Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

I spent some time after class exploring the Common Sense Education website and looked through the best websites and apps for educators. I was very impressed to see how many resources there are regarding AI in the classroom, specifically “Lessons and Tools for Teaching About Artificial Intelligence.” I recognize how technology is the way of the future, especially for education. However, I am still intimidated by teaching students about AI as I am still uncomfortable regarding what to teach them or how to approach it. This mainly comes from being intimidated by opposing familial or personal opinions. However, I was very excited to see a resource such as this one that provides educators with the tools and guide on teaching about AI. I know my anxiety about going against familial opinions will dissipate with experience. It makes me feel much calmer going into my first few years with resources like these. I think my timidness to approach AI in general also comes from it being very demonized in my high school, so I had not even looked at the site until class today as I was made to feel like I was cheating the system or was lazy by using it. I see now how it is a huge tool instead of a shortcut, as long as you do not abuse it. I prompted it to give me ideas about teaching science at different grades, with topics from photosynthesis to the lunar tides, and I was blown away by what it produced. It gave me so many great ideas and inspired me to build upon them to find ways to tweak them to suit a class I envisioned with many diverse needs. I was very grateful that we discussed using it as an element in assessment while still producing authentic thoughts on the students. It was refreshing to hear how it can positively improve the lives of teachers and be a support to make life more manageable, as this narrative has been so far from what I have been taught thus far.

I am very inspired to see that the next generations will grow up with the attitude that technology is a tool rather than an enemy or an unfair shortcut. I think technology is one of our greatest inventions as humans and that we need to embrace its positives to teach our students good habits as we discuss the negatives as well. We should not be teaching them to fear technology as a whole. Teaching them that technology is evil devalues everything that technology is capable of and the work that is poured into developing software that improves people’s lives or makes them even a little bit easier. There is so much out there for education, and I am very excited to have a website like Common Sense Education to navigate it all. Choosing the right resources is also a stress going into teaching, but it will be an element I will feel more confident in after utilizing this website.

Here is one of the lesson plans that ChatGPT produced. I asked it to give me a grade 4 science lesson for students in British Columbia to learn about photosynthesis.