By Alyssa Faubion
Before I became a teacher or an instructional coach, I was told my success would be measured in a nice, neat box known as an assessment. Multiple-choice questions were not where I shone.
Luckily, my high school photography teacher introduced me to the idea that creativity was a valuable skill. In the classroom, creativity was typically valued less than tactile abilities. Nowadays, we live in a world where technology’s rapid acceleration makes skills like creativity a necessity.
While 93% of teachers don’t know where to start with AI tools, students will need to know how to leverage AI in life. As educators, our job is to help build skills AI won’t replace. We can also model how tech, when wielded thoughtfully, can be a problem-solving tool.
I’ve witnessed how AI can enhance the classroom experience. Here are three examples:
Breaking Down The Language Barrier
I spent a decade teaching students in Texas. The majority of this time was spent teaching digital media in El Paso, a city that has an 81% Hispanic population. Most of my students spoke Spanish, and I, as a non-Spanish speaker, faced a teacher-student language barrier in an environment where my tech terminology wasn’t easily understood.
However, creativity faces no language barrier. I introduced my students to Canva, an online design and visual communication platform. Together, my students and I explored the platform’s images, color, and tone to learn about each other and our interests. We used visual communication to bridge the language barrier beyond basic translation tools. This approach helped students display their learning in a unique, engaging way through a language we both understood.
Breaking Down the Interest Barrier
Recently, my new role as an instructional coach led me to an area outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, where I witnessed a classroom’s introduction to Latin and Greek mythology. The students were asked to combine several Latin word parts into one, dissecting each word part to make a “Greekymon,” or Greek monster, which corresponded to its Latin descriptors. Students were less than enthralled by this more complex task. How could we get students interested?
Using an AI text-to-image tool, I showed students how they could use words to create dynamic images of vibrant monsters. We also practiced our descriptive writing skills, whereas typing in stronger adjectives could produce monsters more closely aligned with students’ original ideas.
Suddenly, the students were enamored with the Greekymon activity, which created far more than the original task of two or three monsters. The previously uninterested students eagerly showed their creations to their peers, parents, and teachers, all of whom were interested in replicating the assignment. This use of AI allowed students to get excited about visually expressing their ideas in a creative manner.
Breaking Down The Accessibility Barrier
One of my favorite moments as an ed tech coach was spent working alongside a high school teacher intervention specialist and her students with disabilities. The teacher hoped for the class to create a website highlighting its different field trips via a website, but her students were anxious to showcase their writing abilities alongside images from their adventures.
One student reluctantly walked up to the board, but she struggled with her caption’s sentence structure and punctuation due to stress. I then pulled up an AI tool that gently rewrote her sentence to be more visually appealing, and her smile lit up. Other students began clamoring to write sentences with confidence knowing AI could help them bypass barriers they once struggled with. This AI tool later opened doors for these students, who created portfolios of work showcasing their creativity and abilities.
Sixty-seven percent of teachers already agree AI could support universal accessibility. When educators help students see AI as a helpful tool to improve their work, students across the ability spectrum better understand they have an editor readily available to assist. Technology can help students along their academic and professional journeys, but students will ultimately be the ones who finalize their work.
Opening Future Doors
Students’ futures will certainly include AI. Empowering students to leverage the tool and be creative leaders in the process will only set them up for success. According to a new report, employers highly prioritize creativity and expect job candidates to understand AI, create basic graphics, and quickly develop compelling presentations. In a world where technology is so accessible, creativity will be our future grads’ superpower.
As AI continues to knock down walls – language, stagnation, and accessibility – I see an open door ahead: the opportunity to strengthen a generation of more capable, creative, and prepared students. It prompts the question: What are we waiting for?
Alyssa Faubion is an instructional design and ed tech coach in Bethel, Ohio, with a decade-long background of teaching social studies, ELA, and digital media in the El Paso, Texas, area. She holds a Master’s Degree in educational and instructional technology and champions creativity as courage. Outside of the classroom, Alyssa enjoys life on her family farm as “Farmer Faubs.”
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Learn how AI is breaking down classroom barriers in language, interest, and accessibility, empowering educators to foster creativity and inclusivity in students.
The post How AI Knocks Down Classroom Barriers appeared first on Getting Smart. Equity & Access, Personalized Learning, access, creativity, EdTech, language learning Getting Smart