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Teacher burnout is real. A recent survey of BCTF members showed that this is the case. Teachers feel increased workload and stress, are negatively impacted by the teacher shortage, and don’t feel they are meeting their students’ academic needs (BCTF, 2023). The system is broken, but until working conditions improve, technology can come in to support and alleviate some of that stress. One use of technology is artificial intelligence. When it first came on the education scene, it was feared because of how students would use it, but now more applications for teachers are beginning to emerge, and it can act like a teacher’s assistant.
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Target Audience
My final vision project will be creating how-to videos for educators to implement different applications of AI in their planning and teaching. I’ve been talking to educators in my school and very few of them have played around with AI, used it to help lesson plan, or differentiate their instruction. So many educators are apprehensive of new technologies because there can be such a learning curve. That is where a teacher-librarian comes in. A TL can vet new technologies and then share out what they think is applicable to specific educators (Branch-Mueller & DeGroot, 2011). It’s also great to have an arsenal of different technological tools so when a teacher comes for advice on a lesson or project, a TL can suggest a technological application.
Before this course, I never delved into the world of AI as a teacher, and I can see that still is the case for many educators. Once they see that it has the potential to lessen their workload, I think they will be very receptive to the idea of implementing it. I have been blown-away with the ideas that have been generated by Chat-GPT and my students are more engaged and supported as a result. I also don’t feel as stressed as I was trying to differentiate for students or wasting time trying to come up with the right words to say politely that your child is mean in report cards.
Having videos on how to use AI to create lessons, differentiate, and help generate unique report card comments will be invaluable to teachers. We are currently in the midst of writing report cards using yet another new format. We used to have this amazing program called Report Central. It was a program developed by the North Vancouver School District and it made writing report cards so simple. You could create a bank of comments, apply it to a student, and then copy that comment to any other student it applied to (using the icon that looked like a boy holding a baguette, so naturally he was nicknamed Baguette Boy). Now we’re stuck with MyEducation’s not very user-friendly platform (especially for elementary school). AI to the rescue!
I plan to email the videos to the educators within my school, but I also plan on posting the videos onto my blog and to my personal learning network on X (Twitter). We live in such a connected world now, that by posting these videos online, I can reach educators I don’t even know. While talking with our current teacher-librarian, she suggested I do a workshop on a professional development day sharing what I’ve learned about AI, so that could also be another avenue to promote the technology. There is a lot of information about the application of AI for educators, but many educators are not frequenting those websites, so helping them become aware of these technologies and providing them with the simple steps required may inspire them to give it a try. The more I delve into the applications of AI, the more potential I see, so I want to continually share these ideas with other educators and hopefully try to curb teacher burnout.
Technology Usage Guidelines for Educators
Darcy McNee, our LIBE477B professor, did highlight the fact in my last blog post, that some districts have technological tool policy guidelines as to what apps teachers are permitted to use. I did some digging, and I could not find any such guidelines for my district. The only area that has been communicated to us is that we must be cognizant of FOIPPA when using student names and photos – everything needs to be stored on Canadian servers. I don’t anticipate that this will be an issue when sharing how to use AI for lesson planning and differentiation. When it comes to report cards, the student’s name is not used and is added before copy and pasting it into MyEducation.
References:
2022-2023 BCTF Member Survey. British Columbia Teachers Federation. (2023). https://www.bctf.ca/docs/default-source/for-news-and-stories/report-2021fallsurvey.pdf
Branch-Mueller, J., & DeGroot, J. (2011). The power of web 2.0: Teacher-librarians become school technology leaders. School Libraries Worldwide, 17(2), 25–40. https://doi.org/10.29173/slw6816
Hi Anette, I think you're project to create videos on how to use AI to plan lessons and make report card comments is both timely and cutting edge. I know conversations around AI in my circles haven't focused much on what they can do for teachers to lighten their workloads. Instead, the conversations have very much been on catching plagiarism and bemoaning yet another way students can use the internet to shirk their responsibility to maintain academic integrity and develop some intellectual rigor. I am wondering what software or web-based app you will be using to make your videos. I have found Screencastify (not to be confused with Screencast-O-Matic, which is also good for making teaching videos) and Vmaker. I've also heard that Loom is good. I hope these suggestions help.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions! I'm planning on using Loom because I became familiar with it during COVID and its free for teachers!
DeleteIt is timely to look at ways AI can help teachers in this increasingly complex career. I look forward to your next blog post and learning from your videos.
ReplyDeleteYou have a strong direction and a solid plan for your final project. I appreciate the way that you have considered how you might reach your audience. I also appreciate how you have woven in current research on teacher burnout to support your rationale. When it comes to privacy and security there is much more below the surface that one might expect. Every school district has different policies and practices around this. These sites might be of interest - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/services-for-government/policies-procedures/appropriate-use-policy and https://scarfedigitalsandbox.teach.educ.ubc.ca/privacy-protecting-your-students/
ReplyDeleteHi Annette,
ReplyDeleteLike many teachers, I can definitely connect to the burnout information. I think this is such a smart way to lead into your project -- we can all agree teachers need more tools and supports to accomplish everything we are supposed to accomplish. I have started dabbling with AI in the most basic ways to get suggestions and fill in information that is time consuming. I think, as educators, when new technology comes along, we can quickly go to an amorphous worry or concern for usage. Your videos sound like they can present real, concrete positives for AI usage. I look forward to seeing what you create!