do so. There is a section to monitor progress in different areas.
Skills my students needed to access this are basic IT literacy skills such as powering on and selecting the app and logging in via class code or QR code. They really enjoyed using the QR login.
I’ve used the Khan Academy app before for older children from 2nd class and upwards. Whilst it does allow for a more individualised approach, the user interface was not suited to the devices we had at the time. I’m looking forward to them expanding the Khanmigo AI tool to Europe to see how that works.
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Hi Sarah,
Whilst the full functionality of Khanmigo is yet to be rolled out here you can still avail of plenty of AI-powered tools by signing up for a free teacher account, at https://www.khanmigo.ai in particular the new Khanmigo Tools which are designed to save you time and improve instruction and are categorised under five headings, Plan, Create, Differentiate, Support and Learn.
Staying with Khanmigo , not sure if you’ve had a chance to watch Sal Khan’s TED Talk ‘How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education’ where he demos the AI assistant. Well worth a watch if you haven’t at https://youtu.be/hJP5GqnTrNo?si=fkOBcdKQF7ct1Unu
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Thanks for that Pat. I’ll have a play around with Khanmigo Tools. I have watched Sal Khan’s TED Talk. He’s a great speaker. His demo was great. The fact that the AI actually paused for thinking time before answering in a manner which provided meaningful, constructive feedback blew me away. I didn’t ever imagine AI with those kind of capabilities.
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The AI application I will focus on is Khan academy.
I’ve used this application in a special class where the varying needs of the children were huge. I found it excellent to explore lots of different subjects particularly math and literacy skills. As I was in an SEN class the children needed one to one teaching time. Teaching children to use the Khan academy app was great as some of my students could work indepencently on skills I had taught them in class and practise these skills through the app allowing me time to work with another child whilst Khan Academy keeping a log of the pupil’s progress and continually challenging them. It was also a nice app to send home with the children to practise skills at home. They really enjoyed the colourful graphics and sound effects.
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An AI application which I would like to further explore in the coming school year is the use of Chat GPT. I found it very interesting that AI could be used to allow students to analyse bias. This could be completed in numerous topics across the curriculum. It would be an engaging way to demonstrate to students how bias can be created from the perspective with which an article/piece is written. For example, if looking at the Famine, students could determine bias of a letter written from a person emigrating Ireland by boat and another letter written from the perspective of an English person witnessing Irish arrive into their country. It would be interesting to allow the students to compare the excerpts.This could also be very topical and would be an interesting way to explore current world news.
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The application that I plan to use from this module is the Scratch coding tool. I think that it is an excellent resource and having explored it as part of the course I can see the benefits of it in the classroom. As well as learning and applying the skill of block coding I can see cross curricular integration possibilities. When I am exploring the genre of procedural writing I am often looking for ways to demonstrate how stating each step and instruction clearly is very important. Scratch coding is an excellent example of this- if you do not code your sprite correctly and clearly and in the correct order it will not perform the required function correctly. The programme itself is engaging and interactive and won’t seem like ‘work’ to the children. They have an opportunity to be expressive and creative while developing their computer skills alongside problem solving skills.
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One area I would be keen to explore in more detail with my 4th and 5th class in September is using chat GPT to generate articles from different perspectives to help teach the children about bias and explore different historical perspectives. From reading different comments in the forum this is a very popular avenue to explore. I have used scratch with previous classes and I would be keen to also upskill my own skills using this programme. I will be teaching my class about the great famine next year and I am excited to use Chat GPT to accumulate resources such as newspaper articles from that time period from both the Irish and British perspective. There are so many activities that could stem from this such as debating from the perspective of a British landlord and an Irish farmer. We will be doing the novel ‘Under the Hawthorn tree’ and in groups the children could create prompts for Microsoft co pilot image creator to help them visualise the charatcers and different scenes from the novel. This topic will be great for teaching the children the importance of inputting detailed and specific prompts into chat GPT.
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Hi Kate, this is exactly what I plan to do! As part of the exercise in the module I sourced two newspaper articles from the time of the famine- one from an Irish point of view and a totally opposing opinion piece from a British newspaper. I was able to find the pieces in seconds and can see myself using this feature a lot.
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Introducing Scratch to 5th class pupils is usually an exciting and engaging experience. Here’s how I might approach it next year.
I would start by explaining what Scratch is – a visual programming language that helps create stories, games, and animations. I would highlight how it’s designed to be user-friendly and encourage creativity and problem-solving skills.
Next, I would demonstrate a simple project. I’d create a basic animation or game live in front of the class, showing how to drag and drop blocks to build the code. This visual demonstration helps pupils understand the interface and see the immediate results of their coding.
After the demonstration, I would have pupils pair up and work on their own simple project. This collaborative approach encourages peer learning and makes the initial steps less daunting. I would provide a starter project with clear objectives, such as creating an animation where a character moves and says something.
I’d circulate around the classroom, offering guidance and answering questions. At this stage, I’d encourage experimentation, emphasising that making mistakes is part of the learning process.
At the end of the session, I’d have a reflection period where pupils can share what they created, discuss any challenges they faced, and how they overcame them. This not only reinforces their learning but also builds a sense of community and achievement.
To foster continuous interest, I would introduce weekly Scratch challenges, gradually increasing in complexity, and encourage pupils to explore Scratch at home. I’d also provide resources like tutorials and online communities for further support.
Scratch is not really an AI tool in the way the other apps mentioned are. However, once pupils become proficient we could start to develop programmes that require input from users to generate useful or interesting outputs. In this way we could link to how AI works in terms of inputs and outputs at least.
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Having read the previous posts and engaging with the material in Module 4, the first resource I plan to implement is Khan Academy. Last year, I found teaching Maths in 1st class , a challenge. I struggled to meet each child where they were at and provide consistent differentiated tasks throughout the year so they could progress at their level. A class of 29 with two children with complex needs meant it was often more about management than teaching in small groups. There was a much needed literacy focus in 1st class and support provided by SEN team was focused on this area. Maths , I feel, is an area I want to focus on this year and to be able to manage this to a high level while been the only teacher in the room. I feel AI can really support me with this. I noted in a previous post that a teacher mentioned using Khan Academy in SEN and how beneficial it proved to be. I plan to use this with one group in each class , where the children would be working at their level on devices in the class. (I would do an assessment first) . I think this would really support continuous assessment and allow me to focus on small group teaching in my class. I plan to start with a more able group of children as this will be a learning curve for me and then move on to supporting children with complex needs. It would be amazing if a child could work independently in their class, sitting at the table with their friends, working at their level. Currently I create daily resources for children so they can access the curriculum but AI will speed up this process. I used Co-pilot to make a visual resource to match shapes with real life objects and it came back with a brilliant resources in seconds! Khan Academy , as suggested by a previous post, will also support IT skills for all children.
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I really like the idea of using AI to generate biased historical articles. The power of having pupils analyse a prompt and relate it to the objective of the historical parties involved is fun on a basic level yet naturally differentiated for group discussion, especially in critical thinking. I imagine a branch of learning using this approach to explore a range of topics such as media literacy and ethical ai education and I think it is exiting to know that more ideas will be thought up internationally as adoption takes place. It is also interesting to have pupils internalise the idea that teachers are not always correct thus promoting mistakes as a way to learn and hopefully shedding the fear that some pupils have around wrong answers. I tend to be quite cynical when we discuss advertising in class and have found it hard to deliver real understanding as to why I feel that way about any kind of promotional material. I can see great potential in analysing the differences between honest and subtly sneaky promotional prompts to work through the four stages of health education outlined in this fourth module.
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Hi Desmond,
Thank your for your post and sharing your thoughts her. I really feel you have made an excellent point when you mention how practices will develop as educators gain more experience in using AI prompting – we are very much at an entry level at the moment, and with more sharing of practice we will refine our use of these tools.
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I am considering introducing Google Teachable Machine to 6th class next year. I think it may be an exciting way to engage students with AI and machine learning concepts. I would begin by explaining what AI is in simple terms, emphasizing that it involves teaching computers to recognize patterns and make decisions.
Next, I would introduce Google Teachable Machine as a tool that allows anyone to create simple machine learning models without needing to write any code. I would demonstrate how to use the platform by showing a live example—perhaps training a model to recognize different hand gestures using the classroom webcam. This hands-on activity would illustrate how the machine learns from the examples we provide.
After the demonstration, I would guide students through creating their own projects. For instance, they could train a model to recognize different objects, sounds, or poses. This project-based approach could be great to encourage creativity and critical thinking, allowing students to explore how AI can be applied in various scenarios. I think it could be a lot of fun to see what the children come up with.
One of the first things I’ll do in 6th class is discuss the importance of ethical considerations, such as bias in AI systems and other important aspects of using AI. I am cautious about teaching them to use AI to help them rather than do all the work for them. For example, I saw an app called PhotoMath where you literally take a picture of the sum and it does it for you. When used as an aid, fantastic, but how to ensure it isn’t used as a substitute for learning? Another topic all together 😀
If anyone has used GTMs in a classroom I’d love to hear your ideas and feedback.
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Hi Ciarán,
Thanks for your post here. Particularly moving into 6th class, it is so important that children begin to look at sources through a critical lens and know what to look for when checking for reliability, bias, etc. In an era where ‘fake news’ really seems to be taking hold, and where social media platforms are being used to generate mass movements based around this, it is essential for children to be equipped with these skills. I agree with you regarding the potential benefits of using Google’s Teachable Machine. We may have some course participants who can share practical examples of its use over the coming days and weeks.
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The Application from this module that I would like to introduce to my class this year is scratch programming. It encourages the children to us problem solving skills, emphasises the importance of steps in procedural writing, encourages creativity and of course introduces coding as a concept to young children.
I would use my interactive whiteboard to introduce the children to scratch, during our classes ICT time when each child will have access to a device. I will begin by showing the children how to choose their ‘sprite’ then allowing them a few minutes to experiment with it.
Next I would demonstrate how to add blocks to the script area to give the sprite directions, such as moving left or right. I would show them how to add control blocks, such as ‘when space bar is pressed’. I would show the class how to add a repeat block, and a final block to stop the sprite disappearing off the screen. I would allow them time to experiment with this again, while moving around the room, giving assistance and observing.
Finally I would issue a challenge, such as a series of instructions using new sprites, and give them time to see if they can adapt what they have learned to the new sprites and new instructions.
Depending on the class and their ability levels, I would most likely assign pairs for this challenge, to allow collaboration.
This lesson could be following up with a task to create an animation of their choosing, to be presented to classmates, where children are free to explore different backgrounds, sprites, instructions and steps. -
Like a number of other participants here I am also interested in exploring bias through AI generated articles. An activity I often do through the narrative writing genre is writing the story of “The Three Little Pigs” from the wolf’s perspective. It teaches the children that there are often 2 sides to every story and how a person or group of people can have a strong feeling related to their side of the story which can distort the actual truth.
Drawing on what I have learned here on this course so far I created a lesson plan for teaching bias in history suitable for 10 year old children using Chat GPT. The lesson plan focuses on Christopher Columbus from a European perspective and an indigenous perspective. The lesson plan facilitates group work where the class read the story of Columbus from different perspectives. A guided class discussion which allows children to highlight the differences between both perspectives and why these differences occur is essential in consolidating the existence of bias in historical accounts. The lesson plan allows children to develop their critical thinking skills. I do have some reservations that some children may then begin to question much of what they learn in history and am unsure whether this is good or bad.
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The AI tool I would like to introduce to my 4th class in the year ahead is the Scratch coding platform. To do this I would first use Code.org as a foundational tool to introduce the concept of coding in a clear, concise manner using the excellent free courses they have to offer for primary school aged children.
I will begin with Code.org because it offers an intuitive, step-by-step introduction to basic coding concepts. The platform’s block-based coding system is similar to Scratch but more guided, making it perfect for beginners. We’ll start with simple lessons on Code.org, where students can learn essential coding principles like sequencing, loops, and conditionals through engaging and age-appropriate activities. The immediate feedback provided by Code.org will help build their confidence as they see their code in action.
Once my students are comfortable with these basic concepts, I will transition them to Scratch. I’ll explain that Scratch builds on what they’ve already learned but allows for even more creativity and complexity. To make the transition smooth, I’ll first guide them through recreating simple projects in Scratch that they completed on Code.org, showing how the same principles apply in a new environment.
After this, I’ll encourage students to explore Scratch more freely, creating their own animations, stories, and games. We’ll work on projects that allow them to apply their coding knowledge in creative ways, reinforcing what they’ve learned and introducing them to more advanced features of Scratch.
Using Code.org as a precursor will ensure that my students have a solid understanding of coding basics before diving into the more open-ended world of Scratch, setting them up for success and a deeper understanding of computational thinking.
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