[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Rachel,

Thank you for your post. I think you have raised some excellent points around Cosán and lifelong learning within this profession. It is essential that we continue to upskill and become aware of various approaches that may be emerging across different subject areas. This will be especially true with the onset of the new curriculum specifications in September. However, it is a pity that there is not more time allowed for this during the school day. There is exceptional CPD being offered by education centres and Oide, but it often falls in the evening time which can exclude those with other commitments from attending, even though they would love to do so.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Katie,

Thanks for your post here and for outlining the potential use of these tools in a Gaelscoil context. The Image Creator is an amazing tool and one which I am sure you will enjoy playing around with. The prompt is crucial for all aspects of AI in an education sense, but especially so when looking at image creation, regardless of the tool being used. Often,. I have had to provide multiple prompts to be specific enough to match it to look exactly as I wanted. However, once you use it a couple of times you are conscious of this and it becomes a much quicker and fluid process.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Anne Marie,

Welcome to the course and thank you for this contribution to the forum. It is great to hear that you have been able to explore a variety of additional AI tools, beyond Chat GPT. Personally I love using Chat GPT for general prompts and resource creation, but there are a number of education-specific tools that can create the exact material you may want for use in a classroom context. The ability to create posters, flow charts, comparison wheels, etc. can provide a much more visually appealing and effective layout for your resource creation. The remainder of the course will explore more of these tools, and hopefully you will find their use beneficial for your own practice.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Mary,

Thank you for your post and feedback here. I believe that it is so important that every ‘new’ tool can be used to enhance current practice and ties in with our curriculum. If this is not the case, it simply becomes an added extra we must ‘do’ on top of an already overpacked curriculum. Therefore, it is so important to see these tools being used in context – the Reading Coach is a really good tool to begin exploring and could prove transformational in allowing those with literacy difficulties to access material that would previously have not been attainable.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

HI Gabrielle,

hanks for sharing your experience here. It is shocking to hear of the devastating impact of the winter storms on your school grounds. While this is an awful event to happen, it certainly provides a real-life context for the children when they are exploring these issues. It is often not until something directly affects us that we begin to feel the need to tack action seriously – this is certainly the case in your school. The ideas you have shared are all great in terms of the children in the school being able to make small, but tangible steps to say they are doing something to help the situation.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aidan,

Thanks for your engagement throughout the course. The ‘line focus’ is a really nice feature for use within Immersive Reader. While the physical tinted rulers may do the same for children with dyslexia, it can often make them stand out as having difficulties. However, if all children are using devices, this is not the case. Indeed, it is very likely that this feature could prove helpful for a larger number of children, including those with no diagnosed literacy issues.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Carmel,

Thanks for your post. The Office 365 suite of resources very much lends itself to a whole-school approach that may be brought about through SSE. The suite of apps and resources can be used across a variety of means from teaching to learning to administration, meaning that any of the LAOS domains could be considered as a key focus. Whilst the breadth that Office 365 is a positive, it may be beneficial to focus on its one for one of the above purposes for the first year or two to allow everyone get accustomed to this as a way of working.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi April,

Thanks for your post and I’m delighted to hear that you are looking forward to giving Immersive Reader a try over the coming year. It is a really amazing assistive tool that allow a children engage with reading material they otherwise would not be able to. This allows children who may have a specific literacy difficulty to access content at a similar level to the rest of the class, as they may be quite adept at responding orally or in other ways.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Lisa,

You are absolutely right to identify the potential use of AI for the construction of SMART targets that can be placed in a child’s school support plan. I know myself that it is often very difficult to ‘word’ your targets to ensure they are SMART, despite often having a very good idea of what you want to achieve over the course of the plan. In putting a general target and asking for specific SMART targets would be a very good use of Chat GPT, Gemini, etc. I find the speech to text really useful and time-saving for constructing prompts like this and might be worth consideration.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for sharing how you wish to use the selected AI tools. What has been great about the contributions on this forum is the variety of tools selected, with the primary reason being the desire to meet the needs of individual children. It is fair to say that tools like AI Translation for YouTube will be far more suitable in your context than in an classroom with no EAL learners.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Maria,

Thank you for outlining so clearly some of the benefits and challenges around AI integration in our classrooms. The point you have brought up around cost as a potential barrier is particularly interesting. Whilst there are many free versions of different software available, we are beginning to see so much of this excellent content being put behind a paywall. It may be the case that even the free version of Chat GPT for example becomes so inferior to the paid version that we almost feel like the paid version will be essential. This is something I have noticed around the length of time that it takes to create an image lately, which is something to be cognisant of.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Lina,

Thank for your post. It is remarkable to see how many people on this forum are sharing similar experiences around the prevalence of subconscious gender stereotyping. It really is something that becomes rooted from a very early age through toy production, marketing, baby clothes, etc. The use of picturebooks is a highly effective strategy in tackling sensitive issues in a way that removes the people from the situation. I have often used them to explore issues of bullying, isolation, etc. where the children themselves are not involved and they can comment and discuss the content in a different context. This may also be useful for tackling gender issues.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Grace,

Welcome to the course and thank you for this post. As educators and parents, you are correct to point out that we often try to shield children from some of the horrific events occurring around the world. Whilst this undoubtedly comes from a good place, you are right to question if it is the right thing to do. Can we expect children to grow into adults who truly wish to prevent inequalities, both locally and globally, if they have no experience of what is happening in the world and how we are all connected as global citizens. The subsequent modules may provide some thought-provoking content on certain themes in this regard.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Melanie,

Thank you for this contribution. I think your post has highlighted the central benefits and limitations of AI in a classroom context very succinctly. AI does offer us the opportunities to create learning experiences that will challenge all children at their current level. However, I love how you have pointed out that it is not simply about sourcing content and letting them at it. To be able to include the child in the overall classroom learning in this context requires the skill of the teacher and the ability to marry their pedagogical knowledge, the needs of the children and the content that has been created.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Orlaith,

Thanks for your post and for raising the importance of overing this SDG with our children. You have alluded to the direct and indirect consequences of climate change and this could be a really interesting take to explore with the children in our classes. While we thankfully don’t suffer from devastation droughts or extreme events like the recent Russian earthquake, there are still many ways in which Irish people and their livelihoods are affected by this.

[Author]

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