A ten minute from video from Darren Coxen demonstrating how you might use AI in three creative and interactive ways to explore a literacy text.
This is a very good example of how we can use AI creatively to bring the curriculum to life. We worry a lot about AI doing the students’ writing for them, but what about AI responding to the student’s work?
With a bit of imagination, we could make this work at the primary level by writing postcards to characters in our text. Or what about describing our characters using lots of lovely adjectives to create an image?
Worried about the cost? If you have Google Classrooms, you’ll likely already have access to Gemini, and there are plenty of other free or low-cost options.
Please get in touch if you want to explore ways to incorporate AI into your curriculum to motivate your reluctant writers.
As a technology enthusiast, I’ve been keeping up with the latest developments for some time. However, the guidance in this field has been changing rapidly, making it challenging to keep up. New services are being launched every day, and even Twinkl has its own impressive AI services! When I received an email from Oak Academy “introducing” me to Aila, their new free lesson planning AI bot, I realised it was time to take stock and gain an overview of the current state of AI in education. AI in education is a vast and controversial subject. Let’s start by discussing the least contentious aspect: teachers using AI to prepare better lessons faster.
Before I go any further, it’s worth noting that it costs many $billions to develop an LLM (Large Language Model) – the engine behind any chatbot or most AI services. Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Facebook’s LLaMA. All of the other services (Aila, Twinkl AI etc.) are built on top of them. It’s not hard to build a chatbot. I made one to incorporate appropriate assistive technology into lesson plans. It wasn’t difficult. But it’s not finished. There are lots of helpful guides and videos online.
You should also know that AI lies (hallucinates). Always check important information.
It would be impossible to list all the resources here. They’re constantly evolving, and new ones are being launched. However, if you’re still manually writing out your lesson/unit plans, you’re wasting a lot of time. Used intelligently, AI can be like having a personal assistant, leaving you more time for the critical part of the job. Spending time with students. However, if you’re looking for somewhere to start, take a look at the information below. If you use any others, please leave a comment to share your experience with the community.
Generate creative prompts and brainstorm ideas for lesson activities. Get instant explanations and examples. Generate questions for quizzes. Create lesson plan outlines.
Keep in mind the following information: Give it a learning objective, an age group, and details of prior learning, and it will generate a lesson plan, a PowerPoint, 2 quizzes, and a worksheet. Its plans align closely with the English curriculum. You can edit them. You’ll need to do so since it doesn’t seem to want to differentiate them. It’s free. One of the best parts of the generated lessons is the quizzes, which can be accessed directly.
Primary only. Lesson planning includes differentiation and maps to their existing (and extensive) pool of resources. Also has a whole host of useful time-saving tools. Definitely worth a look.
Here is our latest PowerPoint from our 5 minutes for Inclusion Series. We’re looking at the browser extension, Helperbird, which brings personalised support to web pages apps and PDFs to make them more accessible.
As part of our “5 Minutes for Inclusion” series, here is a short PowerPoint introducing Immersive Reader, a powerful and free tool built into Microsoft products.
It’s effective at increasing the reading fluency and comprehension of your learners, supporting students with learning differences like Dyslexia, and helping emerging readers build their confidence.
There are various tools to teach coding to youngsters away from the computer before they get onto screens with PurpleMash’s 2Code or 2Go, J2Code, Scratch etc; and doing practical activities is an essential aspect of multi sensory learning.
Beebots aren’t just for the nursery classes. KS1 children can use them to begin learning how to make algorithms instead of giving one instruction at a time. They can learn directional language and how to identify themselves with the beebot so that they can “project themselves” onto a pathway to aid with giving instructions.
Playing a game like “Back to Back, Ear to Ear” will help them to learn the importance of giving a clear instructions.
Coding with Cubetto happens with hands-on coding blocks, which means children can use it irrespective of reading ability or language barriers. This introduces programming concepts like algorithm, the queue, recursions, debugging.
Things to learn after ALGORITHM, are EVENTS and ITERATION.
Here is a nice lesson (away from the computers) that will teach both.
As we start to write longer and more interesting programs, our code often contains a lot of repetition.
In this lesson, students will learn about how events cause something to happen and (repeats) loops can be used to more easily communicate instructions that have a lot of repetition by looking at the repeated patterns of movement in a dance.
At this point in the course, students should have developed comfort with programming a set of linear instructions.
Frequently the linear set of instructions includes patterns that are repeated multiple times and as students want to write more complex and interesting programs, manually duplicating that code becomes cumbersome and inefficient. To enable students to write more powerful programs, we’ll need to rely on structures that break out of the that single linear list. Loops allow for students to structure their code in a way that repeats. In this lesson, we will focus on identifying patterns in physical movement before moving back onto the computer to look for patterns in our code.
This Dance Party lesson is done away from the computer again. We are all dancing the same dance, we’ll need to know what all of the steps in the dance are, and how many times we should do them.
Show Dance actions (on the wall) so that all students can see it. Talk through the different sections of the dance as a class. Demo each action and practice putting them together. (Play Music)
Point out the section that repeats and discuss a quicker way of writing it.
Whilst children are at home for extended periods, parents and carers – not to mention school staff looking to guide them – are all looking for quality materials, both online and off, to keep children engaged, and learning. That is as true of children with SEND as with any others.
Given the range of children and young people’s abilities, and the breadth of special educational needs, there is no one site that will cater for everyone, although 2Simple have made purplemash.com available for free during the Coronavirus crisis. PurpleMash covers the whole primary curriculum, with fun resources for literacy and numeracy and all other subjects that can be pitched at many levels. Have a look here for further information. https://2simple.com/free-access/?campaign=3f314708-5ef0-11ea-9175-062a0562a518. Included in the offer is their online library of digital books (Serial Mash) with associated comprehension, spelling, grammar, punctuation activities.
Other sites providing literacy resources include audiobooks from Audible and StoryNory, both online and full of stories (some of which can be downloaded as MP3 files onto devices).
Another generic site that is always worth visiting is the BBC, with both Cbeebies, and Bitesize offering all sorts of educational, developmental, games and activities. You might need to search a bit to find what you want, but they are good quality. Have a browse at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary and https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies to find useful resources.
You might also want materials that can be used away from the screen. TTS group, who provide all sorts of learning materials, have created workbooks for primary pupils to download and use offline. https://www.tts-group.co.uk/home+learning+activities.html
If you are looking for on-screen games for literacy and numeracy then the well-established ICT Games, https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/index.html, has lots of stuff for primary aged pupils, that could be used with older learners, too. As always, it is advisable to try out activities yourself to make sure they are pitched at the correct level. You could also have a look at https://toytheater.com/ which has lots of games. As with many free sites, there are embedded adverts here.
For literacy resources there a number of sites that have paid-for content, but who also provide free tasters. The well known Oxford Owl – https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home – have activities for learning to read at home, along with information about how literacy and numeracy are taught in schools. Very helpful for parents wanting consistency for their children.
Another more specialist resource to support literacy is the highly inclusive set of apps and programs from Crick, usually known as Clicker. They are offering free access throughout this crisis. Further information can be found here cricksoft.com/uk
There are also places online that can engage learners with more challenging SEND. For many years Poisson Rouge have been providing playful, exploratory, activities that are engaging without necessarily having a fixed, desired, outcome. The free materials here https://www.poissonrouge.com/free/classic/ are showing their age, as they are largely Flash dependent. However, they are still useful, particularly for children discovering cause and effect, or early language skills.
More specifically targeted at these pupils is Helpkidzlearn. They have wealth of materials on their subscription site, with 10 sample activities available if you register here https://www.helpkidzlearn.com/join-free.
More immediately recognisable as SEND resources are those created by Widgit, known for their software which provides symbolised support to text. They also have some, free, downloadable materials on their site that can be printed out and used as needed – including on good handwashing, and on dealing with anxiety generated by watching the news. https://www.widgit.com/resources/index.htm A bit of searching will also produce free curriculum materials, such as worksheets on verbs, adjectives, phonics, and minibeasts, along with many others. Start your search here. https://www.widgit.com/resources/literacy-language/language-development/index.htm
Then there is Incredibox. This is a site that is not designed for SEND, it a French site for visitors to explore beatboxing through a number of musical loops. It works for SEND learners, though, by allowing them to interact with the screen and to discover how different elements work and come together. https://www.incredibox.com/ .
Some learners will enjoy the opportunity away from school to follow their own interests, and there are a number of sites that have quality materials where they can safely browse. Both Dorling Kindersley, https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/ and National Geographic https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/category/discover/ have videos and articles on a range of subjects. However, the literacy levels can be demanding.
They might also want to spend some time learning to code: http://www.code.org has many diverse activities at all sorts of ability levels that budding programmers can work through progressively on their own.
Other children and young people will prefer to get ‘hands-on’ and the activities at https://www.redtedart.com/ will help them do just that, with ideas for art and technology projects. Again there are adverts on the site, but there is a wealth of ideas for practical and creative fun.
The internet is a vast resource, and there will be many more sites that provide valuable resources for learning at home, whilst schools are temporarily closed. But they can be hard to find. Hopefully those listed here will provide a useful starting point.
If you need further suggestions for online materials, have a look at this additional list, here . And for blind and visually impaired learners there are some suggestions here.
Working in Tower Hamlets over the years, amongst other things, we have recommended software for PCs & laptops, apps for iPads & Android devices and more recently resources available for chrome books.
Chrome books are a budget friendly and portable computing option. They use Google Chrome operating system and are designed to be connected to the Internet. They’re an ideal choice if you use mainly browser-based apps.
Chrome books switch on quickly, automatically update and come in various sizes. Their versatility for SEND relies on useful and engaging web apps. Chromebooks have built-in accessibility options that can be adjusted to suit individual needs and have USB ports that allow a variety of assistive devices to be connected. Overall, the accessibility options are quite good, though there won’t be a solution for everybody. In addition to the built-in features of Chrome OS, the Chromebook can use Apps and Extensions to enhance access. Apps are individual, web-based programs and activities, while Extensions provide enhancements to Chrome OS working across a range of web pages and apps, in the same way that extensions add functionality to some other web browsers. Here is a guide to using Accessibility Options on chromebooks from http://www.callscotland.org.uk
A lot of software that once had to be loaded onto networks is now available online. You can now find Word shark online and the much-loved 2Simple software you can now find on their online primary software suite PurpleMash.
All schools have got different systems for making devices available to children. Many schools no longer have ICT suites but use trolleys of devices that can be wheeled around to different classrooms. For ordinary curriculum purposes this is a great idea but some children (particularly those with SEND) need to have a device available to them for their exclusive use at any time.
Schools have got different systems in place for the devices made available to children with SEND. The system needs to be efficient and needs to consider the geography of the building, the whereabouts of the SEND students and keeping the devices charged and ready for use as needed. If you are using iPads and chromebooks it’s vital that your school has efficient Wi-Fi.
One of the disadvantages of a chrome book is that you cannot load special SEND software like Clicker 7 or Dragon “Naturally Speaking” onto it. So if you have a particular need, you have to hope that there is a chromebook app or extension that will provide for that need. As far as “speech to text” software goes (like the Dragon software) the problem is solved by Google incorporating Voice Typing as a tool on Google Docs. As far a Clicker is concerned Cricksoft have created Clicker apps for chrome books.
The Clicker apps for chrome book are the same as those for iPad however the pricing is different being. Clicker Apps for chromebook cost £30 for a years subscription for one app and then various degrees of pricing for site licenses. To find out more look at cricksoft.com/uk/clicker/chromebook
Make sure you have GarageBand on your iPad and it will help if you have a microphone that you can connect instead of using the built-in microphone on the iPad. (Maybe even some earbuds with a microphone that is nearer to your mouth.)
Open GarageBand on the iPad, click on the add song button (or the + sign) and select AUDIO RECORDER > Voice. On the studio view select Narrator.
Right under the control bar (on the right) hit the + sign (Song Sections) and change it from eight bars to Automatic. Tap off the menu. In the control bar tap the wrench, tap “Metronome and Count-in“. Change it to No sound and tap off the menu. Adjust the input level (on the left side) to show as much green as possible and now you can record.
When you press Record, the ruler becomes red and moves along. Touch the stop button when you’re done recording that track.Tap the tracks view icon on the control bar to listen to your track. Press play to preview and move the play head around to listen to different parts of your track if you need to.
(To add another track press the + on the bottom left of the screen. If you need to record your voice again choose “narrator” and check that the settings are as they were before.)
When editing you can move the tracks around by touching them and sliding them with one finger and if you want to zoom into the track you put two fingers on the screen and pinch them apart.
To see more options for different parts of the track you can double tap on the track and a menu option comes up which includes Split. If you swipe down somewhere on your timeline it will split the track. The yellow bars on the end of each region allow you to trim the ends of each of the recordings.
You can add music tunes as a background tracks. There are some built-in to GarageBand but it is possible to import your own tunes. Choose another track with the same settings then choose the Loops icon on the control bar and choose Audio Files, and drag in the audio file that you want.
To edit the music, slide the side bar (next to the track) over to the left to show the title of the track, the solo & mute buttons, the metre and the volume.
Tap the microphone icon and select Automation. On the top left of the screen slide the pencil over until the button is red. Click on the timeline to create automation points to create slight raises or decreases in the volume. When done slide the pencil to lock the automation points.
Listen to the entire episode to make sure you don’t need to do any more editing and then you can share your track. It will save into the “My Songs” folder. It saves as an .m4a file and so can be loaded onto Podcast Central on the London Grid for Learning.
Working in Tower Hamlets over the years, amongst other things, we have recommended software for PCs & laptops, apps for iPads & Android devices and more recently resources available for chrome books.
A lot of software that once had to be loaded onto networks is now available online. You can now find Word shark online and the much-loved 2Simple software you can now find on their online primary software suite PurpleMash.
