Turning Students’ Brains ON when using AI 🧠

The more I use AI–particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT–the more I notice my tendency to get into a mode of thinking where I quickly ask stuff, skim the answer, then move on. This is concerning: it shows my tendency to minimize thinking effort. If a tool will do the hard stuff for me, […]

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AI: Re-writer, Info Getter, or Collaborator?

To use GenAI effectively, we need to shift our mindset from how most other digital technologies work. We’re used to many technologies (such as the printing press and internet) being about access to information. We are used to digital tools giving consistent responses (input/output). We are used to using tools to produce stuff (documents, images, […]

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ChatGPT Doesn’t Have a User’s Manual. Let’s Not Create One.

Note: This is the next post in the shared blogging experiment with Punya Mishra and Nicole Oster. This time we question what and how we should be teaching about generative AI. The core idea and first draft came from me, to which Punya and Nicole added revisions and edits. The final version emerged through a […]

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Stranger Skills: Guidelines for Learning and Teaching with AI

Lately I’ve felt like I’m living in parallel universes. On one hand, I am trying to get the word out of the bias in GenAI, the problems that can cause, and the caution we should be using when these technologies are applied in educational contexts. For example, ChatGPT 3.5 provides lower average writing scores when […]

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Stranger Skills at Educators Rising New Mexico, 2024

I have the honor of sharing some ideas about teaching, learning, and AI with New Mexican Educators Rising members at the 2024 Conference. Here are some concepts and resources that might be useful. Ideas for using LLMs in Learning Ideas for using LLMS in Teaching Additional Resources Videos Santa Fe Institute: The Future of Artificial […]

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AECT: Responsive Professional Development

Today I presented a paper I wrote about how design principles informed the work I did for my dissertation–a responsive professional development program that ended up having to respond to COVID-19 school closures. The result was an unexpected stress test for the design principles. The figure below outlines the theoretical structure of the program, with […]

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Creativity, Learning, and . . . TECHNOLOGY!
variations on Scratch's number block band

This week, I asked my students to draft a “learning, teaching, and technology statement.” Their thoughts and insights pushed me to think more about my own beliefs. Although I have been exploring the relationships between learning, creativity, design, and teaching, I hadn’t ever articulated where “technology” fit in. (A bit ironic, seeing that I am […]

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Teachers as Designers: Epistemic Diversity and Sensemaking Amidst Indeterminacy

Thanks to the help of family, friends, and faculty and staff at Arizona State University, last month I officially graduated with a PhD in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies. My dissertation entitled “Teachers as Designers: Epistemic Diversity and Sensemaking Amidst Indeterminacy” included three journal articles (one published, two to be submitted soon) about my work on […]

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Harnessing the Rapids: Teacher Identity, Design, and COVID-19

This piece was cross-posted on TalkingAboutDesign.com and SilverLiningforLearning.org The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it, too. The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it. You have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths. Herman Hesse (Siddhartha, 1922) I love lazy […]

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