The Refurbishing of Artificial Intelligence

Hello everyone, and welcome to 2024!  Hope you had some happy and restful time with family and friends over the winter break.

Back in December of 2022, I published a blog entry titled "How AI Will Save Education."  It was just a few weeks after ChatGPT 3.5 had debuted on November 30, and as I put it back then, it "exploded into our zeitgeist seemingly out of nowhere, and it feels like something foundational has rapidly and irreversibly shifted in education...indeed, the world."  There was a lot of strong feelings in the air: wonderment to be sure, but also fear.  And there were many questions.  What does it mean to be a "writer" or an "artist" when AI seemingly has the capacity to be creative?  How does teaching look differently in such a world?   Perhaps most worrisome for educators: What can or should I do if students "cheat" with AI?  Is it cheating to use AI?  Will my time be consumed with a neverending quest to catch students passing off AI-generated work as their own?

Certainly, we still lack definitive answers on those questions, nor is it possible to be definitive when discussing something as rapidly evolving as artificial intelligence.  On such a topic, pressing "publish" almost instantly puts you out of date.  But a year later, some answers have emerged. While I won't dare presume to be the oracle or the burning bush of artificial intelligence, I thought it might be helpful to offer my perspective on some AI trends that have caught my personal eye, and share some selected articles and tools that have emerged in the last twelve months.

The Reality of Students "Cheating"

As it turns out, perhaps we can dial back from the feeling of panic that befell us in December 2022.  As Stanford researchers discovered, "Cheating Fears Over Chatbots Were Overblown" (The New York Times, 12/13/23).   In their recent survey of over 40 high schools in the United States, the amount of students who admitted to have cheated at some point has remained the same 60-70% range that it has been for years.  More fascinating, "[m]any teens know little about ChatGPT...[a]nd most say they have never used it for schoolwork."  Two sets of numbers from the research jumped out at me.  The first is that when looking at all U.S. teens, 44% said they only knew a "little" about ChatGPT and 32% said "nothing at all."  That's three out of four students!  The second shows what could become a disquieting trend of racial and socioeconomic inequity.  When deconstructing the total teen numbers into White, Black, and Latino demographics, the total numbers of "little/nothing at all" are relatively close.  However, when broken down by group, you can see the awareness of ChatGPT inching upward for Whites (50% know at least a little about the tool, versus 27% knowing nothing at all) when compared to Blacks (35%/44%) and Latinos (42%/37%).   Household income makes the disparity even stronger. For households under $30,000, students that know "a lot/a little/nothing at all" about ChatGPT is 11%/30%/59%, compared to the students from households $75,000 and over:  26%/50%/24%.

Does this reflect that ChatGPT is being blocked more at schools in "certain areas"?  Are educators trusting, and teaching AI to, some students more than others?

In a separate set of experiments in September 2023, Stanford researchers explored how well AI cheat detectors were working.   The short answer: not well.  There were a number of both false positives and false negatives.  In fact, when the scientist simply asked the chatbot's generated essay that had been previously detected as AI to "elevate the provided text by employing literary language...[d]etection rates plummeted to near zero."  Another disturbing finding: actual essays written by multi-language learners were often falsely flagged as AI.  This is likely because the more simplistic, emerging language skill of such students seem to reveal the bias of the AI detection programmers: simple text "must" mean a machine wrote it.

Of course, this issue of cheating doesn't address the powerful opportunities to ask a chatbot AI to generate an initial draft of a paper for the student to improve and revise, or to have it provide major points to consider in an argument, or the need to make sure AI is properly cited when used.  Passing off someone's work has always been cheating, whether you Google an essay and pretend it's your own, or when a machine (or human!) writes something for you and you just put your name at the top.   What is important is for students to learn, debate and practice the ethical use of AI.

So, in summary: students may not be using AI chatbots as much as we think, and student cheating with AI (and the software that detects it) is a complicated topic at best.  In fact, we may need to think more closely on how AI is being permitted on school devices and networks, if enough awareness and ethics of AI are being taught, and at the most basic level, reflect on how our concern of "cheating" may be unfairly manifesting itself into inequitable practices in our classrooms.

Proactive and Positive Uses of AI in Teaching and Learning

On a more positive note, there have certainly been numerous reports in the news and research of the potential of AI having a positive impact on learning...or at least approaching it with cautious optimism. Here are a few recent examples: 

• Carnegie Learning has launched several AI tools to help students and teachers. In particular, LiveHint AI is providing real-time math tutoring support.  The tool helps coach students to understand the problem-solving issues of a difficult problem, not simply giving them the right answer: “ 'When students use it, they have the ability to provide line-by-line feedback. If there’s any particular response that they either like or don’t like, [the students] can comment on it,' Carnegie Learning Chief Data Scientist Steve Ritter said. 'And then overall, in terms of the overall quality of the session, they can also comment on that.' "  According to Ritter, the tool has been received positively by faculty and students. ("This Pittsburgh edtech company uses AI to help kids learn math amid ‘uncertainty’ about the tech," technical.ly, 1/4/24)
• Harvard researchers have been studying the impact of AI-generated feedback on students.  The results were positive for teachers, but mixed for students.  Teachers appreciated how AI sped up their ability to respond, as well as gave them ways to customize their feedback to a student's needs.  Many students appreciated how such feedback improved the feeling of a perceived "caring classroom culture" (likely because it was timely and seemed to be responsive), but some struggling students felt the feedback was "unhelpfully short and insensitive."   ("Harvard researchers explore how to use generative AI for student feedback," WBUR Public Radio, 12/27/23)
• The University of Kentucky's Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning has published some AI resources on its website.  In particular, I'm impressed with their "Course Policy Examples," which give an instructor options and exemplars for clarifying whether AI is permissible in their class, from "No [Student] Use" at all, to "Conditional," to "Unrestricted."  

From Prompt Professors to Pragmatic AI Professionals

When the generative chatbots came out in full force in early 2023 (ChatGPT and its rivals like Google's Bard, as well as various graphic-generating AI), there seemed to be a brief time when the educator who was an expert in "prompt engineering" might be the next new thing.  Certainly, we soon became awash in websites and PDFs offering effective prompts to copy and paste for our own AI adventures (such as this one).  What it reminded me of was the pioneering past of other Internet tools.   Do you remember the halcyon days of Geocities, when the idea of publishing your own personal website made us hungry to HTML code?  Or the beginning of Google Search, when we all were ablaze with Boolean operators and the power of a well-placed parenthesis or quote mark?  This was grand stuff for early tech adopters, but for most of us, the effort of process overwhelmed the product.  We don't want be an expert HTML coder unless we plan to create sophisticated websites full-time; we just need a decent templated site that gets our message across.  We prefer a natural language inquiry that gets us the right result, rather than pondering whether it is better to type "AND" instead of "OR" in a search engine.  In short, it is the content that is king. 

In the same way, the appetite for using an AI tool like ChatGPT is also shifting.   We appreciate the power of AI, but want to concentrate on where the vehicle takes us, not so much the vehicle itself.   What that has led us (in a remarkably short amount of time!) is into a world of tools that refurbishes artificial intelligence into an interface that is more inviting and user-friendly.   The word "refurbish" may at first bring to mind a negative connotation, if you only think of the broken device that is fixed and resold at an electronics store.  However, I'm leaning into the original Oxford Dictionary definition of refurbish as renovate and redecorate.   That is an almost literal description of what many new AI tools are doing.  They often take the same "raw" AI code -- such as ChatGPT -- and put it in a renovated, redecorated package that is easier and often more effective to use.  In fact, if the tool has a premium tier, people are now often willing to pay for such convenience, regardless if or whether the raw AI engine underneath the tool's hood is free or relatively inexpensive.  There's a bit of irony at work here; many of the same people (especially educators) struggling with their "buy in" for AI in 2022 are now buying AI.

Here are just a few AI tools that offer outcomes that would have seemed impossible for technology to achieve just a few years ago.  (While there are not necessarily education-specific, it takes the smallest leap of imagination to see how they could be used creatively for learning by a teacher or a student in the classroom!)

• Beautiful.ai.  An AI-assisted presentation tool, this is particularly powerful in creating infographics within seconds.
• Synthesia.  This can not only create videos with AI, it can insert a virtual lifelike avatar that speaks the script you type for it, in over a hundred languages.
• Owlift (formerly called "Explain Like I'm Five").  The tool takes what could be complicated subjects and adapts the explanation of such topics for an audience of varying needs.  Note that you can not only toggle how you're feeling on the topic ("pretty dumb/dumb/smart/pretty smart"), but also whether you want the reply to be sarcastic or not.  The snarky language aside (which arguably may not be appropriate for a young student to interact with), the nuanced functionality of the tool makes it worth mentioning.
• I also need to mention that many popular online tools now include some sort of embedded AI tool, from Zoom to Canva to Google Docs to the writing of LinkedIn posts.

From the website Owlift (formerly known as Explain Like I'm Five).

This refurbishment concept can particularly be seen in educational tools.  It is no small thing to save me time from constantly having to tell AI at every new prompt, "I'm an educator," so that it shapes its answer accordingly.  As such refurbished and personalized AI becomes increasingly sophisticated in the near future -- it will soon know and remember that I am a fourth grade teacher who needs a science lesson every Tuesday, and which of my students will need a translation in Spanish -- the possibilities for AI to become my "artificial instructional aidebot" loom larger and larger.

Here are some promising education-specific tools, with some accompanying cautionary tales:

• Toddle.  A learning management system I first discovered at the Aurora Institute 2023 conference, it was the first LMS I've seen that incorporated AI into its platform.  When the LMS has been preloaded with your district/school curriculum, it can leverage this (along with information about your grade level, content taught, etc.) to have very specific results within Toddle itself, which can then be easily exported or incorporated into your classes.  (And Toddle is not unique in its AI upgrade; since I first encountered it, I've seen several more learning platforms add a version of AI to their toolbox.)  It's great to keep your AI generation within the same browser tab as your LMS!  It should be noted, however, that the purchase of Toddle does not automatically include AI, as it is a premium feature (and likely this would be true of other LMS's that add AI as a feature).
• Curipod.  Another AI-powered presentation tool, but more focused on student and teacher usage.   By entering in your prompts, a lesson plan in the form of a multi-slide deck with built-in interactives for students is generated.  The features and the name remind me of Nearpod, and like that platform, a student can join a teacher's live session with a PIN.  There is a limited free account available.
• LitLab.  A tool for creating "AI decodable books" to help primarily with early literacy.  Once perimeters are given, an online book is generated with customizable text and images, which can then be shared with students via its URL.  However, the images, while clearly AI generated, are not very sophisticated, nor are they specifically tied to what is occurring in the text of its particular page.  While currently free (if you nab one of the limited initial seats available), the platform will become a paid service in June 2024.
• Magic School AI is impressive by having a one stop shop approach to AI integration.  You can discuss ideas with Raina the Chatbot, which can then export your result as needed.  Additionally, there are several dozen AI "Magic Tools" that lean into a specific need.  Examples include "Text Leveler," "YouTube Video Questions" (give the video URL, and you can create a custom assessment based on the video's content customized by grade level and number of questions), "Choice Board (UDL)," "Project Based Learning" (create a plan), "Rubric Generator," and much more.  (Again, it should be pointed out that free chatbots can generate many of these outputs, but perhaps without the specificity and convenience this platform can achieve.) While Magic School offers an initial free trial, it does eventually cost to use.

Magic School AI

One of Magic School's "Magic Tools" is an "IEP Generator."  This brings up one of the biggest takeaways and pieces of advice about using AI, regardless of the platform or type: be mindful of what you put into a prompt, and be careful how reverently you treat its output.  To further explore this example, I asked my OVEC colleague and special education teacher Dr. Debbie Mays for her opinion, and Dr. Mays shared some thoughts she and her ECE colleagues have had on using AI for creating an IEP: "We have the concern of confidentiality and information being exposed [when personally identifiable information is inputted into an AI tool]. Also, if AI just considers federal requirements, it may miss the unique state regulations and statutes that do need to be considered and followed. It has to do both, as well as follow district policies and procedures. Finally, the intricacies of an IEP – all the connections and 'threads' that need to be addressed for that specific student throughout the program -- will probably be missed, opening the district to legal ramifications." Ultimately, Dr. Mays gave her personal "thumbs down" on AI-generated IEPs, but acknowledged "there may be ways to use it. The trick is a teacher needs to know how to write an appropriate Individual Education Program. If they don’t know how and need help, they may not know how to fix one either, if AI started one for them."  Again, while applying AI to IEP creation is a very specific use case example, it illustrates the general need for educators to practice discernment.   AI is not infallible, nor is it always "right."

As I wrap up this entry, we can see that the last year has proven the reality of AI is somewhere between an apocalyptic destroyer and consequence-free manna.   In May 2023, the U.S. Office of Educational Technology published "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations." In a brief handout with the paper's core messages, a comparison was made between electronic bikes and robot vacuums.  Robot vacuums may be treated as somewhat independent machines, with a "mind" of their own; such machines may be disruptive in the way that they can substitute for a human completing the task it was designed for, or perhaps more ominously, replace the human worker that was previously needed for such janitorial labor.  However, the OET would assert that it is more accurate to think of artificial intelligence as not our eventual robot overlords, but as an electric bike: "We envision a technologically-enhanced future more like an electric bike and less like robot vacuums. On an electric bike, the human is fully aware and fully in control, but the burden is less, and their effort is multiplied by a complimentary technological enhancement."

From the OET's summary handout of their May 2023 full report.

In the world of our educational future, we should hope to use more artificial intelligence "electronic bikes" for ourselves and for our students.  Let's embrace AI to augment and enhance what makes us human so we can dare to dream, think, make, and create in even more innovative ways, and by doing so, transform the learning experience.

Update 6/15/24:  The website "Explain Like I'm Five" is now Owlift.  I edited the entry in the appropriate spots above.

 

Aurora Institute Symposium 2023

 Last week, my colleague Kathy House and I went to the Aurora Institute Symposium 2023 (#Aurora23).  It's the first Aurora Institute Symposium I've attended in person since a pre-pandemic one in Nashville several years ago when I was still with Shelby County Public Schools. I was so thankful to go, and it was a great conference. In short, it replenished my well to the brim and beyond!  

One of the most unexpected delights of the Symposium happened in the hallway of the convention center.  I was talking to Eliot Levine, the Research Director of Aurora Institute.  We had emailed and Zoomed over the years but hadn't been face to face for a stretch.  Suddenly, a young man who was walking by had stopped to stare at me.  

"Mr. Watson?" he asked.

I took him in.  There was a beard now, but he looked familiar.  Of course I cheated and looked down at his lanyard.  My mind reeled backwards to my classroom teaching from a decade ago.  This young man was a former student of mine. 

"Clay?" I was gobsmacked.  How on earth could a Kentucky high school graduate (who had never expressed the desire to teach), per his lanyard, move to Utah, become a teacher, and now be standing in front of me in Palm Springs, California?  

Eliot graciously yielded the space, and Clay and I quickly caught up.  Turns out that a few years ago, Clay was feeling burnt out in his then career of finance and his wife suggested he teach instead.  As he shared with me, "At first, I thought of all the reasons that teaching wasn't a great choice.  Then, I thought of some teachers that I really loved, the ones who made a difference for me.  What if I could be one of those teachers?  And Mr. Watson, you were one of those teachers."  A few hops later through a job interview, a move to another state, and an alternative certification pathway, Clay and his colleagues are now preparing to open a new school in Utah in fall 2024.  The Symposium was helping the school's staff get ready for their innovative road ahead.

You might not believe in fate or destiny, but while I was staring at this young man in the middle of California, teary eyed, I had to feel that the Spirit of Life had conspired to make us cross paths, and to send a message.  And that message was one that all of us as educators should heed: If you are unsure that the learning you facilitate and the relationships you develop today make an impact, be patient.  Sometimes, seeds you plant may take years, or even decades, to sprout.  

But they sprout.

So, Clay, if you read this, thank you!

Back to the conference.  I was busy posting on social media and taking lots of pictures and notes, so as I was mulling over how best to share my Symposium journey, I decided to utilize Wakelet and curate a multimedia collection to put on Edtech Elixirs.  You can click here or view it embedded below.  

As I wrap up this entry, THANK YOU to all the presenters and facilitators, particularly the several Kentucky friends you'll see in the Wakelet.  I can't wait to go back to the Symposium next year.  Mark November 4-6, 2024 in New Orleans down on your calendar!

Gen Con 2023

When I first began playing tabletop role-playing games in the mid-1980's, I read about Gen Con.  It seemed a faraway and magical gathering where attendees played games for hours with their fellow enthusiastic fans, and vendors offered previews of upcoming releases while also giving away swag.  Gen Con was officially started in 1968 by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax and had humble beginnings in legion halls and university campuses; it took several years for it to become a multi-day event that topped 1000 attendees.  By 1985, Gen Con made its first move to a Milwaukee convention center and had around 5,000 participate, but that was just the start of its runaway train of growth.  Gen Con moved to its current home in Indianapolis in 2003 with a pre-pandemic high watermark record of around 70,000 attendees in 2019.   That's a long winded way of saying that Gen Con is a big deal that earns its moniker of "The Best Four Days in Gaming."  But like many things of youth, attending Gen Con seemed to be a fever dream that faded over time.  I convinced myself that I needed a practical, pragmatic, or professional reason to go, which seemed unlikely.

Then in early spring of 2022, I heard for the first time about Trade Day. Considering that I had just started KyEdRPG last summer, it felt like fate. 

Trade Day is Gen Con's "day zero" on the Wednesday before its official four day launch on Thursday.  It is open only to vendors, educators, and librarians, and includes hourly sessions on the intersection of education and gaming.  (Your Trade Day badge also gives you a pass for the rest of the four day convention.)  Trade Day was my opportunity to fulfill a long-delayed quest, a way to learn from other educators who are using game-based learning, and a unique chance to celebrate KyEdRPG's first year anniversary.  

To say that Gen Con filled me with knowledge, ideas and joy would be an understatement.   I wanted to capture here some highlights.

Trade Day Sessions

Like many education conferences, I got some golden nuggets throughout Trade Day, but I wanted to mention three memorable sessions in particular. 

Playful Learning: How Board Game Stores, Schools and Libraries Can Collaborate to Benefit Children

Jamie Mathy -- owner of Red Raccoon Games in Bloomington, IL and married to a fourth grade teacher! -- gave an excellent keynote address.  He is clearly passionate about issues of equity, starting with his belief that "Everyone should have a safe place to play games."   He sees the fastest growing segment of gamers is high school girls playing D & D, which as a father of two daughters, makes me happy! Mathy had many ideas for how a game store can work better with a school, including:

• As educators reach out to a store and need to purchase games for extracurricular clubs or events, have ready some pre-packaged "tiers" of starter sets at various price levels, depending on the school's budget.
• Coordinate with event schedulers as far in advance as possible, especially for public libraries.
• Have small giveaways for students who complete reading programs.  Mathy talked about having an aquarium full of inexpensive polyhedron dice where students are allowed to pull out two.  Costwise, it is a modest investment for him: barely .15 a student.
• Offer staff as volunteers to help run gaming events.
• Create coupons that a school can give away for a percentage off a single item, with a small percentage of the coupon sales going back to the school.  (A variation of this is a percentage of sales on a certain night or weekend going back to the school for those that mention the school's name, similar to how schools use "pizza nights" as fundraisers.)  Of course, this is good promotion for the store as well.
• Have a social media partnership.  A store can repost the gaming events/opportunities at the school to help it spread the word, with the hope that the educators can do the same for the special events of their game store community partner.
• Host in-store opportunities to "teach the teacher" how to play popular and just released games.
• Mathy fairly pointed out that while stores may occasionally be able to donate materials or offer significant discounts, they are still a business and can't give everything away for free all of the time.  It's a reminder that educators need to respectfully consider the type and amount of requests they make, not assume generosity is a blank check that lasts indefinitely, and to honor their side of developing an ongoing relationship with a store in finding ways to pay it forward.
• Try to create legacy programs with schools that deepen and enrich (in both learning and financial ways!) over time.  Having a relationship with a "teacher champion" of game-based learning is likely the key to start, but teachers also can come and go.  Find ways to keep in touch with multiple levels of school leadership and community (the admin, the PTA, etc.) and keep telling the story of your mutually beneficial partnership.

Gaming in Libraries:  Bridging the Gap

Clare O'Tsuji is a public librarian with the Kent District in Michigan.   Her presentation was chock full of statistics and research on the power of game-based learning, particularly on literacy. Firstly, she reminded me about Marc Prensky's work on the positive impact of games and play on learning -- namely, that playing games reduces stress and increase productivity.  O'Tsuji emphasized that effective gaming program in libraries -- and connected learning in general -- need to build relationships (teacher-student as well as peer to peer), incorporate student interests, and provide opportunities where educators can enrich and deepen learning via those interests and relationships.  (One relationship-building tip: sit beside students and learn a new game together.)  Lastly, I loved how O'Tsuji framed key literacy elements as "discussion, joy, and cooperation," all of which gaming naturally integrates. 

Creating a RPG Summer Camp

I admit I have bias when I say that my favorite session came from Tom Gross and Dan Reem, high school educators from Illinois.  (Tom and Dan host the Teachers in the Dungeon podcast of which I was a recent guest, and this Gen Con was our first opportunity to meet face to face!)  But Dan and Tom's session on their annual summer roleplaying game camp was full of pragmatic advice, as well as generous resources (including an example day-by-day schedule!) of how to effectively start up and facilitate such a camp at your own school.  Dan and Tom's camp now runs four days long with the number of participants almost doubling every year.  Here are some highlights from what they shared:

• Understand your "why" of having a RPG camp, and create a list of your camp non-negotiables.  Dan and Tom's non-negotiables include using recent alumni and game club members to help facilitate camp attendee groups as their "dungeon masters," giving students time to learn and develop skills as well as play a multi-day continuous story, and introducing students to hobbies and careers adjacent to roleplaying games (such as dice making, comic book art creation, and miniature figure painting).
• Invite other educator colleagues to come by the camp, especially from the school admin and your district central office.  Seeing in person the positive learning culture, the development of literacy, and the students' practicing of durable skills will go a long way to earn support against skeptics who may think roleplaying games are frivolous and non-educational.
• Catch a student "doing good" (for example, being helpful and inclusive to another student) and reward them with a ticket that can be used in drawings for door prizes at the end of each day and/or the whole camp.
• Reach out to community partners early, to better ensure their ability to participate or donate.
• Reciprocate in your partnership with community members, particularly those that donate materials, volunteer time, or offer something at a discount.  Help publicize and celebrate their willingness to help. (This is a great echo of what Jamie Mathy said in his keynote!)
• A student registration fee can help a student put "skin in the game" and be more likely to honor their camp commitment (Dan and Tom ask for $30), as well as help offset your expenses. But don't let fees be a barrier to students who might have a financial hardship.  Offer camp scholarships.
• Reflect on how the camp went as soon as it is over in order to find ways to improve it for next time, as well as celebrate your well-earned success stories -- in particular, capturing anecdotes about students who may have surprised you with how much they matured or rose to leadership levels.  (On that very subject, Dan and Tom published a podcast episode after every day of this year's summer camp; the first episode of the series is here [15:38]).

Among many delights and tips that Dan (right, standing) and Tom (left at podium) shared was a highlight reel of students reflecting on their RPG camp experience.  If there is any doubt in the power of TTRPGs on learning, these student voices would convince you otherwise.

Gen Con Vendors

From the Trade Day Demo Night to the massive exhibit hall itself, I marveled at many a game, accessory and piece of art.  For the sake of this blog entry, I'll limit myself to highlighting some items that have educational potential, both as extracurricular and in-classroom opportunities.

• 9th Level Games has a "Polymorph" TTRPG (tabletop roleplaying game) system that is significantly simplified and socially inclusive. This, combined with their various thin pocket rulebooks, makes for compelling game options for younger students.  For example, The Excellents is a princess-themed RPG that could work well with upper elementary and middle school students.
• Alexandria RPG Library is based in Seattle and is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization.  They have amassed a collection of thousands of RPG rulebooks and boxsets going back decades, which they often curate and exhibit around the country.  Their online database may serve as a resource for teachers or students researching the history of tabletop roleplaying games, but their website may also be the start of some inquiry-based learning: What can the history of role-playing games tell us about a culture over time?  How do various gaming systems create mathematical balance to ensure fair playability?  In what ways are RPGs inclusive and exclusive (lack of translated materials, accessibility concerns, cultural insensitivities, etc.), and how can we make RPGs more inclusive?  How can a roleplaying game charity positively impact a local or global community, and how can we help increase that impact?
• Columbia Games has (among other historical options) The Last Spike, a board game about the expansion of railroads across the United States in the 1800's.   Even more helpful is their teacher resources to go with the game.
• Metal Weave Games probably deserves a shoutout just for their adorable Owlbear plushes, but for educational purposes, I want to highlight their Baby Bestiary Companion Rules supplement.  The book uses D&D fifth edition rules, and shows how to incorporate a character rescuing and raising a newborn fantasy monster.  This could be a way to bring in younger players into a roleplaying game experience that doesn't necessarily involve fighting and battles.
• Nations & Cannons is a newer TTRPG that would be perfect for a secondary social studies class.  Using the D&D fifth edition rules, players can create characters set during the American Revolutionary War.  From a local standpoint, I was particularly excited to hear they are working on a supplement that includes Kentucky's Fort Boonesborough!  There's plenty of game material to peruse on their website, as well as some educator opportunities to explore.  
• Oddfish Games has some items that are just plain fun, including a guidebook on How to RPG with Your Cat.  But they also have products that could inspire some educational integration.  Their line of Adventure Scents could not only add to the ambiance of a roleplaying game journey, but could also increase the immersive experiences during a readaloud of a story, be the kickoff (whiff-off??) of a descriptive writing piece, or amplify a "you are there" moment of history.  Oddfish also publishes Cooking with Dice: The Acid Test, which could gamify a culinary arts unit or even the entire course.
• Rowan, Rook and Decard, who describe their company as "strange games for curious people," have made dozens of one page RPGs.  These games obviously have very light rulesets which make them extremely playable when you have limited time or need something that won't overwhelm students with too much complexity, factors that are often the case in school settings.  While some of their RPGs lean toward darker themes with adult language, they do have a collection of ten one-page roleplaying games for younger players.
• Treasure Falls Games is about to release The Quest Kids: Giant Adventure.  In their words, it is a "life-sized fantasy game experience" with a simplified rule set geared toward students kindergarten age and up.  Large durable tiles are placed on the ground, and students are to choose a pathway from one tile to the next while overcoming challenges and collecting tokens along the way.  There is a kinesthetic aspect about the game I find intriguing!  This might be a good alternative activity for an elementary PE class, or even as a way to do a creative indoor recess.

In closing, I have to compliment the camaraderie I experienced at Gen Con, which was truly moving.  From nearly every attendee and vendor I met or literally bumped shoulders with, I encountered endless permutations of kindness and generosity.  If by chance some of those new friends read this entry, thank you for your willingness to welcome me as a new member of the Gen Con community.   I certainly hope to return!

Figjam

While I didn't attend ISTE 2023 in person last month, I watched the social media about it from afar.  One tool that came up repeatedly was Figjam.  The enthusiasm I read about it encouraged me to try it out for myself.  The result was endless grinning and multiple Keanu Reeves-like "Whoa's" as I played around with it.  Figjam is basically a browser-based collaborative whiteboard tool, but considering the possibilities and the joy it sparked for me, that somehow feels reductive.  My hope today is to convey that joy of possibilities to you.

First, a clarification.  Figjam is technically a program that has emerged fairly recently, but it's actually part of Figma, a popular industry-standard design tool that's been around for years and used by the world's top corporations and designers.  In order to use Figjam, you must create a Figma account, and that ends up giving you access to both tools.  Figma is a powerful program with some features that overlap with Figjam.  Figma is certainly worthy of its own blog entry -- and there are teachers and students who are definitely using it! -- but in my limited time of playing with it, I found the learning curve to be a bit steeper, and its application seems limited to product-oriented projects that may require designing and prototyping.  On the other hand, Figjam feels user-friendly right out of the box, and has the potential to be used by educators and students for learning on a much more frequent basis.

Strap yourselves in, because I'm about to make a new Edtech Elixirs world record for most screenshots in a single blog entry!

How does it work?

As you sign up (using your Google account is my recommended option), there is a process where you verify your educator status.  This takes a minute, but totally worth it, as you will get the full enterprise edition of Figjam (and Figma!) for free.  Let me repeat that: even if you were willing to pay something, there are no other premium features, because as a teacher or student you get the whole ball of wax at no charge.  A round of well-deserved applause for Figma's patronage to education!

Once you are logged in, your home screen will present you with several options, including opening up a previous Figjam board, making a board from scratch, or starting with a template.

This is what your home screen looks like if you're looking at your "Recent" files (see the upper left).

Let's jump right away to discussing Figjam's templates.  The bench is deep on this one.  In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a web tool that has so many useful pre-made models.  Within sixty seconds you could conceivably launch a learning activity with students.  While there is a whole template category "for the classroom," the other categories give you an idea of how versatile Figjam can be for brainstorming, having a meeting, planning a project, and more.

You will likely find value in using a Figjam by yourself, but why be lonely?  It really comes alive when collaborating with others.  While you could create Teams with students or colleagues for ongoing work on particular Figjam boards, I love how you can also open up a board to anyone for 24 hours and they don't even need a Figma account.  If you can give someone the URL, they can join you and work on the board in real time.  (Here's a timecoded link to a video showing how sharing works; it's at the 17:25 mark.)

By simply hitting "Start" and "Copy link," your students, colleagues or PD attendees could be seconds away from joining you in a "jam session." Note that similar to Google Docs, you can also limit a board's viewing or editing to specific people.

The interactivity of Figjam is user-friendly and straightforward, mainly centered around its toolbar at the bottom of the screen.  You can participate in multiple ways, such as drawing, inserting shapes or sticky notes, making line connectors between elements, using stamps and emotes, and more.  There are also some clever "widgets" available to use.  You are even able to have an audio chat with others in the Figjam board, which can make it an alternative teleconference-style meeting.

An annotated Figjam toolbar, slightly edited from the original found in the "Figjam 101 Overview for Education" Template...yet another aspect of Figjam that I appreciate, which is how many Templates they have that also function as tutorials.

Voice Memo (allowing you to record your voice for up to 30 seconds) and Photo Booth (which uses your webcam to take a selfie) are two particularly useful (and fun!) widgets to put on a board.

As a facilitator of the board, you'll enjoy the built-in timer in the upper left of the screen, as well as the opportunity to play some ambient music.  This can be particularly useful when participants have some work time for a portion of your live session before coming back as a whole group.

Here are some helpful shortcuts and tips that participants can use inside Figjam:

• E for Emotes/Stamps.  
• Tip: While in the Emotes/Stamp wheel, click once on a stamp choice so you can stamp with it multiple times.  You can also hold down you mouse to grow the stamp bigger and bigger until you release it on the whiteboard.
• S for a sticky note.
• X for connectors, and drag cursor to where you want arrow to stop.
• / to open a cursor chat for live interaction (not to be confused with making a more permanent text comment).
• Tip: be mindful when you are in "pointer mode" (which means you can select and move elements around on your board -- perhaps unintentionally!) and when you are in "hand" mode, which allows you to move the entire board around in order to navigate.  Until you get used to this, you may be using Edit>Undo a lot.
• Hold H and move cursor for waving your hand at other participants.  Then they can give you a high five!
• Tip: Copy and paste a URL into a Figjam to create an embedded website or YouTube link.  (This works for Google Docs too!)
• Tip: If logged into the platform on your browser, go to figjam.new in a new tab to quickly make a brand new board with some simple template options on the left side.

The landing page when you go to figjam.new. Note the quick template options on your left.

What if you want to share your board with others outside the platform, or want to save a "snapshot" of the Figjam for archiving your current progress?  You can export the board as a PNG, JPG, or a PDF, either in its entirety or just a selected portion.

Another excerpt from the "Figjam 101 Overview for Education" Template.

Here's a short overview video of some of the basic collaborative features of a Figjam board (2:48):

How could you use it?

I've threaded some examples of use throughout the narrative above; if you're stuck for ideas, check out the massive list of different templates available!  But I'll add a few more.  Figjam can be a powerful way of making thinking visible for learners, as well as providing a wonderful digital space for collaboration and planning.  Additionally, a person could use Figjam as an alternative presentation tool, either in person or as a shared screen in a teleconference -- you could set up its sections in advance and zoom in, out and move as appropriate to highlight the next part, as well as explore an image, play a video, or visit a website.  Lastly, because of its export feature, both teachers and students might use Figjam as a designer tool for handouts, logos, and other graphics. 

Downsides?

You know you're struggling to find fault when the worst thing you can come up with as a downside is the number of questions you have to answer when signing up in order to validate that you are an educator. It's really remarkable how much Figjam can do, and all at the cost of zero point zero zero dollars.

I hope that you try out Figjam with your students soon.   If you do, leave your story on how you used it in the Comments below.  Now go out there and get Figjamming!

Editor's note 11/19/24:  Figjam now allows you to lock down elements of your board -- whole sections! -- which can prevent users with editing access from accidentally moving parts around that they shouldn't.  See the following tweet:

This is a gamechanger! By locking a section, all of the elements contained in it can't be edited or moved. That includes all user additions up to that point (comments, post-its, etc.). However, NEW comments, sticky notes etc can be added "on top." #KYDLC #EdTech https://t.co/mJ6NrjhiRW

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) November 19, 2024

I've joined Threads!

It's not every day that a new social media explodes into the mainstream -- but here we are, and I have just joined Threads, part of the Meta family (Instagram, Facebook, etc.).  In fact, in your app store, you'll see Threads labeled as "an Instagram app," which gives it some great advantages while also creating some nagging issues to overcome; more on that in a moment.

https://www.threads.net/@watsonedtech

Over the last year, In the wake of some turbulence in the land of the bluebird app, I have briefly flirted with some other social media tools.  But Threads is by far the only one that I have liked right out of the gate. The user interface is clean and intuitive, and signing up takes seconds (assuming you have an Instagram account). There's a lot of potential in the tool and I can understand why it's gotten so popular within just a few days of its launch -- over 70 million subscribers and counting! There seems to be a lot of positive energy in Threads, especially among educators. Another bonus in a new social media like Threads is the chance to clear your feed -- things look a lot different when following dozens of people as opposed to thousands. You might use Threads to follow key individuals and friends instead of all the companies and celebrities you may have accumulated over the years on other platforms.

Besides the typical Like, Comment and Repost buttons, Share has a few features including....Tweeting your post.  Threads, you have swagger. 

Here are some of my quick observations about Threads. (Fair warning: such a new app is likely beta testing new features as we speak, so it's highly likely it will look different even a month from now.)

• You need an Instagram account to sign up.  There's no way to get Threads without one. I find that strange, since you could conceivably, say, make a Facebook account without an Instagram account. From Meta's perspective, I suppose this is a shrewd way to keep you deeper in its family.
• The New York Times reported on Threads in their 7/9/23 morning email newsletter, and among other things, pointed out that you cannot delete your Threads account without deleting your connected Instagram account. I did see where you can "deactivate profile" in the app's settings, but NYT is correct about true account deletion.
• Once you create a Threads account, your Instagram profile will show a "button" allowing you to go to the person's Threads account. (Your Threads profile also has a button that leads back to your IG.) That is both convenient and likely some savvy tool cross-promotion. Interestingly, this button indicates what number subscriber you are -- I signed up as Threads apparently crossed the 73 million mark.
• If you want multiple Threads accounts, you'll need multiple IG accounts, which is a bit trickier than it sounds. The Threads app currently has no way to easily switch between accounts, like you can on Instagram, nor can you see that you may have notifications on one account while logged in as another.  However, on Threads, you can sign out of your current profile and sign in as another one.  (After creating my initial Threads profile, signing out/signing in is also how I created a second Threads profile, but this assumes you are logged into your device's Instagram app with two or more IG accounts.)
• While you can look at a Threads profile online (such as my link above shows), you can only view the person's posts. You can't log into your own account or post via a browser or see any notifications -- you can only do those things via your mobile app.
• You can Like a post, but as of yet there is no way to look at all the posts you Liked or make a Bookmark list like you can on Twitter. To be fair, however, this is similar to how Instagram currently works.
• You can attach a picture from your device's photo gallery to your post, but there is no other media functions built into Threads. Apparently if a video is in your gallery you could conceivably post it, although I haven't yet tried nor have I seen others do so yet. The only way to insert something like an animated GIF is through your device's keyboard.
• There is no (hash)tagging system in Threads, or any other structure that allows you to only follow or look up certain topics. My gut tells me this will be the next big upgrade for Threads, but for now, you are basically stuck just watching your feed based on who you follow, with your only search ability in looking up other people's accounts.
• I need to know the verbs. Are we Threading on Threads? Do I post a Thread on Threads? Is it a repost or a Rethread? If I tweet on Twitter, do I Threed on Threads?

I'm not giving up on Twitter yet, but I definitely will keep playing around on Threads and hope to bump into you over there!

Edit 7/9/23: A whole whirlwind of findings meant I needed to already update this post. I added new info about your options for deactivating or deleting your Threads account, what it takes to switch or add additional Threads profiles, the current limit of looking up your Liked posts, and a better understanding of posting videos.

A republished blog entry with Aurora Institute, and a podcast appearance!

Today will be a short blog entry just to highlight some recent multimedia appearances.

Back in January 2022, I wrote "From Good to Great, Initial to Ideal: A Way to Improve Exhibitions and Other Performance Assessments."  CompetencyWorks (the blogging arm of Aurora Institute) felt my piece fit thematically with some other current work in the field of innovative education and in blog entries they have been recently writing, and therefore republished it on May 15.  Special thanks to Laurie Gagnon, the CompetencyWorks Director, for thinking of me and sharing my writing!

This school year, I've spent some time and Edtech Elixirs space on the intersection of tabletop role-playing games and education, starting with my launch of Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games in August 2022.  I've been humbled, flattered, and honored for opportunities to talk about KyEdRPG in Kentucky Teacher, a television episode of Kentucky Edition, and an article for Next Generation Learning Challenges.   The latest adventure involves Tom Gross and Dan Reem's podcast Teachers in the Dungeon, where they had me on as a guest for their May 16 episode.

I had a lot of fun talking with Dan and Tom, and special thanks to both of them for having me on. I hope you give the episode a listen (42 minutes, if you need to plan accordingly!), and while you're at it, subscribe to their excellent series, available on multiple podcast platforms.  

As the school year wraps up, my fervent wish for all the educators out there is to have a chance to catch their breath, spend time with family and friends, and recharge their batteries.  Enjoy a much needed rest!

A shoutout for yellkey

Have you ever been in a situation where you need to share files or folders or websites and you don't have the time or the shared virtual space (like a Google Classroom) to easily do so?  The challenge is compounded when using Google Docs and their very complicated and long URLs.  There are, of course, custom URL shorteners available.  To take a popular example, bit.ly allows you to customize the shortened link to more "natural language."  The effort of making a bit.ly is worth it if you plan to use that shortcut often, or at least more than just the one day and the one session.  By creating an account with bit.ly, you can also find shortcuts you made in the past, if you need to revisit them.  

Here's a helpful tip: putting the bit.ly at the bottom of every slide in a presentation helps answer the eventual “What’s the bit.ly again??” question that you’ll face repeatedly while facilitating a PD or leading instruction.  

However, bit.ly and other shortener tools can be cumbersome.  You usually have to create an account and log in, it takes several clicks to make and customize a link, and the effort may seem more than what it's worth for a "just in time" sharing situation or for a temporary learning context. 

Several years ago, I found out about yellkey.com and it changed my facilitation life!  (Note that all lower case is how the tool presents itself.) The fact that I still don't see many others using it or knowing about it seems a shame, and that's what led to today's blog entry.

Here are some key reasons why I'm yelling about yellkey:

• It's free!
• It’s perfect for what I’d call “disposable shortcuts” in front of a live audience.  It’s when you need a shortened link to something that matters for the session at the moment, but no one will urgently need to access later today or tomorrow.
• It is super user friendly.  You can make one in a few seconds without any account creation.  I’ve made one on the fly before in the middle of a PD. Simply paste the URL from your original site, choose the time frame (see the last bullet), and click the site button to generate the yellkey shortcut.
• The yellkey shortcut is in natural language with a single common word after the yellkey.com/ forward slash – so you'll have none of the typo-causing “make sure you capitalize the second letter” or similar user error issues.
• The common word is autogenerated, so it's a time saver in two ways over other URL shorteners - you won't have to creatively come up with something, nor will you have to deal with your initial choices being rejected as "already taken."
• It has a built-in expiration that you set…as little as 5 minutes, as long as 1 day.   Perfect for, say, a sign-in Google Form at the start of a PD that no one should or would be completing later.

The only downside:  the shortcuts eventually get recycled after they expire.  So it’s highly likely that the same yellkey shortcut you use today will point to somewhere else in the near future.  When I've inserted a yellkey in a Slide for a live presentation, I usually go back and remove it afterward, lest anyone see it a week later and try to use it or share it with others.

"What about QR codes?" you might ask.  I'm a fan, and they can definitely be another way to quickly get participants to an online place.  However, there are two complications about QR codes worth mentioning.  The first is that a phone is the quick and obvious way most people read a QR code, but if you can depend on the participants having laptops, you may be providing a shortcut on the wrong device for the work at hand; consider what you are asking the person to do once they arrive to the URL.  (Watching a video or signing in for a PD may be easy on my phone, but I prefer typing up long survey answers or interacting with Google Docs on my laptop.)  The second is that people often forget that the density and complexity of the blocky imagery of a QR code is directly related to the length of the URL.  That's why something like a Google Doc produces a QR Code that participants often struggle to get their phone to read.  You could app smash and use a shortener for the URL and then create a QR code from the shortened URL, but you're increasing your steps. Of course, there is a "yes, and" approach - you could display both a QR code and a URL shortener like yellkey.

While this blog entry mainly contextualizes yellkey around its usefulness to a PD facilitator, it has classroom implications as well.  For example, a teacher might find it easier to share a site or Doc with students using yellkey than all the steps necessary to share something via a LMS platform message. Compare the steps necessary for a student to quickly share something with a classmate with yellkey versus the process of making an email, sending it, the receiver getting to their inbox, etc.

Yellkey is not a dramatic or complex tool, but it excels in making the sharing of URLs faster and easier!