TECHknowledgy

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Artificial Intelligence isn't new, but the tasks it can accomplish and lessons it has learned over the last year are revolutionizing the work world. Shakopee School District has a task force working to be sure you have the latest information and access to vetted tools you can use to be more efficient in your work. Because this field and the digital tools available are constantly changing, it is important that we are all aware of the benefits and pitfalls of AI as well as which tools are safe and secure for student use (which is admittedly a limited list!).

Below are links to Eric's recent blog posts about AI in education that provide a great introduction to AI as well as some strategies you can try to get started.

1. AI Has Arrived: This blog post from Spring 2023 provides a broad introduction to AI, applications for AI in education, and considerations for use.
2. Tools & Tips for Getting Started with AI: This blog post from February 2024 provides an overview of some specific AI tools for educators as well as a survey for teachers about AI use. We'd love to hear from you!

The AI tools in our AI Tookit have been vetted and approved for use in the District. Any Google or Microsoft Sign-ins have been enabled. This list will be updated as terms of use and free services evolve over time, but it's a great place to start. Click the link to learn about Magic School, Brisk Teaching, and School AI, among other resource.

Chatbots (LLMs) are a great way to get started with AI. Refer to the AI Toolkit for more information about which chatbots you can login to with school accounts to protect your data privacy. The key to using chatbots is an effective prompt! Here are three great resources.

• Writing Effective Teacher Prompts for AI Chatbots
• Chatbot Prompt Library for Educators
• AI Prompt Ideas by Role (a very thorough resource created by Sydney Casey, Red Oak)

Add Audio to Frames

• You can now record audio directions for a Voice or Student Choice Frame.
• When students record their own voice on the Frame, instructions will be replaced with their audio recording response.

Customize Formative Assessments

• You can now change colors of drop zones for Drag & Drop Formative Assessment questions

Assign Instructional Sequences

• You can now assign any lesson in the Seesaw Library as a group of activities or individually.
• Lessons can be assigned across multiple dates and times as well as in instructional sequential order. Read More: How to Bulk Assign Activities

Catching Up? Read our All Seesaw Newsletter from Fall 2023. We tried not to repeat content in this newsletter (other than highlighting formative assessments and frames, which you should really check out if you haven't yet! 😀)

Complete activities and earn points towards Seesaw gear!

Visit this link to learn more and get started.

Here is a sampling of activities you can complete to earn points:

• Attend a Seesaw webinar
• Listen to a podcast
• Watch a Seesaw YouTube video
• Assign a lesson from the Seesaw Library
• Play Seesaw's Math Explorer game with your students
• Use the "Present to class" feature
• Find a lesson aligned with specific standards
• Share the fun with colleagues!

Special Days in April include Poetry Month, Pet Day, Gardening Day, Earth Day, and International Dance Day. Here are some fun and meaningful ways to celebrate:

• "Remix the Rhyme" to celebrate Poetry Month (PK)
  
• Engage in a "Dogs or Dinosaurs" data sort for Math and Stats (K)
• Practice math skills with "Tic Tac Math" (K-5)
• "Create a Class Dance" to celebrate International Dance Day (1-3)
• Learn about Earth Day through "Our Planet Earth" Lessons for PK and K-2 or
  check outall Earth Day lessons here
• Explore "Figurative Language in Music and Poetry" or "Coding with Poetry" to
  celebrate Poetry Month (3-5)
• Help students create a "Spring Highlights Portfolio" to reflect on their growth:
  Lessons for Grades 1-2, Grades 3-4 , Grade 5 (Teacher Implementation Guide)
  

Click the blue button below👇 to access all Classroom Dailies activities for April.

Classroom Dailies are ready-to-go lessons from the Seesaw and Community Libraries that are organized on a monthly calendar with one activity listed each day. The lessons are drawn from different Resource Library themes including Seesaw Essentials, Daily Routines, Community Builders, Digital Citizenship, Math & Stats, and monthly Special Days. Choose to view a calendar for Pre-K, K-2, or 3-5 activities.

Seesaw Formative Assessments are quick check-ins that teachers can use daily to quickly gauge students understanding. Auto-graded question types include multiple choice, true/false, drag-and-drop, and polls. Choose assessment mode or use practice mode, where students receive immediate feedback as they work. Try this: Use the Question Assistant to quickly generate and edit grade-level appropriate questions using AI.

Go to the Seesaw Library and search for "formative assessment inspiration" to get started!

Watch the video below or click this link to learn more

Did you know you can add a frame to any assignment? Frames allow you to create an interactive digitial worksheet. They create an organized work space for students that automatically opens the selected tool and places their finished work in the right area on the canvas. Click the images below to learn more.

Middle School Students: There are two updates to the Canvas Student iPad App that you should be aware of and might want to talk with students about.

• Students can now set personal reminders for due dates for upcoming due dates.
• There is a new toggle button that students should always have on: View Grades Based on Graded Assignments (not all assignments)
• Students can filter grades by grading periods (quarter) and by assignment group/category or due date. Read More

High School Students: In the browser view there is now a "submitted date" column in the grade report next to due date to indicate the date and time an assignment was submitted to Canvas. Read More

Teacher Gradebook: Multi-Select Filters allows you more flexibility in how you view items in the gradebook. For example, you might select to view the grades from two or more modules. Read More

Middle School Teachers might want to watch this video about Editing Section Names to label by class period and more easily navigate gradebook filters.

Google Assignments allow you to use a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide as a template and automatically generate a copy for each student in a Canvas assignment.

Students can access their copy through Canvas or Google Drive. Students can use the Google originality report to check their own work before submitting. That's a great part of the editing and self-reflection process. Using Google Assignments is also helpful for student organization. All Google Assignments are organized in Google Drive by class and assignment. No need to adjust sharing permissions or share folders.

Teachers can view/comment/edit students' work before they submit the assignment. It's a great option for tracking the process. If you are concerned a student copied and pasted from another source, like AI, you can view the version history. It's another tool to use for conversations with students about creating their own work. If you switch the assignment type from "external tool" to "file upload" after you've created the assignment, you can enable Turnitin plagiarism/AI checker for the assignment. Students can then upload the document created from your template and you have another layer of data to use if you need to have a conversation about originality.

Read the Google Assignments Tech Tools Article for directions on creating Google Assignments. Reach out with any questions or ideas.

Check out the video below showing how you can leverage the power of AI to give "first pass" feedback to students using the Brisk Teaching Chrome extension.

New Quizzes aren't exactly brand new, but there are some feature advantages we'd like to highlight.

New Question Types

• Categorization: Students place answers in the correct categories.
• Ordering: Students place answers in the correct sequence.
• Hot Spot: Students select a point or region on an image (like a map or a diagram).
• Stimulus: You can associate multiple questions with one reading or image.

Personalized Learning

• Time accommodation: You can extend time for all of a student's quizzes at once instead of moderating each one individually.
• Duplication: New Quizzes show up under Assignments and you can make duplicate copies of New Quizzes without breaking everything (like what happens with Classic Quizzes). This makes it much easier to create multiple versions of a quiz.
• Build on last attempt: ⭐️ Super cool feature alert! ⭐️ Checking this button allows students to build on their last attempt of a quiz by only reattempting incorrectly answered questions, instead of retaking all questions. Read More

Randomization

The" shuffle answers" option can be set per question or globally. You can "shuffle questions" without using Question Groups.

Weighted Grading

You can weigh questions within the quiz and independently determine the weight of the quiz in the course grade. So if you decided you want a 50 question quiz to be worth 25 points, you could do that with New Quizzes.

Canvas Studio is an awesome and underutilized tool that is built into Canvas. It gives teachers and students a place to record and upload unlimited videos. Those videos can then be turned into collaborative tutorials or video quizzes that can be used all over your Canvas courses.

New: Captions for Canvas Studio videos are now auto-generated! Read More

Students can use Canvas Studio to record, upload, and share their work as well. And if students submit using Studio, teachers can create time-stamped feedback right in the video

The video below 👇 includes the following:

1. Overview of Studio
2. Recording/Uploading Media
3. Organizing/Inserting Media into Courses
4. Studio Video Quizzes
5. Student Submissions to Studio
6. Teacher Feedback with Studio

Need students to create a screen recording? Looking for an alternative way to record a presentation? Have students use Studio! Studio allows picture-in-picture so you can see a student's face while they walk through their slides or presentation. The resulting video is cloud-based, so it's easy to share with business partners or other audiences. And it's a simple submission to a Canvas assignment. The video below can be used with students.

Please let us know! We are working hard to keep the website updated. We welcome suggestions and want to be in touch with your needs. blc@shakopee.k12.mn.us

To read more about staff who may assist with technology and implementation questions, please refer to this webpage: Technology Help Resources.

Email: helpdesk@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Website: https://shakopee.incidentiq.com/

Email: blc@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Website: https://bit.ly/bookblc