Let's Talk about Accessibility and AI #HourOfAI #withSchoolAI

If you are new to my site, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Nicholas Provenzano and I am a neurodivergent learner. I went undiagnosed until college. I am dyslexic, have ADHD, manage anxiety, and battle depression. I have slowly learned these things about me over the course of 20+ years and they have profoundly influenced who I am as an educator. I mean, who the heck chooses to me an English teacher when they are dyslexic? This guy!

Now you know a little about me, I hope you have a better understanding of why I am such an advocate for accessibility for all learners. I came to age as a teacher during the great technology movement in the early 2000s. Google made the teacher's edition of the textbook a non-factor and wikipedia became the bane of every teacher's existence when it came to citations. early adopters did their best to calm the nerves of tech directors and admins, but the need to ban the unknown was too strong. I sat in meetings begging to have YouTube unblocked, to have access to Google Docs, and other early tech because I know how powerful it could be in my classroom. Block now and hope nobody asks was the standard in many schools and districts across the country. I understand the urge, but these tactics ALWAYS impact the most vulnerable students in our classroom. 

Block AI because it is just used by students to cheat and not learn anything. That is the typical thought when I hear people discussing AI in the classroom. My main issue with this is that most people do not know that AI is used in many popular applications. For example, Grammarly is an amazing tool for students that support accessibility. It is a tool that I wish I had access to as a student. I probably would not have felt so dumb if I had something, anything, that would have guided and helped organize my thoughts. Grammarly also uses AI as part of the application. Does this mean that Grammarly should be banned in the classroom? Who is exactly being punished by doing this?

Have you done a Google search lately? The first thing that pops up is a Gemini answer to your search. Does this mean Google is now banned in all schools? Who is punished if this happens?

The reality of blindly banning things is that the students who benefit the most from edtech tools are the students who are hurt the most when they are banned. These tools are designed to help students share what they know. Is it possible that some students use technology to do the work for them and are not learning? Yup. How is this different than the students breaking out their home edition of Encyclopedia Britannica?

Working for an AI company now has not stopped by advocacy for accessibility for students. To be honest, it has only ramped it up. AI can be used to help so many of our students who feel that education is just out of their reach. By finding the right tools, helping students understand how to use them to support their learning, and making sure the maintain access is what accessibility is all about. Taking a UDL approach to you classroom even makes the use of these tools advantageous to all of your students. 

I hope you take a moment and think about any policy that takes something away from students and ask who is really going to benefit and who is going to be hurt by making this decision. There is plenty of room for nuanced conversations, but let's have them before we start banning and blocking. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

NP

Hour of AI Week Is Here! #HourOfAI #withSchoolAI

Happy Hour of AI Week everyone! If you are thinking, "Wait a second. I thought it was the Hour of Code Week." you are not losing your marbles. Code.org has shifted from the Hour of Code to the Hour of AI. You can find out more about this change here. 

I loved teaching the Hour of Code in the classroom to get students excited about coding and computational thinking. The Hour of AI is designed to do the same. Sometimes students think they know what AI is and assume it is in everything. They might not be far off in thinking that, but students do need to know about AI, how to spot when it is being used, and how to use if effectively in their learning. 

The team at SchoolAI knew they had to have something awesome for teachers to give to their students to help them explore AI in a safe way. There are a series of lessons for all grade levels to help students explore AI. As a teacher, we even did a full webinar on showcasing the lessons and what they would look like if you were the student. You can watch the recording here. 

If you want jump right into the lessons SchoolAI created, you can find them all right here. 

What I love about these AI Lessons is that they are designed to empower the student to explore AI with the guardrails needed to ensure that it is safe. It was important that SchoolAI made sure that all of these resources were made available to all of our users for free. Watching the Sandbox recording of how the Lessons can be used and rolling the lessons out to students next week is a great way to engage your classroom in AI. If you are new to using AI, it is a wonderful opportunity to explore AI with your students knowing that it will be safe for everyone. 

This partnership with Code.org really shows the commitment to a sound, pedagogical approach to AI instruction that is at the heart of what SchoolAI believes. If you want to know more about how SchoolAI can support you and your students, sign up for a free account. I hope you will share how you use the lesson with your students in our Community or on socials. Tag me @TheNerdyTeacher if you do so I can share with everyone. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

NP

One Small Idea Can Have A Big Impact #EdChat

I've been very lucky to have been part of many different EdTech Communities over the years. From my time spent with amazing educators at Adobe, Google, Raspberry Pi, Sphero, TED-Ed, and my first EdTech Community, Evernote, I've loved how you get what you put into a community. It can be what you need it to be when you want it to be. I've taken all of these experiences I use them to help me craft the community experience for educators in the SchoolAI Community. 

One of the things I have loved from the different communities was the effort to give the community members a platform to share their story. There is so much we can all learn from each other, but educators are not always given the chance to share or they do not have the ability to attend a conference and share their story. Sometimes the keynote circuit is the same few names and it can be tough to break into those conversations. That's why I have started the SchoolAI Lightning Talks. 

Open to any educator who has an idea worth sharing, I want to give as many educators as possible a chance to share something that matters to them. You can find all of the details here and the submission page here. Do not let "I'm sure everyone already knows this." or "It probably doesn't make that big of a difference." stop you from sharing. Do not let the imposter syndrome take over and prevent you from sharing your idea. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at nicholas@schoolai.com or find me on my socials. @TheNerdyTeacher

Hugs and High Fives to everyone!

NP

International Dot Day #withSchoolAI #EdChat

As a high school teacher, I had not idea what Dot Day was and that it was a big deal is schools all over the world. When I taught Middle School, I started to hear more about Dot Day from students and it sounded like a really fun story and activity. Once I finally sat down and read the book by Peter H. Reynolds, I was blown away. It was the type of story I needed to read when I was starting school and feeling like everyone was better than me at everything. As an undiagnosed neurodivergent learner throughout K12, it was hard not to feel "less than" when compared to my peers. I never thought I would be able to "make my mark" in any meaningful way. A simple story can really change the narrative for a young student if we make the time. 

Working at SchoolAI, I get the chance to spend time building amazing Spaces to support the awesome work educators are already doing in their classroom. With International Dot Day approaching next week, I was wondering if there was a way to create a Space to support this important day in school. After some fun exploring different prompts, I put together a Space that will allow the students to watch a reading of the story and be prompted by SchoolAI's Dot about ways they have made their mark even when things were tough. Then, they get to create their own Dot using the Doodleboard PowerUp. Here is a screenshot of my Doodleboard. 

I hope you have a chance to use the Space with your students who are looking for a way to explore Dot Day and make their mark. These types of Spaces are perfect for launching and sharing with families at home so they can explore with their children. 

If you want to find more Spaces that are created in the SchoolAI Community, join the Champions Program and you will get weekly updates on all of the amazing things educators are doing to make school awesome.