My 8-year-old son asked, “Mumma, can you tell me what coding is? I want to join Code Ninjas.”

In response, I said, “Coding? What’s that? I haven’t studied that. It must be for someone who is a techie, so maybe you should ask your dad.”

My son replied, “Which world are you in, Mumma? I’m going to learn it at school, and you haven’t in your entire life?”

That was the extent of my knowledge regarding coding and makerspaces. The embarrassment dawned on me when I learned about it through our class.

In today’s education scenario, the integration of technology, including makerspaces and coding, is transforming the traditional learning standards. Makerspaces are physical environments tailored for hands-on, collaborative learning experiences, providing access to tools like 3D printers and robotics kits. The primary goal of makerspaces is to foster creativity, experimentation, and problem-solving skills among students. By encouraging trial-and-error learning and embracing mistakes as part of the process, makerspaces cultivate an innovative mindset essential for success in diverse fields.

Many educators also utilize them to enhance literacy instruction by incorporating interactive elements into regular projects. By engaging students in creating their own narratives and solutions, makerspaces promote deeper comprehension of literary themes while nurturing creativity and critical thinking.

Moreover, makerspaces align closely with STEM and STEAM education frameworks, emphasizing interdisciplinary learning through practical, project-based activities. By integrating design thinking and discovery learning, makerspaces empower students to tackle real-world challenges and develop transferable skills applicable across various domains.

Coding, once perceived as exclusive to tech enthusiasts, is now recognized as a valuable tool for fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance among all students. Through hands-on activities students develop coding proficiency while experiencing its real-world applications. By integrating coding into everyday learning, complex concepts come to life in interactive and engaging ways, making learning more accessible and enjoyable for students of all backgrounds.

The rise of the maker movement has popularized makerspaces globally, offering shared access to digital fabrication tools and fostering a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and experimentation. This culture emphasizes learning through trial and error, teaching participants to embrace failure as a crucial part of the learning process.

As educational institutions increasingly integrate concepts like STEAM, robotics, coding, and makerspaces into their curricula, students are equipped with technical exposure and proactive training from an early age. This progressive approach ensures students not only become proficient with technology but also develop the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Overall, the integration of makerspaces and coding into education represents a shift towards active, experiential learning, where students are encouraged to explore, create, and innovate. By providing hands-on experiences and fostering a culture of curiosity and experimentation, educators empower students to become lifelong learners equipped to navigate the complexities of the modern world.

Until next time…

My 8-year-old son asked, “Mumma, can you tell me what coding is? I want to join Code Ninjas.”

In response, I said, “Coding? What’s that? I haven’t studied that. It must be for someone who is a techie, so maybe you should ask your dad.”

My son replied, “Which world are you in, Mumma? I’m going to learn it at school, and you haven’t in your entire life?”

That was the extent of my knowledge regarding coding and makerspaces. The embarrassment dawned on me when I learned about it through our class.

In today’s education scenario, the integration of technology, including makerspaces and coding, is transforming the traditional learning standards. Makerspaces are physical environments tailored for hands-on, collaborative learning experiences, providing access to tools like 3D printers and robotics kits. The primary goal of makerspaces is to foster creativity, experimentation, and problem-solving skills among students. By encouraging trial-and-error learning and embracing mistakes as part of the process, makerspaces cultivate an innovative mindset essential for success in diverse fields.

Many educators also utilize them to enhance literacy instruction by incorporating interactive elements into regular projects. By engaging students in creating their own narratives and solutions, makerspaces promote deeper comprehension of literary themes while nurturing creativity and critical thinking.

Moreover, makerspaces align closely with STEM and STEAM education frameworks, emphasizing interdisciplinary learning through practical, project-based activities. By integrating design thinking and discovery learning, makerspaces empower students to tackle real-world challenges and develop transferable skills applicable across various domains.

Coding, once perceived as exclusive to tech enthusiasts, is now recognized as a valuable tool for fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance among all students. Through hands-on activities students develop coding proficiency while experiencing its real-world applications. By integrating coding into everyday learning, complex concepts come to life in interactive and engaging ways, making learning more accessible and enjoyable for students of all backgrounds.

The rise of the maker movement has popularized makerspaces globally, offering shared access to digital fabrication tools and fostering a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and experimentation. This culture emphasizes learning through trial and error, teaching participants to embrace failure as a crucial part of the learning process.

As educational institutions increasingly integrate concepts like STEAM, robotics, coding, and makerspaces into their curricula, students are equipped with technical exposure and proactive training from an early age. This progressive approach ensures students not only become proficient with technology but also develop the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Overall, the integration of makerspaces and coding into education represents a shift towards active, experiential learning, where students are encouraged to explore, create, and innovate. By providing hands-on experiences and fostering a culture of curiosity and experimentation, educators empower students to become lifelong learners equipped to navigate the complexities of the modern world.

Until next time…

Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben may have been talking about the life of a superhero, but when considering the immense power that AI possesses, we can make the same analogy. While AI has evolved at an alarmingly fast rate, the aspect of responsibility and AI regulation has not entered the same rate of evolution. You would think that something so powerful, with so much potential for either good or bad, would be heavily regulated by being subjected to strict government regulation in the Western Hemisphere. However, this is not what we have been seeing. Unfortunately, we see governments who are move slowly to create any meaningful regulation, attempting to create legislation for technology which evolves at a rapid pace. When the legislation finally takes place, it is five to ten years behind where our technology is today. The United States, for example, is looking at banning TikTok. This social media platform has been in existence for eight years. Regarding AI, the United States is creating procedures to evaluate the risks this technology could present. Even after the spoofing of President Biden‘s voice and its subsequent use for malicious phone calls, AI still remains relatively unregulated. This is concerning when it has the power to shift political power with a line of code. We do see moments where some are attempting to control the influence AI has on the future. The New York Times is currently suing AI companies for copyright infringement. We also see SAG and AFTRA strike a deal including regulations on the use of AI generation in the film industry. 

While I have an understanding of the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI, I also realize that educators need to attempt to begin that conversation with students. While my students view AI as mostly good – not entirely positive – there were very few who understand the drawbacks and detriments of this technology. With student assignments, I have been able to attempt to explore these potential dangers of AI with my students. We did this with a simple AI text-to-image generation activity. We explored how quickly we can create images that are seemingly real with AI, but we also discussed the dangers of being able to create seemingly real photos and the impacts it can have on someone’s life.  It is obvious that AI is not going to disappear, so we need to prepare our students with the understanding of what this technology means and the appropriate digital citizenship we require while using it. 

However, AI can be a very useful tool. As an educator, I have used AI to create worksheets, help plan lessons and units, create permission forms, and used AI as part of student assignments. While I haven’t used AI in all aspects of my job, some of my colleagues have used AI to assess students work, create report card comments, and source plagiarism or AI generation in students’ assignments. Regardless of the regulation status of AI, I feel educators need to be educated regarding this technology. We need to attempt to disseminate some of the misinformation surrounding AI with our colleagues. It would allow for other educators to have a better understanding of the benefits and dangers of the technology that students and other educators use daily. Not only would this create an environment where all educators and students receive better education on digital citizenship, therefore, advancing the field of educational technology. This means that teachers would need to continually have a working understanding of the ever evolving field of technology. This is wildly time consuming, and simply not a practical option for most educators, nor financially feasible for most school divisions. 

This ignorance about technology is also detrimental to our profession as educators. As I have outlined above, AI has helped me be a more efficient employee. However, as AI begins to improve and evolve into a more complex technology, educators have been concerned with AI intelligence replacing them in the profession.  While these concerns are valid, education relies on the human connection, critical thought process, and creating empathetic citizens – all which AI is unable to replicate, let alone teach. That being said, sometimes we are reminded of this potential, particularly when AI is already starting to evolve its ability to understand jokes. But the truth is AI is terrible at determining  emotion based on facial recognition software. The consistent fear is that when AI is able to interpret our emotions en masse and interpret the level of comprehension in the room, educators will be removed. However, all technology articles that I have read are arguing this will never be the case. That it is actually political rhetoric and a misunderstanding of how complex the subject of emotions truly is.  However, this future problem could effect some professions. How long will it be until some professions are deemed less efficient than AI and are replaced? AI does not need to sleep, eat, have smoke breaks, sick days, vacation time, health benefits, expense accounts, etc. It simply exists and continues to work until there is a software or hardware malfunction. AI will create a new world, and some of the professions will become extinct, but that does not mean that we will be ushered into the dystopian future of the Terminator franchise any time soon.  The rise of the robot is not on the horizon any time soon. Even if CEOs of technology empires who are concerned that AI will replace them. 

While the evolution of technology has always created an uneasiness amongst the population, no technology has had the same level of potential to displace entire workforces as AI is threatening to. However, in the digital age it is easier to disseminate a lack of trust in technology and exaggerate the advanced capabilities of AI and their impacts. At this point, we keep on asking ourselves “if we can create this technology evolution”. The question really should be “ how should we create this technology evolution” or at least the realization that with this great power comes an even greater responsibility to ensure society is prepared for its impacts through responsible and timely regulation. 

My first time using AI was when my school division introduced the Magic School. Yes, I know I have been talking all the time during this course for Magic School, but that’s because I love it, as it has made my life so much easier. Where should I start?

As a Learning Resource teacher, one of my responsibilities is to create data collection for students who are on the Inclusion and Intervention Plan (IIP). Previously, it had taken me a lot of time to prepare these data collection sheets as they have to be individualized for each goal and, more specifically, for each student. Let’s say 5 goals per student X 40 students… I’m gonna let you do the calculation. This year, I used Magic School, and it saved me so many long hours of work and frustration. What’s more important is that the final result was much better than before. The forms I created are more accessible to fill in through the computer if you don’t want to print them, and you can edit them if necessary.

Magic School has also helped me create Social Stories for the students. Based on their needs, social stories can help students understand emotions, behaviours, and feelings, work through personal issues, and predict their actions regarding handling various situations. They are straightforward, and you can create as many as you want. The story below is the one AI—Magic School created for me. The command that I asked Magic School was: “Make a social story for Ilda on how to use AI.”

Here is the story:

I am Ilda. Sometimes, I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help me with different tasks. AI is like having an intelligent assistant that can answer questions and give me information.

I can use AI on my computer, tablet, or even my smart speaker at home. When I need help getting started, I can ask my parents or teacher.

It’s great that AI can help me find answers to questions quickly. If I’m unsure how to use AI, someone can show me step by step. I can also practice using AI by asking simple questions first.

When I use AI, I feel excited to learn new things and discover information that interests me. If I have trouble understanding the answers from AI, I can ask for clarification without worrying.

I will work on speaking clearly and calmly when asking AI for help. I can also thank AI for providing me with the necessary information.

Remember, using AI is a fun and helpful tool for learning and exploring new things!

Magic School also helps me with lesson plans, IIP generators, assessments, rubric generators, customizing texts based on students’ favoured topics, and more. When this platform was initially introduced to us, all its features were available. Unfortunately, some of the features now require a subscription.

ChatGPT is another AI that I use for my work. I use it to summarize lengthy articles, clarify, and answer questions.

So far, I am thrilled with AI but simultaneously scared. Thrilled because it has shortened the time needed for completing tasks and allowed me to spend time on other things. Having AI available 24/7 enables me to access it anytime and anywhere. Since technology is advancing rapidly, my only concern with AI is taking over our lives. We want technology to make our life easier, however we still want humans to have the upper hand on things. The video that the last group showed in the previous presentation, Evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI), says that “With the advancement of technology and a better understanding of the human brain, the capabilities of AI would change drastically over the years” (min 3:34). As long as AI changes the world to benefit us that’s okay but if it works against us that is what concerns me.  

The benefits of technology and AI are undeniable. We can all see how it has revolutionized our lives in many areas. However, we must ensure that we use it responsibly to maximize its benefits for the betterment of life and society.