01/23/2024
Muskingum Valley Educational Service Center
Happy Tech Tuesday!
I hope everyone had a great Monday and you are rested and ready to tackle the rest of the week. With just 56 days until spring, let's dive into today's Byte-Sized Tech tip – a gentle reminder to Get Back to the Basics!
Today’s Byte-Sized Tech tip is…Get Back to the Basics!!! Interesting statement coming from someone whose life has been consumed with artificial intelligence trainings, but why not combine the two concepts?!?
Now, you might find it intriguing that someone deeply immersed in artificial intelligence trainings is advocating for a return to fundamentals. Yet, combining these two concepts can yield valuable insights. At times, when faced with challenges or unmet expectations, breaking things down into their elemental parts and revisiting the basics can illuminate what we might be overlooking.
Given the somewhat gloomy atmosphere of January in Ohio, characterized by grey days and cold weather, taking a step back can be rejuvenating. Use this time in your classroom to infuse a bit of byte-sized technology, have some fun, and reflect on the progress we've made as students, educators, support staff, and administrators.
Here are a few ideas you might choose to implement today, all enriched with a dash of byte-sized technology to engage your classroom and ignite the students' imagination:
1. Efficient Organizing: Are You The 'Organizer' In Your World? Trying to collect money from your staff, your grade level team, or your players? People are busy, forgetful, and usually running from one task or event to another. Consider going back to the basics with a “basic email”. Improve your efficiency with GroupTogether- an easy way to collect money for a gift and create a beautiful group card all at one time.
Do you organize the baby shower and birthday gifts at the office? Maybe you’re the Room Parent and organize teacher gifts from the whole class? You need to try GroupTogether! It’s the easiest way to collect money for a gift and create a gorgeous group card all-in-one. How does it work? Just share a link and everyone can chip in and sign the card online. Then choose from 150+ eGift Cards or give the “AnyCard” and let the recipient choose. It’s free and easy! Here is the direct link – grouptogether
For a tutorial, check out this video: Grouptogether Video Tutorial
2. Revive Creativity in Writing Class: Has creativity stalled in your creative writing or composition classroom? Go back “to the basics” and try one of these ideas…
a. Create a group comic strip about a familiar face in the classroom, building, or district. Create a few groups in your classroom, and task them with creating a six box comic. A beginning frame, three middle frames, and an ending frame. Group brainstorm the idea together as a class, then give each group their box, and let the creativity and fun begin. Don’t forget to use things like transition phrases like “one hour later”; “suddenly”, “the next day”, etc. Try these tech tools to create the final product:
i. Canva – (My favorite free tech tool for education) Just search for a comic strip template from the home page. Without any filtering, there were 315 options to choose from. I liked to the search results here.
ii. Make Beliefs Comix
iii. Pixton
b. What about an adjectives lesson? Try this idea that I saw on an Edutopia article: Tiny But True Stories
i. Get them talking and engaging with each other by having them brainstorm the smallest, most boring, most flat ideas possible. Examples were: (Leaf falls from a tree. / Child drinks from a water bottle. / Child sits on a chair.) Challenge your students to make these boring sentences come to life with their word choices. Then for a bit of “Byte-sized Technology”, have them create a TikTok or use Flipgrid for them to act them out! Share their creations with the class! I mean, who doesn’t love a great video!
3. Group activity to review story elements: Why not leverage the power of AI in your classroom to craft a captivating 'Fictional Short Story Dialogue'? Courtesy of our partners at Promptpal, this activity encourages engaging discussions and collaborative story creation within your class.
Prompt: As [Your Role: Specify your role, e.g., Fiction Writer, Storyteller], you are working on a fictional short story and need an engaging dialogue for a specific scene. The scene involves [Setting: Describe the setting, e.g., a café, a park, a spaceship] with [Character Details: Provide brief descriptions of the characters involved, including their personalities or roles]. To craft a compelling dialogue, consider including specific details in these areas: Setting: [Specify the details of the setting where the scene unfolds] Characters: [Introduce the characters participating in the dialogue, along with brief descriptions] Context: [Provide background information on the situation leading to the dialogue] Emotional Tone: [Indicate the emotional tone of the dialogue, e.g., intense, lighthearted, suspenseful] Key Points: [Outline the main points or topics that the characters will discuss in the dialogue] Character Interaction: [Describe how the characters interact, including any gestures or expressions] Task Requirements: Create an engaging dialogue for the specified scene in the fictional short story. Ensure that the dialogue aligns with the tone and context of the overall story. Develop characters' voices that reflect their personalities and emotions. Include relevant details about the setting to enhance the atmosphere. Craft a dialogue that advances the plot or reveals key aspects of the characters. Best Practices Checklist: Maintain consistency in character voices and expressions. Consider the pacing and flow of the dialogue for a natural conversation feel. Inject elements of suspense, humor, or drama as needed for the scene. Test the dialogue within the context of the short story to ensure coherence. Deliverable: Provide an engaging dialogue for the specified scene in the fictional short story, incorporating details about the setting, characters, and emotional tone. The dialogue should contribute to the overall narrative and captivate readers. Format the content in markdown.
Display this on your whiteboard, and collectively brainstorm the details to incorporate. Once the initial draft is crafted, distribute it among student groups for collaborative editing and revision. To enhance the storytelling experience, consider incorporating an additional AI layer. Direct your students to visit an AI Image generator such as Bing Image Creator or Adobe Firefly to create compelling illustrations that bring the story to life. This approach not only stimulates creativity but also integrates technology seamlessly into the storytelling process by embracing the AI with student creativity to inspire your students in crafting imaginative narratives. Happy storytelling!
4. Career Planning for Students: If you're a school counselor working on career planning, consider adapting this ChatGPT example shared with MVESC Business Advisory Council. Swap out the details to quickly gain valuable information to assist students in your district.
Prompt: You are an experienced career coach. I have a student named [John Doe} who is passionate about helping others. He was raised in a 2 parent, caring home with a father who battled colon cancer and recovered as a result of a supportive family, and access to good healthcare. This student has a grade point average of 4.0 while taking all advanced Science courses in high school. John is interested in the medical field but is not sure if he can afford college and medical school and feels that he may not want to devote that many years to prepare for the workforce. Deliverables: Prepare a formal report for John and include the following sections with at least 3 bullet points or suggestions in each of the sections:
• Assess John Doe’s interests and how they link to professional ambitions of helping others.
• Provide a list of careers that correlate with John Doe’s interests and ambitions.
• Design an action plan with at least 5 steps that will help John support his career goals
• Provide 3 example short term goals to help John create his own personal goals, and 3 example long term goals to consider,
• Provide a list of area resources, agencies, and businesses that can assist, mentor, and help John succeed with a link to their website and or contact information.
Create this in professional language but with a tone that is appropriate and relatable for a 17-year-old high school student.
Screenshots of the conversation below.
Let’s make the most out of this Byte-Sized Tech Tuesday! Remember, my goal “Learn today, use tomorrow!” Embrace technology and the power it has to make your work efficient, however, never be afraid to go “back to the basics” to reset and ignite the creativity in your classroom!
Other weblinks worth noting/referencing:
• The Assist
• Promptpal.net
• Edutopia
