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AI will permeate all aspects of education in the future. What has stood out for me in this course is the need for guidance, prudence, policies and protocols around its use in schools and that whole school approaches should be agreed and collaboration encouraged. There are valuable conversations to be had on the ethics involved in the use of AI. However, no one can deny its timesaving benefits, its creativity and the potential to enhance teaching and learning in our schools while always highlighting the importance of the pedagogical expertise of the teacher in the classroom and the irreplaceable human connection required to foster positive learning. As I return to school I will thread carefully but enthusiastically with the understanding that quality input yields superior output, that AI is continually learning and improving, that AI is merely a tool, that fact checking is imperative, that bias exists and that as teachers we are ethically and morally obliged to use AI with prudence and awareness, complying with all legislative guidance especially around GDPR.
For the week that is in it, I chose to go to County Mayo for my lesson plan on the First Farmers at Céide Fields. I was very pleased with the outcome and also the ability to translate to Irish (while not perfect it reduced workload immensely)
The First Farmers at Céide Fields in North Mayo
1. Curriculum Links & Lesson Overview
• 5th Class (Senior Level)
• SESE History
• Strand: Early peoples and ancient societies
• Strand Unit: Stone Age peoples (Neolithic Ireland)
• Duration: 60 Minutes
• Key Historical Concepts: Evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, time and chronology.2. Learning Objectives (WALT & WILF)
WALT (We Are Learning To):1. Investigate how transition from hunter-gatherers (Mesolithic) to farmers (Neolithic) changed daily life in Ireland around 5,700 years ago.
2. Explore how archaeology uncovered the preserved field systems beneath the blanket bog at Céide Fields in County Mayo.
3. Analyze artifacts and environmental evidence to deduce how Neolithic farming families lived.WILF (What I’m Looking For):
• Clear explanation of at least between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers.
• Active participation in using a peat probe/soil investigation simulation.
• Thoughtful collaboration on visual or written evidence logs.3. Materials Required
• Visuals & Media:Photos/diagrams of Céide Fields wall patterns, bog pine, and Neolithic tools (polished stone axe heads, quern stones).
• Archaeology Simulation Kit (per group):
• Shallow tray filled with dark compost or shredded peat moss hiding miniature stone wall alignments (crafted using small pebbles).
• Skewers or long knitting needles (to simulate bamboo peat probes used by Patrick Caulfield)
• Ativity Worksheets: “Patrick Caulfield’s Detective Notebook” & “Hunter-Gatherer vs. Farmer Decision Matrix”.
• Art/Craft Supplies: Clay or playdough, craft sticks, twine, graph paper.4. Lesson Sequence & 5 Engaging Activities
Lesson Timeline:
[00-10m] Hook & Discovery
[10-25m] Activity 1 & 2
[25-45m] Activity 3 & 4
[45-60m] Activity 5 & Wrap-Up
Activity 1: The Peat Probe Mystery (10 mins — Hook)
• Objective: Recreate the moment local schoolteacher Patrick Caulfield discovered the buried stone walls while cutting turf in the 1930s.
• Setup: Place trays covered with peat moss in front of small groups.
• Task: Students gently insert skewers downwards into the dark peat until they strike resistance. By recording every point where the probe hits a stone on a simple grid map, students “map” buried stone walls hidden under thousands of years of blanket bog.
• Key Inquiry Prompt: “Why would there be organized, straight lines of stone wall hidden 2 meters under a bog?”Activity 2: Hunter-Gatherer vs. First Farmer Sorting Challenge (15 mins)
• Objective: Understand the shift from nomadic life to permanent settlement.
• Task: Working in pairs, students classify lifestyle cards into two categories:Mesolithic (Hunter-Gatherer) Neolithic (First Farmer at Céide Fields)
• Cards to Sort:
• Temporary leather tents Permanent round/rectangular wooden homes
• Hunting wild boar with flint arrows Clearing elm/oak forests with polished stone axes.
• Foraging hazelnuts and berries
• Sowing barley/wheat and grinding grain with a saddle quern
• Following herds Building stone boundary walls to enclose cattle.Activity 3: “Reconstructing the Past” (Text-to-Image / Prompt Engineering)
• Objective: Visual interpretation of prehistoric landscapes.
• Task: Students craft a detailed descriptive prompt based on archaeological facts to generate an image of Céide Fields 5,500 years ago.
• Student Action:
• Drafting Prompt: “A Neolithic farm community in Co. Mayo, Ireland, 3500 BCE. Rectangular stone-walled fields with grazing cattle, wooden roundhouses with thatched roofs, pine forest clearing, and Atlantic ocean cliffs in the background.”
• Critique Phase: Students evaluate the generated image against archaeological facts—spotting any inaccurate items (e.g., modern fences, metal tools, or wrong crops).Activity 4: “The Bog Time-Capsule Simulator” (Process & Change Over Time)
• Objective: Understand environmental continuity and change over millennia.
• Task: Students use AI to run a step-by-step environmental simulation from 3,500 BCE to present day.
• “Show me a timeline in 4 stages of what happened to Céide Fields from 3500 BCE (active farm), 3000 BCE (climate changes/rain increases), 1000 BCE (blanket bog forms), to 1934 CE (Patrick Caulfield finds stone walls while cutting turf).”
Students record the environmental factors that preserved the stone walls under peat.Activity 5: “Day in the Life at Ceide” Hot-Seating (10 mins — Plenary)
• Objective:Consolidate historical understanding through roleplay and oral language.
• Task: Select two student volunteers to take the “Hot Seat” as a Neolithic brother and sister living along the Mayo coast in 3700 BCE.
• Class Role: Remaining students act as visiting archaeologists asking targeted questions about daily tasks, farming challenges, weather, and building stone walls.5. Differentiation Strategies
Group Level
Support / Adaptation Strategy
Extension / Challenge Strategy
Support (Lower Ability / EAL)
• Visual cue cards matching tools to their modern equivalents (e.g., stone axe chainsaw, quern stone food processor)
• Sentence starters provided for the Detective Notebook
• Pair with peer buddy during the Peat Probe Activity for collaborative mapping.
• Extension (Higher Ability) Investigate climate change: Ask why the climate became cooler/wetter around 3000 BCE, causing peat moss to grow over and preserve the fields.
• Compare Céide Fields to other Neolithic sites in Ireland (e.g., Newgrange/Brú na Bóinne).
• Calculate time scales: How many generations lived at Céide Fields across a 500-year period6. Assessment & Follow-Up
• Formative Assessment: Observation during Peat Probe mapping; accuracy during card sorting; quality of questions generated during the Hot-Seating session.
• Summative Assessment: Student entry in “Patrick Caulfield’s Detective Notebook” explaining how the bog acted as a giant natural refrigerator preserving ancient history.I like this lesson Rebecca especially the cross-curricular content. The lesson is engaging, creative, collaborative and has different learning experiences to cater for the many different learning styles in our classrooms. it really just demonstrates how much time can be saved from a planning perspective which will allow more time for teaching, interacting and enriching the overall learning.
Anthony, I agree completely and I thought that Teachable Machine was an excellent way to begin the conversation around AI concepts. It is really important that this is done from an early age and that children are made aware of the way AI works and how dependent it is on inputs.
This module was very helpful in giving insights into the responsibilities associated with using AI in the classroom and with raising children’s awareness of the limitations of AI, the existence of bias and the need to have an open mind and to critically analyse the information retrieved.
The task on comparisons of reports of the 1916 rising brought me back to a leaving cert essay on conflicting reports on Bloody Sunday and hours spent trawling archives at the time. I chose to duplicate the format using Bloody Sunday reports and then used them in NotebookLM to compare and contrast and create an audio file. The accessibility of information coupled with the various presentation options allows for enhanced learning experiences and in the case of this particular task provides a very realistic foundation to explore the existence of bias and the need for caution when using AI.
This awareness of bias and an understanding of data is fundamental to becoming a digital learner.This module was very informative and presented us with various tools many of which I had not heard of previously. I particularly liked the use of Image Creator and could see how this could be used and developed to expand vocabulary while also teaching the importance of prompt specificity. The MS Learning Accelerators were also very practical and while more suitable to senior classes provide bespoke feedback to users in order to improve their learning.
Overall this module highlighted the many tools available to reduce time consuming planning and differentiation tasks. I dipped in to those referenced and created a number of simple presentations in Gamma. The ability to edit the presentations provided me with smart templates and the time to concentrate on content rather than heretofore where I would have spent time on layout / fonts / resizing / backgrounds etc. I believe that AI will be transformative in schools with regard to planning, differentiation and presentation but should be approached on a whole school basis with agreed procedures and protocols to ensure a certain uniformity while promoting creativity, collaboration and sharing of best practice.
I agree Pat with regard to cost. This again highlights the need to have a certain consensus in school around useful and practical tools. This would also foster collaboration and sharing of ideas. In our school engagement with AI tools would be very varied and a ‘Teachmeet’ at the beginning of a staff meeting could be very useful for teachers to share their experience of various AI tools and perhaps agree on one or two which merit investment / subscription.
The potential of AI to enhance teaching and learning was very much presented in this module. There is no denying that it represents massive opportunities particularly in the area of bespoke, personalised learning.
As mentioned by many others ‘Immersive Reader’ offers such support and differentiation for many students. This works perfectly as Gaeilge too which is a real asset in Irish Primary Schools. Microsofts dictation (text to speech) also works very well in Irish which has transformed learning for many children who are struggling in the area of literacy. It was interesting to read that the greatest recognised benefits of AI are in the areas of Language learning and Assessment and Testing.
I too, was very disturbed by the surveillance of Chinese students but this is coming from someone who dislikes ring doorbells and tracking on phones as ways of monitoring people’s activities. (just a personal thought)
One of the greatest challenges for me is the lack of CPD directed at AI use in the educational setting. There is a wide and varied engagement with AI in every staffroom and there is a need for every school to discuss, agree and adhere to schoolbased protocols as identified within a wholeschool policy and approach to the use of AI. While the DEY have issued guidelines the chances of all teachers having read them are slight and I feel that it is imperative that whole school CPD be provided in order that these guidelines are communicated to all schools and teachers and that the conversation around AI use within our own schools is rooted in common principles.
Student access to technology is definitely an issue and it is hard to get the balance right between so much learning happening on devices and access to these devices. For the moment I feel that in my case the vast majority of interaction with AI will be from my own perspective and that targeted specific, well prepared and monitored tasks will be restricted to the scheduled times devices are available to the students.
Caroline, I agree completely, not only is teacher interpretation important the human connection between teacher and student can never be replaced. While the differentiated reading is a wonderful tool the encouragement, direction and interaction between teacher and student in essential for fostering positive learning experiences.
This module provided an excellent introduction to AI outlining its potential in our classrooms. My immediate reaction is that AI will reduce the ‘overwhelm’ associated with lesson planning, differentiation and assessment while increasing productivity and creativity within classrooms. However, teacher judgement and connection with students will always be the gatekeepers of positive learning.
I enjoyed exploring and using different chatbots and improving the quality of my prompts. Heretofore I had only ever dipped into Chat GPT so it was interesting to see how Copilot and Gemini compared. Developing an awareness of the quality of prompts is so important for teachers and indeed for students as they engage with AI.
I really enjoyed exploring the potential of Vidnoz and Pictory, neither of which I had engaged with previously. I was impressed that Pictory could produce a video from prompts only given ‘as Gaeilge’ while the initial try with Vidnoz did not yield the same results in the text to speech option. I am sure that there are ways around this and possibly the option of uploading audio. This will be something to explore further in the new term.
I like the concept of a co-pilot Tracey which affirms the role of the teacher pilot in overseeing the content and the appropriate differentiation. The potential to really devise bespoke learning is huge and transformative but as you rightly say AI will reduce the time involved and provide a template from which teachers can adapt to suit the individual children in front of them.