AI Advocates

S2 E2: Student Superpowers: AI Learning Unleashed

• Lisa Dieker • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Students Driving Their Own Educational Rocket

In this episode of AI Advocates, Maggie Mosher and Lisa Dieker explore the theme of “student superpowers,” focusing on how AI can empower students by giving them a stronger voice in the learning process. Rather than viewing AI as a tool for students to passively learn from, the hosts advocate for AI as a collaborative personal assistant that works alongside students under the guidance of teachers. They emphasize the importance of using AI to foster independence, self-expression, and ownership of learning, encouraging teachers to help students leverage AI tools in ways that enhance creativity, confidence, and lifelong skills for the future.

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Reclaim your time….., time…., time.

Maggie Mosher:

Welcome to AI Advocates. I'm Maggie Mosher.

Lisa Dieker:

Hi, and I'm Lisa Dieker.

Maggie Mosher:

And this week, we're going to be talking about student superpowers. AI giving students a voice. Specifically, what we're going to go through is how AI is supposed to be in collaboration with students. Students aren't supposed to be learning from AI. We think of them kind of as a personal assistants, where teachers really help to guide students in the pathways of AI, and then how students can get back their voice and can start taking ownership and independence in using the tool specifically for their needs.

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, and I think it's exciting Maggie because we're going to talk about, I think we've mentioned, we're going to mention Google Labs, Magic School, Khanmigo, Learning Ally, which some folks may not know of as an AI or think of as an AI tool, but it's been around for a long time, early AI Bookshare. And I think we're gonna talk about SchoolAI. So if you know all those, then maybe this is a short podcast for you to listen to, but if not, we're going to highlight some of our best thoughts in each of those areas. So Maggie, start with student use. And I think Google Labs is what you're most excited about right now.

Maggie Mosher:

Yeah, I'm really excited about Google AI Studio. It's free for educators, and it's also, can you have the educator Gemini version, which goes into Google Classroom. It's safe for students. What I really love about it is it has a stream function. And what the stream function is, essentially is a conversation between you and an AI bot that's created by teachers. So I can sit there and talk, and it talks back to me, answering my questions, and I don't have to type anything. I don't have to write anything down. It's just a conversation we're having where I can ask it questions about what I'm learning, and it will give me feedback, and my teacher actually can have access to some of that. What I like also about Magic School AI, is I can do the same thing. I can talk to any chatbot I want. I can talk to a college and career person to say, hey, I'm learning triangles and hypotenuse today. I don't know why I need to know how to do this if I want to become a professional football player. And it will tell me, well, actually you do need to know how to do these things, and this is why. So it helps make education really meaningful for students. It can walk them through those pieces. And what I like about the student leading it is in Magic School AI, it has actual transcripts where the teacher can see, okay, this is what the student said, This is what the bot said. This is how it responded. Here's what they're thinking. Here's where their thinking is going. And it'll give you a little summary of, hey, this is what the student did and how engaged they were. So did the student talk once, but the AI really had to draw it out of them, or were they really engaged in speaking with each other? And I think that that's kind of a fun new way to help the student be in charge?

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, well, and I love the whole student being in charge, but I think I love student choice, and I know you'll agree, like, maybe not every student wants a bot, and maybe the teacher says, You've had enough bot time today. You need some human time. It's that blend and balance that I think we've been preaching and also giving teachers the time, if the kid can ask the bot, you know, I know in my own college class, and I think you did the same. I put my syllabi into a bot. And again, you know, we both love Khanmigo because it's free, it's open source, and we know it doesn't go anywhere else. So think about those closed networks. And all three you mentioned have those closed networks with you. I actually also think about student use beyond the classroom. And you know, how do we create that independence? And maybe students don't have a Gemini Pro at home, but a couple of tools, especially for our friends who might struggle with reading, and this is something my own son used all the way through college, from third grade to college, would be something like Bookshare, or Learning Ally. Learning Ally does audio recordings, and it's not AI crazy, but it is an AI form, because you can stop and start and replay, whereas Bookshare is digital prints of the book. So now I can put it into some kind of platform and do EOI explain, like I'm in a five year old and it can summarize something for you. I can change the font background, I can change the color. I can teach how fast it's read to me. If I wanted to go this fast, or I would like it to go this slow, and I think that's something that we both really believe in, is that AI is there, and teachers should coach kids, but kids should still get to have the choice and the voice, which is what I love, like you said.

Maggie Mosher:

And what's so great about that story

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, and I think that's a good example, you know. specifically is I recommend to teachers to model how you use AI in front of students, so that then they can take over ownership of it. For example, I was just showing them how I was using AI to state something in a summary and also to state at a different grade level. I was just using Magic School AI's text level or leveler in front of them. And essentially, one of my students with Down syndrome the next day came up and talked to her teacher, and I happened to be walking into the co-teaching classroom as she was telling her teacher, I no longer need your guided notes. I can create my own now all I do is Again, I'll go back with my own personal with my put what you give, and she called it the regular homework you give. I'm now putting it in and all she's doing is clicking an attachment. She saw me do it one time. She's clicking that attachment, putting it at a second-grade level and asking for bullet points. And she's getting them, and she's understanding that, because that's the way she prefers to learn the information. And I think it's great that that teacher might not be going with her for the rest of her life through everything, but she'll have this kind of technology available to her, and she'll know how to go out, find it and use it. have to spend any time doing this, because the more you can empower students to do it. My last tool, I'm going to just suggest for families to think about at home, for more student use is one of the things I think we both love is Khanmigo has decided to make itself available for $4 a month. And we know for some families, that's still a huge burden, but we think it's one that's very reasonable, and having that power of a safe, secure place at home, and as teachers, that's something you may want to share is here's a site that we have vetted in our school. It's really been vetted under FERPA, and really is something that's safe and private for kids to have, a tutor, a bot, a leveler, all of those things we have mentioned. What? What would you recommend for safety and security beyond what we've talked about?

Maggie Mosher:

Well, I love what you just said specifically, too. If knowing telling students, here's the one I would use over this one. So instead of going to ChatGPT to ask a question, where it goes up to the cloud, I would go to this specific place, and whether that's for me, I like the Gemini within the Google Classroom state. But even Goblin Tools, even though it's a website and it doesn't have you need to tell them, okay, this is a website. So this information is in the web. It's not like Magic School, where this information is just between you, me and the teacher, and then also making sure that they are aware when you're using these which ones to choose for accurate information. Like we do know, like you had said that SchoolAI, Khanmigo, we know that they're trained by educators. They are have a specific source. So tell the students, this is the source. Do you know where your sources are? And helping them to see how to how to find really good sources.

Lisa Dieker:

And I think I'd be remiss if we didn't mention I know one of your favorites, Maggie, is Perplexity, because it does use validated tool sources. And do you want to share one thought of that? And then I'll just wrap us up.

Maggie Mosher:

Yeah, actually, with that now Gemini Pro, you can ask it to specifically state sources, and it will go back and refine the sources and tell you exactly empirical evidence for them. And if it turns green, all of those sources have been double checked. If it turns yellow, it's like, well, this could be on a news station. I don't know if it's true or not. There's nothing behind that that says this is 100% accurate. So it turns yellow, and that's kind of nice for students who are visual to immediately see these are green. So I know that they're fact based. These are yellows. That might just be someone's opinion that's out there on a newspaper article, and then they can see exactly the articles and stuff. So yeah.

Lisa Dieker:

So student use is important, but we think choice and not saying that more screen time is better, but actually using screen time as it's helpful to a learner, but making sure there's still that human connection to save you time and connect with your students. We hope you enjoyed this podcast.

Maggie Mosher:

Thanks.