 Hi everyone, thanks for tuning in to hear more about educational technology, some digital tips from JC today and artificial intelligence. We're glad that you're here for this first para zoom meeting of the 2023-24 school year. Yes, thanks for having me on staff and hello everyone super excited to share some ed tech updates and tips. We wanted to start with the sentiment that we are just so grateful for all the work that you do. You matter so much and I know that we don't always hear it as much as we should and we've had a couple trainings recently at the issue that just solidified how important the role of those in the education system are so thank you for the work you're doing and thank you for tuning in and watching this para update so that you can best serve students with some maybe new found information. I think I've told you all many, many times that I never would have made it in the classroom without my amazing Paris, especially those first few years holy cow. You are superheroes and you're you mean so much to the students and to the teachers and thanks for all that you do. This topic today by the way came from the surveys that were filled out during the August full day para trainings this summer so thanks for the feedback and giving us a topic that you want to know more about. Yes, awesome. We today will look at just increasing our awareness of some technology situations and then explore more of the capabilities within AI and I guess before that will look at some best practices with password management and how that can help us to be safe online and then consider our next steps so with this information where do we go from here so we'll look at what so and then now what. If we haven't met I'm JC Palmer on the instructional technology facilitator for ESU eight since my third year on the professional development team you're welcome to email me anytime with questions, or when I'm out in the schools if you see me if you have tech related questions you're welcome to grab me and I'm a resource to help. And I think most of you know me I'm Steph Lundgren. I've been with the issue for 11 years now I think this might be our sixth or seventh year, maybe seventh year, I'm doing para trainings. I love our days with you guys so again like JC said always reach out with questions that might be something that maybe, you know, isn't a topic for something we're offering this year, but we can help get you some resources on that topic. So one year I had someone reach out and just say hey, my staff's just kind of down in the dumps the people I'm working with I need a mood booster and so I was able to offer up a book that really was meaningful so we're always looking to be in touch with you and to hear what's going on in schools. Awesome. Yes, you do great work. Let's jump right into the password best practices so these are some tips to think through when we're managing all the different accounts that we have so it might be email it might be bank accounts it might be like your personal account of things and your accounts that you see online and these tips hopefully you can use as an adult and maybe you pass them along to not just students but those those outside of the education world that could use reminders on some of these concepts. Managing passwords are first tip. And some of these are basic but it's to use unique passwords. So, oftentimes we would human nature may prefer to use a consistent password across several platforms but one of the best tips is to actually have a unique password per sign in account, because then if you were to be hacked or get somebody you found out that password information to one and they're not going to be able to access all the other accounts that are associated with you, because they're unique per per account. So that is the first tip to prevent and operate people from accessing your resources. The second tip complexity matters. So, a lot of sites prompt this already but I'm using mix of upper lower case letters number symbols and make it so that it wouldn't be wouldn't be typical or obvious with a very simple word and a very simple like I know that they say that an even point at the end of the password is the most common symbol that gets added to passwords so potentially consider a different symbol to incorporate a little bit more complex password. So, tips three so avoid common phrases so using the word password for your password or like password 123 those are pretty common in the sense that they could be easily guessed using your name is another one to avoid. So if you have that built in where if you try to set your password is one of those things that will say try again, but if it doesn't prompt you to pick something else know that that is the best practice to try to avoid like just really generic terms of that nature. Number four, instead, you could consider using a past phrase instead of password. So something that's a little bit longer or more memorable string of words together. So one idea that I heard was to consider like a positive affirmation to become your password or passphrase. So you know when we have to continually type this passphrase over and over and over and over. Might it then be something good that we want to fill our brains with something good like a positive affirmation or like a little memo to ourselves that's like a boost that we hear every time we're typing it. Like Paris are valuable. Yes. Yeah. I helped one grade that that teacher said it for the students it's like we are capable or something like that it was for younger kids or I can't remember we are smart or it was something like just reaffirming their abilities. Right. Make it something that's a little harder to remember remember that way or a little harder to guess and then of course add the complexity with some symbols in there as well. Tip number five, enable two step verification. So this is something that many workplaces maybe have or schools may have rolled out that if you'd like to have, for example, your email access on a phone you've got to have two step verification on phones because it adds that layer of security where someone can't just pick up the phone and check email they've got to like log into the phone and then log into the email. This happened I got a new device. I got a new computer and I was kind of logging into Google and things like that at home on this computer. And it made me validate it on my phone or on my other computer that it was actually me. Yes, that's a. Yeah, it's it can be at first when we get used to doing that I know it can seem cumbersome or slows you down to have to like go get your phone and double check and like push yes or all the steps to make sure you can get in but really it is there to protect us and keep our content safe. So it's worth setting up on personal apps or like shopping accounts and things like that as well that aren't necessarily school related because it can protect your financial information a little bit better to if that if it gives you that option. Number six, regularly update passwords. So I'll say recommended actually every three months for really sensitive information maybe like your email or bank account information. And okay is my screen share I'm moving the video across the screen on my computer. Never mind. I know I'm sharing my screen so sorry to interrupt here I just moved the video picture of where our pictures are at on the screen for me so I could read the screen better so I apologize if it's been overlapping. Nope we don't see that so. Perfect then. Anyways is that every three months and every six months forever other websites I know that typically like we hear people will only update when they forget or they'll only update. Maybe I would recommend at least annually on some of those sites to to try to keep your passwords current potentially tied this password updating process to another time of year that you're doing something regularly so like the smoke alarms with the time change type of thing, or maybe it's like quarter, when the quarter ends or quarter break, then that's a signal to you to update passwords or the seasons change just so four times a year we're updating our passwords. Stuff how many craziest things that that our password protected and then get hacked like my all recipes calm account. Like why would someone want to even care to hack that they did and messed it all up so. Yes. Yeah it's like and if they get access to one thing then it makes you nervous that they'll get access to another so. I guess I often think about email and banks and stuff know that social media is a prime. Prime example of where they might look for the availability to get into your accounts and find information to so remember the social media accounts to update regularly as well. Tip number seven so be aware of that spam request so this is kind of what we were just talking about with like online social media or email and avoid sharing passwords. So anything that comes through that is fear prompting so trying to scare you into like XYZ is going to happen or this much money is going to be withdrawn or any fear prompting verbiage is probably a red flag that it is spam. And or if it sounds almost too good to be true that would be another example of an email or communication to be leery of. And especially most sites are not going to directly email you and reach out for your password information so just avoid sharing your password directly with any with any buddy that's reaching directly out to you. Yeah, like last week, we got one for a charity event that I help run. And we had an email saying, Oh, you're this account on Facebook will be deactivated within 24 hours. You know, send something and I had to tell my, you know, co lead on that on that event that no, that was just that's a scammer. And also my parents were just talking about, you know, those Amazon delivery messages you get you have an Amazon deliver we're trying to deliver this to you. Well, if you didn't order anything, then you shouldn't be giving out any information and you should log into your own account on Amazon to see hey did I order that. That's awesome. And I along those lines too if someone reaches out and says they're with a certain company needing your information. Reach back out directly by finding their number or contact information in a different way or like you just said and log into their account. Don't take that don't take the link that they give you or the phone number that they give you on the phone. Because that will be a scam one too. Yeah. Okay, so we've we've shared some tips here. Let's reflect then ask ourselves. What is something you've heard that is resonating about your own password management. Or what might be your first or next step after hearing these tips so we'll just look back through them briefly real quick here so I'm using a unique password per site. Make them complex, avoid common phrases, maybe consider a longer passphrase that's an affirmation. Use to step verification update those passwords regularly and then avoid any spammy request. So, so if you're watching this recording you might just pause the video for now and have a discussion with the people in your room if you're with others and or brainstorm on your own. So that's these questions. Awesome. My next step is that I need to switch a couple passwords. I tend to fall back to something that's very common and I don't need to do that. I need to switch it up and some of my passwords are very old. I had that take away through digging into this training and a couple others that they've shared this with it's like I need to be have a better system for updating more regularly not just like if I can't remember or not just if it right I need to intentionally update those. I was using annually but I probably need to do even more frequently than that. So, yeah, thanks for sharing and continue those conversations in your rooms if you're watching this with a group later. Let's move on though into our big topic of artificial intelligence so in education this is a big trending topic and we started out it up a little bit in the summer when everybody was in and now we'll take a look at a few more opportunities or capabilities with AI. So as a reminder, thinking about AI and just like any technology technology integrations and technology use can of course have like horror stories and examples of like misuse and and some sad things happening and technology use to really help us increase our effectiveness in any career or any role that we're serving when we're using technology for good and for an effective reason to help us help us teach and learn in a better way that is the goal so we'll look at the AI and not light in this sense. This definition is that it's the ability of a computer or other machine to perform activities that are normally thought to require intelligence. So we looked at chat GPT previously how it interacts in like a conversational almost human like way where it can chat back and forth and some of that capability of AI is being baked into a whole bunch of other websites and resources. So AI isn't something that we can really block or shut down or prevent it's it's here and it's being integrated into almost everything and so we we knowing that then how do we adjust so today's kind of about refreshing awareness and looking at like what you might do with that in the classrooms. I do share this. These are some examples of predictive AI that maybe you've been experiencing. So for example, algorithms on. If you pull up Facebook on one person's phone you pull up Facebook on another person's phone based on their interest based on what they click on what they like what they read what they what they view their Facebooks are going to look very different. Just depending because it's going to use AI to generate a newsfeed that's interesting to that person based on their patterns of scrolling. So that's an example of AI in use that we've been accustomed to or even like using some of the Google mouse features to drive us around that those are predictive AI features generative AI is what we'll look at next and those are. That is the new ability for system to create brand new information based on a prompt that we give it. So it does open up a bunch of questions as we have talked about previously too but I would invite you to consider what do you notice and what do you wonder as we. As we look at some of these examples of artificial intelligence so what do you notice and what do you wonder. This is on chat GPT, and we could maybe use it as a brainstorming buddy or personal assistant. So here I put populated listen meal plan ideas for family with kids, or you could customize that request to a certain diet or certain certain type of request for food, for example, so we're using AI here in this case to be just a buddy to brainstorm So it gave a meal plan list I'm like, okay cool to turn that into a grocery list, and it does. So it took that whole meal plan and populates a grocery list. And so think about in education how you can take an activity and have it create a materials list or vice versa here I scroll back up and I was curious to have it tell me more about the smoothie bowls. I was just curious what that really is and what entails so then it generated a brand new recipe here, or a recipe to support that request, and after it went through the list of what to do and how to make it. Then I asked, well is this recipe even delicious, and is this recipe actually delicious, and it comes back with yes, and it tells us why and gives some justification. Obviously it might in fact be delicious and it might not be so that is potentially a biased response and you'll know that down here on the bottom of chat to pts website it even says that it could produce inaccurate information. So, knowing that we have to then look at anything that any side is ever feeding us through a lens of is this accurate is this right is this. Okay, you know is this bias is this on on par, but knowing that AI have that capability to completely brainstorm from scratch and respond back and forth. Is the first thing to note that it's very different than a Google search where you go out and search something and get it and bring it and then that's it. This can be refined and you can tweak and edit as it continues to give information. Yeah, I think another question to ask in education is, is it researched. And so, whenever, like, if we would be searching for some kind of educational resource, just to kind of think, okay, is that where my school's using. Is that research based and so you might want to bounce that off of teachers that you're working with to see, hey, is this in line with what we're doing here at school. Yes, that's a great point to make sure that it is generating information that would be aligned. Right. This is another example, though, of it being like a learning guide. So, it says I'm an elementary para helping a student with science please refresh my memory on photosynthesis, for example, so it goes through and talks or spits out this information that might then help someone refresh their memory about that process. Now you would need to make sure that it's accurate but it is a good starting point potentially. And then I asked, okay, we'll explain this in a third grade way. So it took that fairly large chunk and then simplified it even more so that maybe I as a learner could understand it differently or I as a facilitator of learning could with that information I said well what are some prompting questions that I could ask students to help guide their thinking and learning regarding photosynthesis. It remembers what has previously been discussed. So I'm here it goes through and populate some discussion questions that might be useful in a small group setting where you're helping facilitate a conversation for them. Then you could have it even summarize this into even more concise version so that if you need just a quick takeaway for yourself as a as something that you're trying to learn or to get to the point. So there gives a little concise summary of photosynthesis and make sure that it's accurate make sure that it's right but this is one of the abilities of AI and this is just chat to you that we're showing but this ability to get information like that upon request is available through a lot of other sites to I don't know about you JC I bet you'd agree that we've all been asked to teach something that we don't know a lot about right something pops up in curriculum. And you're like, oh wow I need some basic information on that for myself to like get myself up to speed on that topic so I love this idea. I guess it can be just a, I mean we could Google that and read whatever sites are coming up there to and this is just another opportunity. Yeah, good. Google wouldn't have changed it into questions that you could ask the students and then a little summary and things like that so. Right based on what you really need to get out of it like they're telling us like AI is going to be as valuable as we are able to prompt it so the better prompts that you can ask and request. That helps to get information you're looking for. This is a whole nother site though this is magic school AI so this is not chat GPT but this is a AI tool that's geared towards educators and it has more of like the friendly interface that would be accustomed to on other sites with these like buttons, these chunks that you could then click on one of them to have it do XYZ topic. So the ability that this site has is very similar to chat GPT where it's generating brand new stuff based on what you ask it but the this website here that it's scrolling through has a bunch of different options that are built right in here. So if you're new to exploring the site and there can be you can get lost there's a whole bunch of opportunities here there's some fun ones like create a joke teacher joke generator and create a song. You know there's a lot of simple ways to use it there. I would encourage you to collaborate with the teacher and then in the event that you would see this fitting, but for example I did want to show one particular one which is a new part of this which is the YouTube video question generator. So, if you have. If you go to magic school AI.com and then you're on this site and you click this button the video generator. It has you then pick a YouTube video so say this dolphin one from National Geographic is in fact a video that I need to have students watch you paste this into their site pick what grade level so I put fourth grade I need 10. Let's just say multiple choice questions for them to be asking there it goes on the right it's generating a bunch of questions to support that 10 inch minute video about dolphins. That could then be printed or turned into a Google form for their interactive. There's other sites that do similar things but if you are in charge of facilitating a group through watching something and need some questions to help them stay on track. With the support of your classroom teacher that you're helping support potentially this could be a way to help students engage a little more deeply with the video. This is just one example on magic school AI. And you'd have to take it and explore what would be practical in your various roles but note to when it gets to the bottom of these 10 questions it does give you the answer key and it tells you what minute of the video. The answer can be found as well. So that is one but going back to magic school I know that there's just a whole lot there there's if any of you help coach like little kids soccer for example you can have it make a sports practice schedule. So it's got quite a bit on there for lots of different purposes. There know that there was a lot of other AI tools for education and this list was just a few that were brought up a couple of months ago, and there's more and more growing every day. And each of these tools are increasing in capacity, literally, week by week. I know that we've just shown you a couple today and that there's a lot of others that have capabilities. I'm not just for education to but there's a lot of other industries that are adapting to the integrations of AI like a travel one is I can't remember what it's called maybe stuff if you remember but it was one where you can basically put in a destination and it will create an itinerary for you where you could eat. There's a lot of other personal uses for AI as well. All right so within your rooms or with whoever you are watching this with or maybe to yourself if you're watching it solo. What do you notice and what do you wonder about AI. What do you notice things that happen here is like wow that's really fast wow that seems cool for teachers how do we adapt this for students. I wonder what the future holds, you know those are all good questions to be discussing and considering and know that everybody everywhere is adapting to how this changes the game for teaching and learning and so thanks for taking this opportunity to think through a little more AI and what it can do and what that means so we are going to go like so that was like what so what now what knowing that this is a capability and depending on whether you're working with younger students or older students some classroom considerations to keep in mind. We need to check with teachers so when when there's either students wanting to use AI or when you're wanting to use AI or when any AI related things I would just recommend following the guidance of the teachers and typically what I've been hearing a lot of schools teachers are having the discretion to decide either per class or per assignment even if the integration of AI is appropriate or acceptable in that case and so sometimes I'll say yes on this you can or no on this you can't. So just be in communication with the lead teachers to know what their stance is and it can change per assignment even potentially. This is an example of a guide that some schools have used. So they students ask, well, why do you want to use AI. And if they say they want to help get started on an assignment then maybe the answer from the school would be that yes they could use it to get started like prompt some ideas or to help improve on what they've already done. Maybe the answer is yes now I'm not saying this is right and true and how you have to do it but this is just an example of a one page document that is out there that could be an option. So maybe if they're asking to explain an idea and it's simpler terms or in a different way, perhaps it's just fine that they learn it and hear it through an AI chatbot perhaps. Now it's the students saying I want to fully do my whole assignment for me. And then, then, no, if you would tell them know that that's not appropriate or if you want them to find research or facts or quotes from AI, then that would not be appropriate. So on these no ones to get on this side. No, if the AI is doing the work for them, they're missing the learning, try another approach. And if the AI. It's important to know that AI chatbots or any site can hallucinate or when doing research it can just randomly make things up so not only is it might be biased but it might just like make up something and that's what they're calling. Or generating made up or incorrect information. So, knowing that we have to be aware of that is one step. And then back here on the yes so say they asked a question. Can I get started on Simon and you said that teacher said yes they can use it to throw some basics. Then maybe from there they need to ask the teacher and check with the handbook to ensure that that's acceptable. They perhaps need to use an appropriate tool and then track their work so they need to be able to show where they got the starting points from double check the work for hallucination and bias as we said and then site the tool that's been used when they get to the final project. So these are, this is just one example of how schools, there's a whole look at it of how some schools may be approaching it or how some classroom teachers or how it might be dependent on the teacher might be dependent on the unit or the even daily assignment. So, just know that like when we're considering how this impacts your classrooms check with those teachers and you're always welcome to have them reach out to the issue or us to help talk through the conversations that this brings up. So what are you excited about, or at the same time anxious about in this work, as we look at all these capabilities and possibilities for us as adults or just in general with education. I'm like, piqued interest on some of the great tools that can really enhance teaching and learning and it's okay to recognize the feelings of a little bit of hesitancy or nervousness with what this really looks like and how it changes things so I'd invite you to have that conversation with in your groups or with those around you. No, I love the tip about going back and talking to the teachers and even you might be sharing some resources that they haven't heard about to. So you might be asking them, have you heard that you can do this with AI or, oh, we have to teach this unit coming up. We'll wonder what AI would say about that. So, you know, you might be taking back a resource that they they don't know very much about to so. I think at some point that I feel collectively a lot of us are all in the like awareness stage of like what is even out there and what so yeah pairs that are now informed and can take that and share. So, mm hmm. Yeah, feel free to pause this recording and talk about it in your group if you're watching with a group right now. But if not, we'll just keep on rolling. With this quote the future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them and creative ways. So kudos again to all of you for taking time to learn and hear more about AI tools and some password tools earlier password. Best mean best practice ideas. So, with all these tech things swirling in your mind know that you should be commended for taking the opportunity to learn and then knowing that like now you can go out and use what you've heard in a creative way that helps helps us down the road. So, I would love to visit more soon so please email or please reach out or please stop me in the hall if you see me at your school or or anything without nature. We just want to remind you that our para series continues all year. And today we're talking about artificial intelligence but on your surveys. You also mentioned that you'd like some help with some behaviors. So, in December, we're going to work on positive relationships and how relationships can help us with behaviors. And then in February, we'll talk about de escalation strategies so when kids get pretty amped up. How can we help bring them back down and calm them. And in April will work on some small group facilitation tips because I know a lot of pairs are working with small groups. Remember that all of these are recorded. So, even if you're busy with students at the time, you can always access the recordings. All of our resources recordings. The zoom link is that bit.ly slash pairs of issue eight and that's our just our site that we've had for a long time. Even if you're thinking, gosh, I'd like some information on a, you know, a topic that isn't being held this year. Look and see maybe we've, we've done that topic in the past and you can access it right there. And you can also access our slides presentations and look through and get all the information so But most of all, just go ahead and email anytime you have questions. We're here for you and our, our role really is to serve our schools so we're free help and you can reach out anytime. I love it. That's awesome. What a great library of resources available to Paris so kudos for the years of putting together great information. Yeah. Well thanks Paris, get out there and try something new. Just, just jump on try one little bit of AI even for your own knowledge or to create your shopping list right for next week. I love that, that option there. But we appreciate your time today and we hope that you do have a great day and we will see you next time in December. Thanks.