Talking to educators wrestling with how to handle the use of AI by students—especially in digital technology classes—reminded me how much they truly care about teaching and guiding others. I was privileged to contribute to their professional development at the Google Educator Conference 2024 in New Zealand.
During my presentation on “Global Strategies for Assessing AI Literacy”, I discussed the resources I have made for AI and education, then provided an overview of how educators around the world are assessing the AI literacy levels of their students based on my recent literature review. (I’ll be posting more on this topic in the future so stay tuned.)
Together we worked through one of these recent assessments: a 31-question quiz covering topics such as how humans and AI are similar, differences between weak and strong AI, decision-making, and supervised learning. Even with the broad range of technical expertise in the room, we weren’t certain about some of the answers. This showed us how challenging it is to create assessments on this topic, as well as how fast things are changing, which made some of the questions already outdated.
The assessment raised lots of interesting points for discussion and sparked ideas for how to ensure students are involved in the kind of critical interrogation that we were doing in regards to AI. We agreed that sometimes there isn’t a clear-cut answer, but it’s the journey of thinking about the concept that’s important.
If you’d like to take one of the AI literacy assessments for yourself, you can find them here.
At the next session, Bex Rose from Growth Culture took teachers through a range of AI tools they could use in their workflow, including:
- Brisk Chrome extension (point it to a Google document, generate feedback based on a rubric, create a presentation in Google Slides)
- Questionwell (make questions based on a YouTube video, article, website, etc. and export questions to Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Kahoot, Canvas, Moodle, etc.)
- Diffit (change the grade level of information, translate, make list of key vocab, etc.)
- MagicSchool (caveat: overwhelming number of tools, so start with one or two)
- SchoolAI and Khanmigo
I liked the analogy that Bex started with about learning to drive a manual first before an automatic. I don’t know of many people who still learn manual drive cars, but this comparison works as a way of thinking about the value in learning the basics of prompting and Generative AI before using tools with tons of AI features that try to do everything for you.
The closing panel discussion “Equipping Young Minds – Building AI Literacy for the Future” featured Chris Pearce from Google, Dr Geri Harris from Auckland University of Technology, Benny Pan from Rototuna High Schools, and Paula Gair from academyEX. They had thoughtful answers to challenging questions about how AI is impacting education, what they’re hearing from industry, and the shake-up needed to move toward collaboration with AI and focusing on process rather than product when it comes to student assessment. Indeed, what if a student could sing, dance, or talk to prove their learning, rather than writing or needing a computer at all?
Thanks to the organizers and everyone who participated in making this an uplifting and educational event for educators and others working in this space. Students will undoubtedly benefit!
