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