🤖 8 AI video presentations to watch

🎁 Share Ditch Summit, win prizes

We want to share the Ditch Summit with as many educators as possible. So we’re running TWO prize giveaways …

1. Email your teachers to win AirPods + my books!

Just send an email and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a new set of Apple AirPods Pro 2 AND a signed copy of each of my books! Follow these directions carefully …

1. Copy the text from this document about Ditch Summit. (Feel free to adjust or add to it.)

2. Put it in an email to 10+ colleagues / coworkers / edufriends.

3. Add [email protected] to the “To:” or “Cc:”.

4. Press send!

I’ll draw a winner at random before I send my email on Thursday Dec. 12, so you have 10 days to enter to win!

2. Share on social media to win a DTT prize pack!

We’re giving away THREE prize packs that include: TWO of my books, an item from the DTT merch store, and some DTT stickers! Follow these instructions …

1. 🗄️ Make a copy of the template (Google Slides / Canva)

2. 💛 Share your excitement (and image) on social media. You can use/edit this sample text or write your own:

I’m going to Ditch Summit, a FREE online conference for educators from Dec 16 to Jan 10.

Topics include student curiosity, AI, student voice, PBL, practical teaching ideas, and much more!

➡️ Register at ditchsummit.com

3. 📝 Enter to win!

Fill out this form to share your post with us. You may enter multiple times if you post on different platforms. Please fill out the form for each post.

We'll draw 3 winners on Wednesday, December 11 and notify them via the email address provided.

🗳 Poll: The future of reading

This week’s question: What is the future of reading in the school setting?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Let's emphasize human-created books as much as possible. (12)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Students benefit from online resources as much as books. (3)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Mix up reading modalities (online, print, audio, AI, etc.). (74)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Let's use AI tools to support student reading. (6)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Let students read AI-generated text so they know how to navigate. (1)

Some of your responses:

• Voted “Mix modalities”: Today's students will need to be able to read in a much wider variety of contexts and break down information in multiple ways to learn. Our world is becoming more and more filled with information, and ensuring students can learn from the information that's in front of them, and think critically to form their own opinions is becoming even more essential.

• Voted “Emphasize human-created books”: I believe there is something important about the slow work of analyzing and wrestling with the underlying messages and claims in human created works. I think that AI can help students develop skills in seeing some of these messages between the lines, but my fear is that in our culture of sound bites and fast information, we are losing the necessary patient, thoughtful thinking skills necessary to discern the the persepctives and ideas behind claims.

• Voted “Mix modalities”: What we do in our classroom should mirror and prepare our students for the world that they are moving into. We engage with many different types of media that we would call “reading.” From podcasts, to audiobooks, text, infographics, and even data in charts - all have unique skill requirements for engaging with them.

• Voted “AI to support student reading”: I agree, students should be exposed to and practice with a variety of text and modalities, however we all have our preferences. I believe voice and choice should be expanded as students learn digital skills. With that said, AI tools will potentially revolutionize teaching and learning by foster student-driven learning and removing barriers based on UDL principles. Jasmine Escalante, HS Assistant Principal

🗳 This week’s poll

With the new year approaching, I want to start thinking about what to feature in this newsletter next year. I’d love your input!

Instructions:

1. Please vote on this week’s poll. It just takes a click!

2. Optional: Explain your vote / provide context / add details in a comment afterward.

3. Optional: Include your name in your comment so I can credit you if I use your response.

📺 8 AI video presentations from Ditch Summit

This is the NINTH (!) year for the Ditch Summit. I started it not knowing if anyone would even be interested. Now, we have ~100 video sessions that thousands of educators watch every December.

A few things to know about the summit:

• It’s only available from Dec. 16 to Jan. 10. After that, the videos (and all related resources) are unavailable until the summit opens again next December.

• Each video presentation is 45-60 minutes — and includes downloadable PDF notes.

• We have “Spotlight Sponsor Sessions” where edtech companies tell you about product updates, use cases, etc.

• Our presenters are fantastic, including bestselling authors, national teachers of the year, top edu conference speakers, etc.

This year, we have FOUR new sessions about AI in education (#1-4 below) … and you can still watch the four AI sessions from previous summits.

Here’s a preview of what’s to come …

🆕 1) How to ACE student AI literacy in schools

Presenters: Holly Clark and Matt Miller

Summary: Schools all over the U.S. and beyond are talking about AI literacy — what student should know and be able to do with AI to succeed and thrive in the future. In this session, Holly and Matt break it down into a simple framework (ACE) and give practical tips and ideas.

🆕 2) Cautious steps toward AI implementation in edu

Presenters: Ken Shelton and Dee Lanier

Summary: AI can do a lot and make us more efficient, but at what cost? Educators need to be cautious about certain realities about AI — and take cautious steps when (or if) they implement it. Ken and Dee share observations and tips from their book, The Promises and Perils of AI in Education.

🆕 3) The AI Generation: Student perspectives on AI

Presenters: Students for Innovation Panel

Summary: AI is going to impact our students’ future — how they work, live, play and thrive. How do they feel about that future? And about the present, where AI often clashes with expectations in schools and classrooms? A panel of students weigh in on the future and the present.

🆕 4) How will you spend the time that AI saves you?

Presenter: Ed Campos Jr.

Summary: The hype and promises are all over the place: AI will save you time. AI will make you more efficient. That’s great, but have you ever considered what you’ll do with that time? Ed Campos Jr. has thought about it a lot and offers actionable tips and relatable stories in his quest to find an answer.

5) AI in the Classroom: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond

Presenter: Matt Miller

Summary: AI is already having an impact on the classroom and our schools. What changes could it bring in education? How might schools look different in the future because of AI? And what challenges are we grappling with today? In this wide-ranging session, Matt looks into the future to make some predictions.

6) Media Literacy in an Ever-Changing AI Landscape

Presenter: Julie Smith

Summary: It’s hard enough to know what’s true … what’s partially true … what’s spin and hype … and what’s misinformation or disinformation. With AI in the mix, it’s even harder. In this session, Julie Smith weighs in on the impact of AI on media literacy — and what we can do.

7) Demystifying AI

Presenter: Fely García López

Summary: Classroom technology was already overwhelming for many teachers. But now that AI is on the scene? Their overwhelm has gone into overdrive. It doesn’t have to be scary or complicated. In this session, Fely García López shares observations and messages she’s been giving educators related to AI to demystify it.

8) Navigating ChatGPT, Chatbots and AI in Education

Presenters: Holly Clark, Dee Lanier, Victoria Thompson, Donnie Piercey

Summary: When ChatGPT first came out in 2022, it caused us to wonder what its immediate — and future — impact would be in education. In this 2022 session — in immediate response to ChatGPT’s release a month prior — this panel of speakers react and discuss what response education should have.

Have you registered for the summit?

It starts in less than two weeks — on Dec. 16! If you haven’t registered yet, head to DitchSummit.com to sign up. (Seriously, it takes like 10 seconds.)

Then, since you’re already signed up, take part in our prize giveaways by sharing the summit with others. You could win some great stuff!

👩🏻‍💻 Using NotebookLM with state K-12 AI guidance

I’m preparing to record my Ditch Summit session about AI literacies with Holly Clark. (It’ll be available on Dec. 17 — the second day of the summit!)

In preparation, I’m doing something you might want to try …

I downloaded all of the U.S. state K-12 AI guidance documents and threw them into NotebookLM.

You can find links to all of the documents here. (Note: Not all are PDFs, and I think one of them isn’t in a format that NotebookLM can use.)

PS: You could definitely add the UNESCO student AI competencies, too.

Once they’re all in there, you can …

• summarize the commonalities of the documents (via chat)

• identify uniquenesses that each document has (via chat)

• create a briefing document that summarizes them

• generate a podcast-style audio overview about them

I’ve started asking a TON of questions in the chat about these documents. Here’s my copy/paste document with responses from NotebookLM I want to save. 

There’s a lot of duplication — especially since I’ve asked a lot of overlapping questions — but I’m willing to wade through duplications to find unique answers.

I love that it footnotes and highlights where it found answers in the original source documents.

If you try this out, hit reply and let me know how it goes!

📚 New AI resources this week

1️⃣ 5 Big Ideas in AI (via AI4K12): This poster clearly shares five big ideas we need to keep in mind related to AI in education.

2️⃣ Common Sense Media’s AI initiatives: This is a one-stop shop for all of Common Sense’s best AI resources. It includes AI literacy lessons, PD for educators, research, and more.

3️⃣ Thinking Like an AI (via Ethan Mollick): A post about how LLMs work — and how it can help you improve how you engineer prompts for them.