Gamma, Guardians and Gains!

Afternoon human,

I hope the start to 2025 has gone well for you. The rumour mill is swirling with all that might be this year in AI, but let’s stick with the here and now… for now.

📚 Knowledge builders

• Gamma → Gamma is an AI presentation tool that teachers/leaders can use to create Powerpoint presentations. You can import documents or simply prompts the AI tool with what you would like from the presentation. Once created, you can then edit all the content that it has produced. The free tier limits you to 10 slides. I uploaded my handwriting chapter from the ResearchED Guide to Literacy and here are the results. Far from perfect, but far better than a blank slide deck to start off.

• AI Almanac → Ed-tech legend, Mark Anderson, has put together a helpful guide for those that are going to BETT (a large ed-tech show in London) this year. AI is sure to be everywhere at BETT, and it’s important that teachers who go can distinguish between the marketing and tech that could truly solve their problems. This guide is a great place to start.

🤖 Industry updates

• Guardian’s Guide to AI → No, not the UK-based newspaper. Google has created this useful guide for parents to understand what AI is and how it may be used in schools. Crucially, it sets out the position when it comes to privacy and security of student data when using Google for Education products.

• The Hole in the Wall Experiment 2.0 → You may have heard of the famous ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment in which Sugata Mitra placed a computer in a whole in a wall in New Dehli and reported incredible learning gains with minimum guidance. In turned out (unsurprisingly) the that reality did not live up to the hype. However, a new experiment has looked at the impact of AI Tutors (Copilot) in Nigeria. Unlike the Hole in the Wall experiment, this took place in school and the teachers provided guidance and support. Nonetheless the results of this working paper are certainly interesting.

✨ Fresh prompts

1. Risk Assessment → When it comes to novice teachers and that first class trip it can be very daunting to make sure that the risk assessment is thorough. This prompt turns a generative AI into critical friend who will help you consider what risks you may have missed and if you have considered all the ways to mitigate identified risks. For this to work, you need to upload a risk assessment.

You are a critical friend who wants to keep children safe during school trips. Using the risk assessment document provided, ask me a series of questions to ensure all potential risks have been identified and addressed. Your questions should encourage me to think critically about:

Risks that may not have been considered.
The adequacy of the control measures currently outlined.
Ways to further minimise or eliminate risks, considering the specific context of my activity or environment.

Please also provide practical suggestions for mitigating the risks identified in the document, as well as those highlighted through the questioning process.

As ever, thanks for reading and keep on prompting! Mr A 🦾