Part 3 Beyond the Episode

For part 3 of this badge I went to CODE.org to explore some teaching tools using code an AI for students to be creative and have new ways of applying information learned in class.  In this side I toggled through grade 10, for a 1.5 lesson, and focused on digital literacy.  A number of items and applications came up.  I chose to explore “Play Lab”. Play Lab is a tool that allows student to use code to write stories, choose characters, have them interact, create solutions and even score points.  Looking at the demo of animal characters and creatures I immediately related this to my content on the Russian Revolution when we watch the cartoon movie “Animal Farm”.  I was thinking of this symbolic representation of the communist revolution and how “play lab” could be used to take this a step farther to examine the outcome of the policies the Soviet Union enacted.  After watching the movie.  I could see my students using play lab code to create characters representing Stalin, the secret police, propaganda, the 5-year plans, collective farms, the peasants, Kulaks, etc…. I could see them putting the plans in motion, creating a dialogue over what is working and what it’s not, even scoring points or losing points when a policy succeeds or fails….  This type of technology would be so cool to totally immerse students in the content rather than just reading about it and answering questions on it. 

As I worked my way through all five of the AI badges I must say I have softened a bit towards it.  I still have my fears and a definite stance against it when it comes to AI’s potential to replace workers and strip students of original thought and creativity.  But I now see a lot of benefits too.  So many ways to create interaction, not just replacement of skills.  So many ways to ease on teacher material creation.  So many ways to create modes for students to think deeper and work hands on with material.  So many ways for a Social Studies teacher to make history come alive.  I am learning to embrace AI in a way that suits my teaching and my student’s needs.  Embrace NOT replace is my new motto. AI detection is something I still would like to learn more about and examine.  Students using AI to cheat and copy is currently my biggest struggle so this is the first thing I’d like to explore and use.

I explored one of the lessons using Minecraft. It was titled Heroes Journey. Since I do not have a classroom to implement something like this in, I was thinking about ways I could support some of our libraries who try to implement STEM into their library curriculums in each of the elementary schools I work in. I want to continue to explore some of the code.org resources to see if these ideas might be viable to share with the librarians so that they have additional content to use with kids in a variety of levels.  Everybody is always looking for content that is of high-quality to use with their kids, and this looks pretty well done. Since it uses games, kids are familiar with already, their engagement level is likely to be pretty high. The lessons that code.org develops alongside the actual product that kids use, this should help a lot with my colleagues finding high-quality resources to use with her kids.

With the basics of coding being introduced with this tools kids can start to grow their knowledge of how code works.  I can even see this integrated into some ELA curriculum where students can write about what their hero does in Minecraft to create fantasy stories.

Lots of options to work with.