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I agree with your SSE perspective Orla.
Re SSE, Minecraft would be a good tech tool to promote digital literacy and pupil self assessment. I like the ‘book and quill’ element as a form of pupil self assessment. Pupils can log their observations whether a narrative, query, journal, report or a simple reflection.
I also like the inclusivity of the Immersive Reader.
Lesson name: Hour of AI-The First Night
Overview:
In this lesson the pupils prepare to survive their first night in Minecraft by building a shelter with the help of an AI agent. They need to train the AI agent and with its new skills, the agent will build the structure with ‘minions’.
To survive the pupils have to complete tasks such as collecting wood, making tools, building a shelter, making a door, adding light and making a bed. Dialogue boxes feature to give advice or directions. The player will use code to help train the Agent to complete these tasks using specific AI literacy concepts – classification, pattern recognition, verification, error detection.Learning objectives (copied)
Students will:
• Learn about different types of AI
• Utilise computational thinking to capture rules and relationships that govern AI behavior
• Practice training and verifying AI outputs
• Experience how to leverage learned knowledge across tasks to become empowered collaboratorsOverview of lesson:
1. Setting the scene and explaining about the AI assistant and how it will learn. The pupils will guide the agent through coding. The pupils will have overall oversight to make sure the agent makes good decisions.
2. Introduce new vocabulary – AI, classification, pattern recognition, orchestration and human-in-the-loop, plus the myriad of words related to classifying wood types etc.
3. Playing the game
Complete the tasks for survival of first night.
Once all the tasks are completed the pupils are teleported to another space for further challenges.Conclusion / reflection / feedback:
Feedback is sought on …
…favourite part of lesson,
…their understanding of AI
…how did you train the AI agent?
…why is human-in-the-loop / human verification important?
…any real world application suggestions?Resources:
Minecraft EDU
powerpoint presentation slides
list of useful terms / glossaryOther:
Consider delivering the lesson to senior classes only.
Consider pair work.
Consider more than one session as ‘setting the scene’ and familiarity of glossary of terms is dependent on the class.
Challenging concept and a springboard to other interesting conversations around tech use and AI.
Consider lesson as part of Safer Internet Week in February – reflect on the advantages and disadvantages to AI and the importance of human oversight.Overall, I think the concept is challenging but the game is less so. Develops critical thinking and hints at knowledge of bias.
Hi Colm,
As a bee-keeper I was drawn to your game!
I really liked the clarity of the clean background. What a fun way to round off lessons on pollinators and pollinator friendly plants.
At a push, I could suggest you add more flowers etc to your background but that would contradict why your clean background appeals so much me. Sometimes less is more. Well done.
Link to my catcher game: https://makecode.com/_4JgX6qeLb5zK
Game type: Timed catcher game
Game title: Catching Bones with Pim the dogCurriculum area and objective: Maths and Art (STEAM)
Design the background, sprite and falling food.
Move a sprite and falling food within the dimensions of the x and y axes with (0,0) being the top left corner of the screen, with the x values between 0 – 160 and the y values between 0 -120.Simple storyboard:
Location: garden
Player: Pim the dog
Relevant game elements: Bones falling from the sky for Pim to catch. Player has 15 seconds to help the dog catch as many falling bones in the 15 seconds.Computational thinking example:
Iteration – What worked well? What could be changed?
What worked well was the clear sequence of blocks.
What could be changed are the many variables and art effects.Hi Miriam,
Yes, I agree that the ‘flashing heart’ task is easier than ‘rock, paper, scissors’ but as they love rock paper scissors you chose a good intro to the basics. Nice to experience success with a task instead of being intimidated by something too challenging too early.
It’s why I love the tutorials. I always encourage pupils to try the tutorials first. Many are reluctant to do so as they are impatient to get coding but they are invaluable. The tutorials give them ownership of their learning. It’s great to have a worked example that they can access independently instead of having to constantly ask the teacher, who quite likely will be dealing with another pupil’s connectivity issue!
The tutorial I opted for was the ‘Clap lights’ tutorial for V2 microbit.
The tutorial showed me how to make the microbit respond like a sound sensor that would turn on all the LED lights.
It would make a great integrated STEM lesson as we could conjure an imaginary narrative about Granny living alone and needing extra security for peace of mind. Brainstorming ideas on how best to help Granny. Floodlights that would act when sound is detected would work both inside her home and in her garden etc etc.
https://makecode.microbit.org/_a4UFir6VtDKR
This has the potential for extension to include flashing lights, voice announcement that ‘The Gardaí are on their way’a siren using ‘nee naw’ style notes. etc
Great for both stage 3 and 4 classes.
Hi Michelle,
Your post communicates your ease with a variety of valuable digital tech tools and a willingness to keep abreast of the ever changing playing field that is educational digital tech tools. I can’t wait to return to work next week and have my mind boggled by the mention of some new tech or AI tool! I love how Canva is ever changing and is continually relevant. Sometimes the oldies are the goodies!
I chose the following statement from Domain 3, Teachers’ Individual Practice:
‘Teachers use appropriate digital technologies and teaching strategies to enable the development of pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum’.
I believe that this is done well in our school. Teachers have completed CPD to upskill and keep abreast of changes in digital technologies and some have completed courses on the use of AI in teaching and planning.
What also works very well for us is peer mentoring during literacy, numeracy and coding initiatives.In my context I would like to develop assessment practices using digital tech. I would like to make it more accessible for all and take the focus off assessing the end result and focus more, as was suggested in module 1, on one process eg the language used explaining choices or, the language used in describing the sequence of instructions.
This could be assessed through voice recordings on vocaroo, voice memos and photographs. Assessing the one process in this fashion should be accessible for all students and equally as importantly, accessible for the tech abilities of all teachers.
