How Generative AI Can Help Find Common Ground Around Challenging Topics In Education - Social Emotional Learning

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a universal translator device that could analyze a conversation between people with opposing points of view and find common ground or suggest wording that would help both sides come to a level of understanding?  There are a number of challenging topics in the education dialogue right now.  Parents, community members, board members, teachers, administrators, and students are all tangled in crossed lines of communication and finding the right words to cut across those lines is increasingly difficult. Social Emotional Learning is one of those tangled lines.  On one side are educators who recognize the need to be intentional in teaching and applying communication, collaboration, organization, self-awareness and empathy skills. On the other side of that tangled line, parents, community members, board members and politicians who see SEL as something new, something different, something that they aren't sure is good for kids or should be in school.

Without a universal translator device, educators can still diffuse the conversation when it becomes emotionally charged or find common ground when opposing perspectives are shared.  I call this a connect the dots conversation.  I have found that asking the person who is questioning SEL, or any other curriculum, is to first listen to their perspective. What is it that they have heard or read that sparked their interest in reaching out to me? Are they willing to do a think aloud for me, helping me to see how they connected the dots to arrive at their conclusion or concern.  Often, this results in a walkthrough of how they heard/read and interpreted communication from the district, articles they have seen online, and conversations with other parents or community members that lead them to their concern.  This is really insightful, and is a chance to see the blind spots that may have existed in what I thought was a clearly written communication or assumptions I may have made about how much parents or the community knew or understood about the work of the schools. Sometimes the starting point of common ground is the fact that we both care about kids. It may take multiple conversations to get to the point where someone is open to having this conversation with you. It is worth the time investment, especially if the individual is a leading voice raising concerns.  I then ask them if they are open to hearing how I (or the team) connected the dots.  This is a chance to walk through the decision making process, or to emphasize the positive student outcomes the actions/plan will lead to.  I avoid jargon. I use examples or definitions vs acronyms when doing this.  For the SEL conversation, talking about why communication skills, self-regulation skills, and empathy  are skills we all need is a way to find common ground.  Making connections to their own childhood or school experience is effective.  The “Golden Rule”, counting to 10 before you speak when you are angry, think before you act, the early bird catches the worm… ask them how many of these phrases have they used? All of these phrases are related to social emotional skills, in fact, schools have been integrating these skills for a long time.  Citizenship, attendance, and learning skills have been report card categories in the past.  These are SEL too. Having this conversation, or including this information in school communication helps to reconnect tangled and broken lines.  

I don’t have a universal translator device, but I do have ChatGPT, so I asked it to help me find common ground around SEL.  First, I asked it to identify SEL language from the 1950s, 1970s and today and find common threads. This is one way to engage in conversation with individuals who feel that SEL is something new. 

Then, I worked with ChatGPT to identify words and explanations with neutral connotations that could be used to provide multiple entry points into conversations about SEL with individuals who are coming with their own perspectives.  After some refinement and feedback from me, the list ChatGPT and I created is below. 

1. Communication: This skill is important for building positive relationships, resolving conflicts, and expressing thoughts and feelings in a clear and respectful way.

2. Self-awareness: This skill involves understanding one's own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and how they affect others. It can help individuals to manage their emotions and make better decisions.

3. Responsible decision-making: This skill involves evaluating different options and making choices that are respectful, safe, and aligned with personal values and goals.

4. Empathy: This skill involves understanding and sharing the feelings and perspectives of others. It can help individuals to build positive relationships, communicate effectively, and resolve conflicts.

I can see using each of these at the center of a graphic that shows all of the different opportunities students have throughout their day to learn/practice/ get feedback on these skills.  Or, as small group discussion topics - maybe a jigsaw activity.  These skills are inner-related and also tie into PBIS initiatives.  The more we can demonstrate these connections and emphasize that this isn’t new, and that it actually enhances the academic time students are spending in school, the more likely we are to de-escalate conversations.   

Resources to Spark Your Thinking

• NEA’s recent article - The Truth About Social Emotional Learning, It Works

• Edutopia Article - How to Embed Social Emotional Learning Skills Into Your Instruction

• Center For Creative Leadership - How To Tackle Difficult Conversations

Upcoming Opportunities 

• Explore the new Learning Community available as part of the Future Forward Ohio. It is aligned to OTES 2.0 https://www.ohiolearningcommunity.org/ 

• Missy McClain’s (Akron Children’s Hospital)  Modules hosted on the Mercer County ESC website - Understanding Trauma’s Impact On Children 

• Do you have a passion for math? Have you thought about sharing an effective instructional practice with your peers? Now is your chance.  Join OCTM, the Ohio Council of Teachers of Math…and submit a proposal for the state math conference - Oct 12-13 at Kalahari Resorts. Proposals are open now - https://forms.gle/ftaaiRU2HDmuqPiJ7

How Generative AI Can Be Used To Identify Essential Background Knowledge and Vocab To Unlock Texts For Readers

Tonight I had the chance to play vintage Centipede.  As I moved the rollerball back and forth, my finger tapping the fire button, avoiding bouncing spiders and eliminating the centipede segments before they reached the bottom of the screen, muscle memory kicked in and for a few minutes, I was 19 again. And, I got a high score!  

Now, how many of you reading this have the cultural context to decode my opening sentences? If you do, you may be thinking about your own favorite arcade game.  If you don’t, it is possible that you still were able to comprehend this information because your own experience with games, and working vocabulary is broad enough to make the connections between rollerballs, fire buttons and screens to infer that this is an arcade game or at least a video game.  Shared experiences, like playing games, are a way to strengthen social connections, and are part of the common language of a culture. What happens when you haven’t had that common experience or can’t make a connection?  Imagine now that you are reading a text that includes cultural references or tier 3 vocabulary that you are not familiar with.  I have written before about the importance of text sets to build vocabulary.  They also provide a common foundation of information or experiences to all of the students in a class.  The text becomes the expert in the room and students can read about (or listen to, or see pictures of) the background knowledge and vocabulary they will need to access the core text or participate in class discussions.  So often, we assume our students have had similar experiences and opportunities. In doing so, we have blind spots in our selection of instructional materials and activities, then wonder why some students seem disengaged or confused.  Using text sets is an equity decision that can help to minimize our blind spots.   Generative AI can be an assistant in this process by helping teachers identify background knowledge, and the tier 3 vocabulary students will need multiple opportunities to work.  And, it can also help to translate this foundational information into the primary language of dual language learners who may not have had the same cultural experiences of their classmates. Here is a model of how to ask generative AI, like ChatGPT, to be a culture and vocabulary bot:

ME: ChatGpt you are a chatbot to identify current cultural references in a text and suggest background knowledge a student may need in order to understand them .   

ChatGPT: Certainly, I'm happy to help! Can you please provide me with the text in question and any specific cultural references that you would like me to identify and provide background knowledge on?

And here is what it responded when I pasted my opening sentences into it:

Based on the text, the following cultural references and background knowledge could be helpful for understanding the context

1. Centipede - Centipede is a classic arcade video game released in 1980 by Atari, Inc. It is a vertical shooter game where the player must destroy a centipede and other insects while avoiding obstacles

2. Rollerball - In the context of arcade video games, a rollerball is a type of controller that uses a ball for movement, as opposed to a joystick or directional pad.

3. Bouncing spiders - In Centipede, spiders are enemies that move horizontally across the screen and can bounce off obstacles.

4. High score - In arcade video games, a high score refers to the highest point total achieved by a player on a particular game. High scores were often displayed on a leaderboard, which encouraged competition among players.

5. Muscle memory - Muscle memory refers to the ability to perform a physical task without conscious thought, often as a result of repeated practice or training.

Understanding these cultural references can help the reader better appreciate the author's nostalgic feelings about playing Centipede and the sense of familiarity that comes with muscle memory. It also highlights the importance of arcade video games during the 1980s and the social significance of high scores and leaderboard competitions in arcade culture.

I am at #OETC2023 this week and the conversations continue around generative AI.  As I engage in discussions about policy, safeguards, appropriate uses, not so appropriate uses, innovative uses, efficient uses…I had an aha moment.  Back to my Centipede game.  Computer games at one time were new technology, and there was a lot of concern about what impact they would have on students. Now, it is difficult to remember a time when there weren’t computer games, in fact there is a whole component of tech ed focused on gamification as an effective instructional approach. Then there was the creation of search engines.  There was a lot of concern about how search engines would lead to…cheating. Now, we can't imagine life without search engines. AI has been part of our lives for longer than we realize. It runs in the background of many of our day to day tools. Generative AI is unique because we are intentionally interacting with it, through natural conversation.  What experiences, and vocabulary, do educators need to build their own knowledge of this tech? What skills will we all need to develop or refine to use it effectively? 10 years from now, what will be on the horizon, and how will we look back on this year?   

 Resources To Spark Your Thinking… From Day 1 of #OETC2023

• Infohio.org - Directions for sharing permalinks to specific resources accessed through INFOhio.org. 

• Infohio.org Presentation - eBook and interactive activities with hyperlinks

• Visuwords.com  Visual Dictionary, Visual Thesaurus, Click on EXPLORE to find the Word Tree tool (awesome for vocabulary development)

• Here is a sample Word Tree I did for Technology - you can hover over the related words to see definitions

How Generative AI Can Help Us Close Equity Gaps

 I had the opportunity last week to talk with a colleague who is an instructional designer and a native of Cape Town, South Africa. She told me it is the most beautiful city in the world.  We talked about equity, or the lack of equity, in education in Cape Town and throughout many of the countries on the African Continent.  Her summary of education in a word is “ under”. Under funded, under resourced and teachers are underqualified.  In families where one or both parents have completed tertiary education (college) the children have a high probability of attending school. As you move down the education continuum of the parents’ educational experience, how the importance of education is viewed decreases and the ability to afford education becomes a barrier.  In Tin Can Town - the slums of Cape Town, children may not go to school at all.  The few schools that are accessible to those children do not have enough teachers, and the ratio might be 100 students to one teacher. Schools may only serve 500-800 students.  Children are often removed from school altogether as soon as they reach the legal age of 15 so that they can work and earn money for the family.   While South Africa has laws and policies that require handicapped access, these are often ignored. It is not uncommon for school buildings, and restrooms, to not be handicapped accessible. Students with physical disabilities may not physically be able to access the schools.   Corruption has resulted in a diversion of resources from children and schools.  In more rural areas, there are no libraries, there may be limited power, there may be limited water.  

Her passion is access to education, especially for girls.  What keeps girls out of schools? The cost of books (less than $10 of US currency) The access to transportation. (School buses are not common) The access to computers and internet infrastructure (Many schools have no computers, computers pr tech in homes in Tin Can Town are at high risk of being stolen) And, the access to feminine hygiene products. (They are expensive, not readily available especially to girls that don’t have access to a store, and there is Value Added Tax -VAT on top of the base cost). Children are often removed from school altogether as soon as they reach the legal age of 15 so that they can work and earn money for the family.   She asked if we had limited power, she had heard there are places in the US that don’t have regular power. Cape Town has power 10 hours a day.  She spends time volunteering with children. Some live in Tin Can Town.  How, she asked, can you help a child when they don’t have even the most basic learning and they are in a family impacted by generational lack of schooling. The example she shared was looking at the trajectory of an 8 year old girl - how could she hope to attend tertiary school when she couldn’t even identify simple shapes, read or write.  Where to even start in tutoring this child? She sometimes wonders if she is even making a difference. 

I have been thinking about our conversation for a week. I reflected on the educational divides that still exist in the United States, and what our schools are doing to address it. Worth noting, in a 2016 article on NPR, author Corey Turner discusses the concept of segregated borders in education throughout the US.  Three of the top 10 borders he discussed are in Ohio. (See the full Opportunity Atlas HERE) While public school is free, the school funding system in Ohio is still not perfect. The Fair Funding formula is the closest we have come in many years for identifying the cost and a plan for equitably funding a well rounded, high quality education for every child. I know that during the pandemic, there were children who did not attend school at all. How many of them still have not returned? Where are they?  And, in the United States, generational lack of schooling is a factor that will have a lasting impact on the future success of a child. I appreciate our policies that have protected access to public education in the US - including child labor laws, a mandatory education age of 18, Title 1, and enforcement of IDEA and FAPE.  And I have a similar concern about the lack of access to resources, both computers and internet infrastructure in regions of our state and our country. 

She and I are working together on a project around generative AI. We started talking about it as an equity tool. Think about the possibilities of using an inexpensive device and cheap headphones, along with  generative AI, a camera that can scan any written material, and text to speech to create something that can then provide simple explanations of steps to complete a task, or simplify complex information to make it accessible.  Layer in the ability for generative AI to translate into multiple languages, and the tool then provides access to refugee children and adults to education and job opportunities.  She shared with me that she met a refugee who was acting as a car guard (someone you can pay to sit by your parked car) who was an accountant in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two barriers prevented him from finding a job as an accountant in Cape Town. First, he spoke only French. Secondly, and more limiting, he had never used any technology tools. No excel spreadsheets or accounting systems, no computer - ever. Instead, he was trained to be an accountant using ledger books and paper.  I am sharing this because we need to think beyond the boundaries of our classrooms, our district, our state, our country as we work for equity.  All people deserve the opportunity to be their best selves, to be safe, to be seen.   As my colleague shared, we should not be able to look at a child who is 5 and know that some opportunities for their future have already been taken off the table.  

Resources to Spark Your Thinking

• CUPP Reports a good tool for looking at  local Ohio district funding (Y21 is available, Y22 is not out yet)

• Meet some of Cape Town’s innovators - TEDx Cape Town Speakers 

• UNICEF Girls Education Homepage

• UN Article on Equity In Education (2020)

• Ohio Department of Education - Advancing Academic Equity For All

• Achievethecore.org - Planning And Reflecting With Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

• Edutopia Youtube - Black Teachers Share Their Stories

• Edutopia Article - Why Black Teachers Walk Away - 

Upcoming Opportunities:

• Do you have a passion for math? Have you thought about sharing an effective instructional practice with your peers? Now is your chance.  Join OCTM, the Ohio Council of Teachers of Math…and submit a proposal for the state math conference - Oct 12-13 at Kalahari Resorts. Proposals are open now - https://forms.gle/ftaaiRU2HDmuqPiJ7 

• OELMA is offering a free webinar - Clear the Digital Clutter! March 1, 7:00-8:00 PM Angela Wojtecki, Past President of OELMA, is offering a free one-hour session on Wednesday, March 1, entitled "Clear the Digital Clutter."  Angela has all kinds of simple tricks of the trade to help us organize our email.

• February 9  4:15 PM Virtual SECO (Science Education Council of Ohio) Free Grade Band Science Meet-up. This is the 3rd one this year, open to all grades, and a great chance to network with colleagues from across the state.

How To Celebrate Black History Month

February 1st is the first day of Black History Month.  Carter G. Woodson and Jesse Moorland founded what is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in 1916. This organization sponsored the first National Negro History Week in 1926.  President Ford in 1976  was the first president to recognize February as a month to celebrate and recognize the important contributions that Black Americans have made and continue to make in our country.   For this week’s Talk OH Tuesday, instead of my usual reflection and resources, I have put together a 28 Day Calendar of Activities to celebrate Black History Month.

I  have been reflecting on this quote I wrote down while I was attending  BASA’s Women In Leadership Conference last year, “You can invite people to have a seat at the table, or you can invite them to help build the table.”  That quote has guided my own work over the past year. I continue to ask myself whose voice is being heard, what voice can be amplified, what voice is missing. I am looking forward to spending time exploring the resources in my 28 day calendar too! 

You can find the calendar HERE.