Citation Needed: AI Tools that Provide Sources

Although artificial intelligence can be a great benefit for educators and students, there are also valid concerns that schools need to consider and address (see https://bit.ly/curts-aimisuse for more details).

One of those concerns is the possibility for AI to produce content that is incorrect. In short, AI can make mistakes.

When discussing this with schools, I usually recommend several ideas to help address this concern:

• Educate students on the potential for misinformation
• Encourage critical thinking and skepticism among students
• Use multiple chat tools to get a variety of responses
• Improve the initial prompt to get more accurate responses
• Ask follow-up questions to expand information and perspectives
• Use tools that help check and verify information

For this blog post I am going to take a closer look at the final suggestion listed above - "Use tools that help check and verify information". Thankfully there are many AI tools that assist with fact checking or can provide sources you can use to learn more and verify the information.

See below for details on five suggested AI tools and how they can be used to help address potential inaccuracies. I have also included details for the free versions of each of these tools. 

Be sure to explore all of my AI resources at https://www.controlaltachieve.com/ai and as always I would love to hear your ideas, recommendations, and questions.

EdTech Links of the Week - 10-17-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Back-To-School AI Webinar Recording

Last month I was honored to be on the panel for a "Back-To-School AI Webinar".

Dan Fitzpatrick, a leading voice in AI for education, organized a panel of educators to share some of their favorite AI tools and ideas to help kick off a new school year. The panel included:

• Sabba Quidwai, the CEO of Designing Schools from California
• Jason Gulya, an English professor at Berkeley College from New Jersey
• Aileen Wallace, a high school teacher from Scotland
• Matthew Wemyss, a school leader from Romania
• And me!

For my portion of the webinar I shared about Brisk Teaching and how educators can use it to easily:

• Create content such as a quiz, lesson plan, slideshow, etc.
• Generate feedback on student writing
• Change reading level and language of articles and documents
• Monitor student writing process
• Create student AI chatbots for learning activities

See below to watch the recording of the webinar. I hope you pick up some great ideas!

Creating Soundboards with Google Slides for Stories, Games and More

How can you bring some extra life into your class activities, discussions, and games? Ding, Ding, Ding! Yes, that's right, with your own custom soundboard.

A soundboard can be used in your class for many purposes:

• It could provide fun sound effects for class games, quizzes, and competitions.
• You could use the soundboard for audio cues for classroom transitions, such as indicating when time's up, or students need to clear their desks, or switch groups, or such.
• The soundboard could be used while you are reading a story out loud to your students, to bring the story to life with sounds from the story content.
• You could use the sounds to support and reinforce content being taught in class.
• If you or your students are recording podcasts and videos, a soundboard can be used to for effects and transitions while recording.
• And more!

There are certainly lots of options for classroom soundboards, but one free and easy tool for this is Google Slides. With Google Slides you can create your own custom soundboard with audio that you have recorded or downloaded from free audio sites.

See below for details on how to do this. You will find a 21-minute video I did for MoteCon24 where I go through all the steps, as well as links to my associated resource document, session slideshow, sample soundboard, and more.

My 2024 ITIP Ohio Google Summit Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again be presenting at the ITIP Ohio Google Summit at the Kalahari Resort and Conference Center in Sandusky, Ohio this October 28th and 29th, 2024. This year the conference is hybrid, with an in-person or virtual registration option.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can learn more about the conference at: itipohio.org/google-conference-2024

You can also view the full conference schedule and register for the conference.

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at the ITIP Ohio Google Summit, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

EdTech Links of the Week - 10-10-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Upcoming Webinar - Cyber Assist: Using AI as Your Teaching Assistant

I am excited to be providing a free webinar for the OETC Postscript Series on "Cyber Assist: Using AI as Your Teaching Assistant".

OETC (the Ohio Educational Technology Conference) is offering these "postscript" sessions as a way to keep the learning going throughout the year as we head toward the next conference in February.

Here are the details on my OETC Postscript webinar:

• October 16th from 4-5 p.m. (Eastern Time)
• Cyber Assist: Using AI as Your Teaching Assistant
• It has been said that with generative AI, every educator now has their own personal 24-hour assistant. Learn how to use tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Brisk Teaching, EnlightenAI, QuestionWell, MagicSchoolAI, Khanmigo, Diffit and more to help you generate presentations, create lessons, write emails, provide feedback and much more. Save more time so you can spend more time impacting students!
• Register for free here - Registration link 

Anyone is welcome to attend the live webinar. Feel free to share with others and I look forward to learning with you!