Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 185 called How to Teach Students about AI. Have you ever tried to teach your students about AI, what it is, and what role it can serve in education and their future lives? This is a tall task and in this episode, we’ll discuss how we go about this complex process. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

For years now we’ve been involved in trying to get our district to adopt a formal AI policy. Now that this is happening, we’re being asked to put together an education program for students.

• What is AI?
• What can it do? What can’t it do?
• How can it be used to benefit you while in school? In your future lives?
• How can it hurt you in school? In your future lives?

What is AI?

• Ask students what they think AI is? Share their thoughts in a digital space like Padlet. Facilitate some discussion.
• Show a video that explains what it REALLY is. There are tons of good ones, here are a couple we like
• For older students: https://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_suleyman_what_is_an_ai_anyway
• For younger students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttIOdAdQaUE

What can AI do?

• Choose an AI tool to demo (we use ChatGPT). Show three prompts:
• A bad prompt, something very vague that gives a general and bland response.
• A better prompt, something that includes lots of detail and specific requests. Show that this yields a much better response from the AI tool.
• A prompt that gets untrue results. Students need to know that AI tools can give incorrect information, sometimes that it just “makes up” due to lack of other information.
• ACTIVITY: Have students play with prompts: Ask them to try a bad, vague prompt on purpose. Then ask them to try it again but with more specificity, comparing the results. They share out what they...

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 184 called 10 Project Ideas for Students to Show Mastery. In this episode, we’ll discuss some of our favorite project ideas that you can use in your classroom to check for student mastery. Of course we’ll share some of our favorite edtech and AI tools along the way. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

How has checking for mastery in education changed over the past 10 years?

1. Infographics
2. Visme
3. Canva
4. thinglink
5. Posters/Memes Poster/Calendar
6. Canva
7. Adobe Express
8. Snappa
9. Pixlr
10. VistaCreate
11. Timelines
12. Thinglink
13. Online Timeline Maker
14. Canva
15. Timeline YouTube Video
16. Choose Your Own Adventure
17. Google Slides
18. Canva
19. Student Made...

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 183 called 8 Great Edtech Tools for Literacy. In this episode, we’ll discuss some of our favorite websites for enhancing literacy in your classroom. We’ll also take another look at an AMAZING new feature in google notebook lm. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

Guises mind is blown

n over notebook lm’s new feature

1. No Red Ink lessons
2. Maps.com. Not a literacy site, but these are some cool maps and would make for great writing prompts.
3. Diffit Books, How it works: Select “Books” on the Diffit homepage, Choose your book and chapters, Get student-ready resources! We’re rolling this feature out to all schools over the next few weeks, but your access is live now as an admin on your Diffit account. Test it out and let your teachers know it's coming to their accounts soon!
4. ESL BITS: Wide selection of audio books and text. The sole purpose of this site is to help students improve their listening and reading comprehension of the English language.'BITS English Language Learning' is completely non-profit; it sells nothing, advertises nothing, and asks for nothing."BITS" is an online-only site. No links for downloading items are available and none will ever be provided. Skip is wholly responsible for this site and has all the credit or all the blame as the case may be.
5. Write the World: A nonprofit dedicated to developing teenagers’ writing and critical thinking skills. We empower young writers to become global citizens and succeed in school, career, and life.
6. NYT Writing Prompts
7. Wonderopolis Writing Prompts
8. DeepSeek AI Article

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 182 called, “Using Edtech and AI to Personalize the Classroom” In this episode, we’ll talk about how edtech an AI can personalize both your classroom physical space AND content creation and delivery. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

Narrative: With all the AI and the COVID days behind us, have we lost the focus of personalizing learning for students in the classroom?

How can we use Edtech/AI to personalize the physical appearance of the classroom to be a more inviting place to learn?

• Interest-Driven Decor:
• Survey students about their favorite movies, games, and hobbies using tools like Google Forms or Mentimeter.
• Use the results to create themed areas, posters, or bulletin boards that reflect their interests.
• Digital Displays:
• Incorporate smart displays or projectors (e.g., Promethean boards) to showcase rotating slideshows of student artwork, photos, or inspirational quotes.
• Use Canva templates to make slides visually appealing and personalized.
• Interactive Wall Art:
• Use AR tools like QuiverVision to create augmented reality wall displays. Students can scan wall art to see animations or interact with digital layers.
• Mood Lighting:
• Integrate smart lighting systems to adjust classroom lighting based on the mood or theme of the lesson.
• Collaborative Space Design:
• Use Edtech tools like RoomSketcher to co-create the classroom layout with students. Allow them to choose...

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 181 called, “Educational AI Hub Breakdown” In this episode, we’ll compare and analyze the mega-AI hubs that are competing for every teacher's attention. By the end, you’ll know which ones we think are actually worth your time. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

Narrative: Holy Hubs

What are AI Hubs?

• We are using the term “hub” a little incorrectly here. An AI hub is a thing in the tech space where AI models can be trained.
• When we say hub, we mean AI platforms or workspaces that do LOTS of different teacher related things
• Most of these use ChatGPT or something similar in the background. For example, let’s say you wanted to write a lesson plan … you could get the same results if you just went to ChatGPT and put in a very specific prompt, but Magic School’s lesson plan generator has done that for you.
• Also, Khanmigo uses GPT, but it has been specifically trained on the videos and resources held by Khan Academy.

What are the big ones?

• Magic School
• Some free, some paid
• Khanmigo
• All free for teachers
• Eduaid
• Pay for pro features
• Teachershub.ai
• Free for teachers but they do list limits, no other pricing there
• Teach Mate
• For the Brits! Some for free, £6.99 per month and goes up from there
• MIT Sloane
• Can’t find a price
• Theres an AI for That
• ***

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 180 called, “Edtech Hot Topics, Tech Tools, and Resources Heading into 2025” In this episode, we’ll wrap up 2024 by taking a look what is hot in educational technology right now as we start a new year. We’ll also share of the tools and resources we’re most excited about for 2025. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

Narrative: Edtech Throwdown Traditional Episode

• Where are we with AI?
• AI pushback - are you still seeing it? Do you have it?
• Is the standard edtech tool without AI dead?

• Guise
• Snorkl
• NotebookLM
• Nick
• Padlet Sandbox
• Khanmigo

• Steph and Joe on the go
• Canva’s free teaching resources

1. NotebookLM Podcast
2. Make Memojis in Canva
3. How-to Guides w/ Tango
4. Top 10 Canva Apps
5. Accessibility Tools For Teachers
6. Canva Guide for Administrators
7. AI Edtech Toolkit
8. Make a Customized Song with Suno
9. Auto-Feedback with Snorkl Student View
10. Teacher Dashboard in Snorkl
11. Set the Tone with Goblin Tools
12. Connecting Google Drive with Canva
13. AI Prompt Library for EDU
14. 3 Wheel of Names Resources

Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 179 called, “How Can Teachers Use Google Lens in the Classroom” In this episode, we’ll talk about Google Lens, what it is, how to use it, and best of all - ways that it can support learning and make your teaching life easier. This is another episode you don’t want to miss. Check it out.

Narrative: Google Lens does what?

Google Lens is a visual search tool that uses image recognition to understand what you're looking at and provide relevant information.

1. Identifying items: Students can use Google Lens to find names for items they encounter, such as plants or archaeological sites.
2. Biology Outdoor Classroom
3. Solving math problems: Google Lens can help math learners solve problems and understand key conception
4. Teacher Assistant when the teacher isn’t around
5. Getting help with homework: Students can point the Lens at a homework question to get help.
6. Taking notes: Google Lens can capture images, texts, bar codes, and QR codes, which can be transferred to a file for future reference.
7. Getting synopses: Students can point the Lens towards a book cover to get a synopsis.
8. Image search and product search: find images and items similar to the ones you’ve provided.
9. Scanning QR Codes from a computer screen

Special Education Uses:

1. Reading: Google Lens can convert text images into readable text, which can be helpful for learners with dyslexia.
2. Translating: Google Lens can translate selected words into any language.
3. Listening to text: Google Lens can listen to selected text, which can help students improve their listening skills and learn pronunciation.
4. Text detection and OCR: recognize the writing on an image and extract its data.
5. Language detection and translation: identify the language of the text on the image, and then translate it.
6. Accessibility and alt text: find the alt text of the image.

1. NotebookLM Podcast
2. Make Memojis in Canva
3. How-to Guides w/ Tango
4. Top 10 Canva...