[Emily Casey]

HI Niamh,
I really like your idea for this lesson on ensuring the children think critically about information that is generated by AI.
I like the idea of the children comparing and contrasting work created by AI and their own original pieces. Children are getting to evaluate their own work and the work of AI in a structured environment.
I think it would show how ideas could be expanded and developed while also valuing the child’s own creativity.
I like that they are left with the question if AI writes part of your story, who is the real author? Do the children actually feel a sense of ownership and achievement after reading the AI assisted piece of their work?
I feel that this is a very current and topical debate especially in the areas of the arts, where songs and books are being produced using AI more frequently.
I think it opens it up in a way that is relevant for the children’s understanding.

 

 

[Emily Casey]

Class Stage : 6^th Class

Curriculum area and learning intentions: SPHE

Myself and the wider world > Media education >

become increasingly critical and discerning in his/her own attitude to advertising and the techniques used to promote products, life-styles and ideas.

AI concept being explored:

Consider reliability, credibility and safe responsible use of digital technologies.

Short activity or discussion outline

Generate a selection of AI advertisements for their favourite drink / food / hobby.

One critical question:

Look at and discuss the advertisements. Do they match the experience of the child? Can these claims be proven? Are there claims that are untrue? How tempted would you be to try the drink / food / hobby based on the AI advertisement?

The children would be supported to think critically by being first scaffolded through a similar lesson. Question would be encouraged and supported by the teacher.

Evidence of learning could be gathered by comparing and contrasting their initial response to the advertisement and their response after critically analysing it.

 

[Emily Casey]

Hi Marie
Thank you for your comprehensive explanation of Hour of AI – The First Night, it was great to get such a clear synopsis of the lesson.
I like the way the coding of the game is linked to the child ensuring the agent makes good decisions. This combines critical thinking with the actually ability to code.
I agree that his would be a great lesson to use with the senior end of the school.
I love the way that pair work and class discussion would also tie in with the Oral Language Element of the English Curriculum.
That children would talk about and challenge scenarios that come up in the game.
With all the discussion and use of AI now, it is also hugely beneficial for children to explore what AI is and what it can do in a familiar game based setting.
I feel that Minecraft Education could definitely be included in our whole school digital learning plan.

[Emily Casey]

I chose Bad Connection.
I chose this as I like the fact that is deals with Cyber Safety using a game the children are familiar with and play often, which is an aspect that really appeals to me.
Bad Connection gives the children four different scenarios that tackle things like specific manipulation tactics, getting children to give personal information, teasing and bullying and receiving threatening messages, all real life situations that occur daily with children on line.
All are done in scenarios that play out within a game of Minecraft with at least one character appearing cautious and others behaving more recklessly.
The overall arching messages is always ask for help if you feel uncomfortable on line.
This would tie in nicely with Cyber safety in SPHE.
I would modify the lesson depending on the age of my class but overall the lesson plan gives a complete menu that you can pick and chose from.

[Emily Casey]

Hi Rebecca,

I really enjoyed playing your Space Catcher game. I liked that you linked it to a Space Theme, it added an additional appeal for the children. I also liked that your sprite could move left and right and up and down. The background suited your game and your sprite and projectiles linked in effectively. The use of sound was effective as you were sure then that you had caught the asteroid. The game was simple and effective and could be both used and designed by children in school. The debugging tool that notified you of an error was very useful as it located exactly where the problem was. I too had to debug in my game and I liked that you adjusted the timing of the asteroids falling to increase the difficulty of the game. I liked Ciara’s suggestion to change the scores to multiples of 5 to help with skip counting.

[Emily Casey]

• Game type: Timed catch/collect.
• Game title: Valentine’s Day Dash
• Curriculum area and objective: Maths – Numeracy – counting the love hearts caught. Spatial awareness – moving the princess to the left, right, up, down.
• Simple storyboard:
Include:
• Location; Background is a Love Heart Page, I picked from the gallery but liked that you could design your own also
• Player; Is a Princess (initially I had chosen a bird but the sprite was too big.
• Explain what the player must do to win, score points or avoid loosing : The Player must move the Princess to catch the hearts until the time runs out.
• Computational thinking: Debugging – I found all the different elements difficult to complete and on more than one occasion put the wrong code in, but it came up with and error and it was clear the line of code I had to debug. The code on the whole in module 3 was easy to follow.

https://arcade.makecode.com/S14089-88625-28251-64931

 

[Emily Casey]

Hi Rebecca,
I really liked your Smiley Button Programme you made using Makecode.
I think it would be a great inclusive way to record everyone’s opinion or preference on a topic. The children could then graph the information they receive.
The children could then be challenged to come up with more coded expressions to indicate how a child is feeling.
I love how easy the tutorials are to follow and how satisfying it is to create your own programme.
I look forward to seeing the many ideas the children will put forward as to how to use it.
It could be used in my Autism class allowing children to come with their own facial symbols to indicate whether they want or don’t want an item of choice.
It would allow them the opportunity to show their own computational thinking and coding without having to verbalise it or write it down.

[Emily Casey]

https://makecode.microbit.org/S12371-16941-32436-78191

I had great fun with the Makecode website as it was my first experience of coding.

I made the Love Meter but renamed it Make the Number.

This code produces a random number maker from 0 -100, but this can be varied depending on what you need it for.

I would like to use this in Maths, each child could code the number generator and then use their own ideas to select what the random number means.

In my case I would use it as part of the Morning Meeting where children could come up with 5 different ways to make the random number generated.

The children will love using the Makecode website as their tutorials are very clear and easy to follow and it will really develop their computational thinking.

I think it will be a great asset for me to use with the students in my class this year.

[Emily Casey]

Nicola,
I would agree that there are definitely inconsistencies in teachers’ individual practice. As a teacher myself I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the advancements in technology and sometimes feel that a certain knowledge and experience of technology is nearly expected of me and other teachers who started out with one solitary desktop in the back of the classroom. I would welcome the sharing of good practice and exploring new digital tools in our staffroom. A professional development course in technology that could be completed across the school would help as it would benefit all to discuss the content, to trial it in the classroom and feedback to all what worked or didn’t work in the classroom. It would also help to have some peer teaching among the teachers themselves. I would be hopeful after this course I would have some new ideas to use in the classroom and share with my colleagues.

 

 

 

[Emily Casey]

In looking at my own practice I chose Domain 2 form the Digital Learning Framework : Pupils engage purposefully in meaningful learning activities.
As a teacher who always felt on the back foot when it came to the use of technology I have always tried to adopt one new digital activity in the classroom each year.
Looking at the use of Unplugged activities has actually made me realise that I often used strategies like this although I didn’t actually realise I was using computational thinking.
I suppose one strength in my current practice is that I have encouraged children’s thinking and learning in unplugged activities like using a variety of different objects to design and make bridges and using different materials to prove the strength of a triangle. Activities like these were always ones the children enjoyed and engaged in most.
One area I would like to develop is using and explaining to the children the 6 processes involved in computational thinking.
I believe that if children have these processes in mind they can better decide how they want to solve a problem.
I would like to bring these processes back to the staffroom and develop a whole school plan using these as I feel like these processes need to be explicitly taught. I also plan to develop a bank of unplugged activities to use in the classroom and the Dreamspace videos will prove invaluable.

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