Day 147 (of 2025/26) #BCEDL on #tEChursdAI
Yes – the conference focused on distance and digital and online learning is hybrid, but does encourage the in-person opportunity as the connections continue to be a lot easier when in lineup for a coffee refill than in a breakout room… we trust that at some point the #edchat social media world will return to being more inviting and inclusive…
Wednesday share: find your spot – social emotional learning shuffle: https://everactive.org/pew-resources/ a fun plenary exploring some thinking and sharing some successes and… ‘frictions’.
The DL Symposium allows some great shares and fabulous connections – especially as we unpack how unique each of our Provincial Online Learning Schools are. Talked to one educator whose program is focused on students being with a teacher (as a cohort) for 2 sessions a week and then working online for the rest of the time… our setup is a lot more asynchronous.
Some schools attach students to subject specific teachers – eg only working with chemistry 11 students… we are focused on relationships which means one teacher, all subjects, k-12. Benefits to both, though I admit being biased to see how valuable it is for many of our students to only have one set of expectations and reduce the number of transitions…
Keynote Share: ‘all around 21st century renaissance woman’ – Ann (Andini) Makosinski (inventor of Hollow Flashlight! And the eDrink – as seen on The Tonight Show)
Fun story leading into the history of the Luddites (and how Ned Ludd, the leader, was likely more of a ‘Robin hood’ character than actually real…) and the transition into how AI is going to alter teaching… with the reminder that humans are always inventing to solve our problems.
Stone tools.
First paintings.
Can’t stop progress – need to explore how to make use of the power… “the power itself isn’t evil necessarily, it’s how you wield it’ Pablo Holman (yes, he’s a hacker inventor) when you look at what happens, technology always wins over time.
An Inventing Mindset:
Love the differentiation between a ‘creation’ (replication/modification) and ‘invention’ (first).
Sense of Purpose <— this theme repeated beautifully as to how important it is…
Love her share that while getting a lot of attention for her science fair work… she pivoted 180 and studied English lit and fine arts – we ought not be typecast…
How much of this is what I want to do vs what is/has been expected of me…?
Now: working on rap videos… and the problem solving mindset continues to be fully engaged – working with hands and mind at the same time!
Didn’t choose one of the other… don’t have to be either science OR art… can be a balance.
Upon reflection, why did participating in science fairs work so well for younger me:
- I chose what i was curious about
- I learned by building and experimenting, not memorizing and regurgitating
- I worked the way I felt strongest: without teammates
- I knew I wouldn’t get graded in school for it
- I had a mentor checking in regularly
- I got to express my findings with both my passions and skills in the sciences and the arts, to my peers.
Delightful share of the depth of learning because it was not being connected to a grade (and that kind of judgement… errr, assessment/evaluation…)
How can we strengthen curiosity at a young ate?
How can we make an online educational environment thats conducive to inspiring youth to develop their creative curiosity skills?
Asked to be involved = means I get to be seen…
AI personalizing every assigned project to each individual student… <— ponder this!
Reference to Markus Essen – head of The Logan School: “Let students shape the way they learn and present their required curriculum”.
“…when you tapped into the students creativity and something he was genuinely interested in, it produced something that I had never seen from the student before.”
if the students are in a system where they don’t have a choice fo what they’re going to learn, you can often still ask them how they want to learn it.”
Simon Herzog – take your student interests seriously: “My mum took these things seriously, and I was only a six-year-old! Once I stood in front of it (a chair) for so long that I fainted. I mean it’s a beautiful chair. And it’s still there….”
You’re obsessed with XXX? I don’t understand it, but I will support you in it!
Youthtopia Melati and Isabelle Wisjen – parents were always supportive, as long as they took it seriously… “Yes, and…” question/answer series.
“An Imagination Lab” at home … at our building?
A place where you have permission to explore, both virtually and in person. Where failure is seen as information.
Matt Mullenweg: Technology is best when it brings people together
Tactile experience of destroying (disassembling) technology to see what makes it works.
USIng AI in Education
Where are we losing student engagement:
- Watching instead of making
- Consuming instead of questioning
- Completing instead of caring
The most commonly reported activities for using AI:
Homework *53%
Stave off boredom 42%
Translation 41%
Dawn of the AI Era Report from Common Sense Media
60% have not used AI (2024)
40% Yes – 41% with teachers permission; 46% without permission; 12% unsure if I had permission
“AI-deating” (ideating) Using AI to help with the next steps on projects inventions
Using AI to create a more catered eduction for each kind of student learner
Gary Bowles – “The Next Rules of Work”
What if I had been able to AI-debate while doing my science fair projects?
BUT
AI literacy is the new digital literacy.
Technology itself does not teach wisdom. Just because you have access to it, does not mean you know anything. Ani’s Dad.
We live in a super stimuli, information abundant online world
A teachers role isn’t simply to deliver more information
It’s to help students what’s already available… in a meaningful way. To engage their critical thinking skills in asserting what hey are reading and observing on their screens.
Even with AI work – Art… “It bridges the gap, and makes it less overwhelming to sit down and start since you have some ideas – a creative destination of what you’re aiming towards”
A template to work off of.
AI can enable you to teach the same lesson, but in multiple different ways..
– turn a whole textbook/reading excerpt into audio only
Translate into a different language
- simplify for various reading levels
- Generate detailed, clear visual aids for neurodivergent students
- Break down assignments into simpler modules or task lists with steps that may be less overwhelming.
Using AI to help pick projects that students feel emotionally connected to.
“Part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were ‘reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy’ – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Better depth of connection when there is a personal connection than ‘how will this impact my final grade’….
Formula:
(Curiosity & Empathy) + (Science & Art) = Invention.
You never know where a good idea is goo everying to come from
The Age of Multi-Potentials
“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else” DaVinci
Competing with: Passivity.
“We are not competing with AI, technology, or TikTok. We are competing with passivity. As a teacher, one of the best gifts you can give is curious, lifelong learning mindset.
Technolandy 
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