GPT vs Workload

Hiya, human

This is either the penultimate or final week before a well deserved break, but here’s hoping you are all able to relax when half term comes around. Take a look at what’s new in AI that may support you 👇👇👇.

Knowledge builders 📚

• Education Endowment Foundation → The educational charity support teachers and leaders in translating research into practical advice that can be used to support school improvement. They have recently announced a trial to see if ChatGPT for lesson planning will cut workload. If you are in a position to do so, register your interest here.

Industry Updates 🤖

• An unlikely candidate to release a report on AI, but The House of Lords has done just that…  → The report calls on the British government to improve computing infrastructure, review catastrophic risks, and support copyright when LLMs use unlicensed data.

• Apple hints at Generative AI features coming soon → While many Silicon Valley tech companies have announced varies new GenAI features over the past two years, Apple has been quiet on its plans. However, it looks like they are ready to show the world at their developer conference this June what they have been working on in this space.

Tools 🛠️

1. Podcast Transcription → Coming soon, Apple will be baking in an automatic transcription tool into its podcast app when iOS 17.4 is released by March. It will use AI to automatically generate these after a user has uploaded their podcast. It will make searching podcasts a breeze as listeners will be able to search for phrases from the episode.

2. Padlet AI → The visual board software has a generative AI tool that is available for those with a teacher account called Magic Pallet. It provides gernative text and and images to help draft and complete work that you would usually use padlet for. Check out the fresh prompt below to see what a fellow teacher was able to generate with it.

Zooming in 🔬 

🐣 AI art for literature revision → Vice Principle Elisabeth Bowling recognises that the downfalls of AI art (it is not stirring the human condition, is it?), but still sees the benefits it adds for her student as a revision tool to explore metaphor and meaning.

📑 Prompt Design and Engineering: Introduction and Advanced Methods → A super clear and concise look at prompt engineers. This paper is definitely one I will be coming back to on a regular basis.

Fresh prompts ✨

1. Fantasy Creatures → Computing and Digital Innovation leads, James Radburn, provided the following prompts to support pupils with their descriptive writing. Two things to notice is the sense of narrative that is conveyed in James’s prompt and how descriptive it is .Use in Padlet AI.

You are walking through a dense forest when you hear a rustling in the bushes. Suddenly, a small dragon emerges from the undergrowth and looks up at you with curious eyes. It has iridescent scales that shimmer in the sunlight, and a long, slender tail that trails behind it. The dragon is friendly and seems to want to play.

2. Lesson Planning → Check out this mammoth prompt from OpenAI on lesson planning. Notice that it instructs the LMM what it is and how it has been designed to gather more data that the teacher needs as it goes through the prompt. This technique helps the LMM to chain ideas together, which should hopefully provide more accurate results than if you gave the LMM all the information at the start. This can prompt has been tested with Copilot and ChatGPT.

You are a friendly and helpful instructional coach helping teachers plan a lesson. 

First introduce yourself and ask the teacher what topic they want to teach and the grade level of their students. Wait for the teacher to respond. Do not move on until the teacher responds. 

Next ask the teacher if students have existing knowledge about the topic or if this in an entirely new topic. If students have existing knowledge about the topic ask the teacher to briefly explain what they think students know about it. Wait for the teacher to respond. Do not respond for the teacher. 

Then ask the teacher what their learning goal is for the lesson; that is what would they like students to understand or be able to do after the lesson. Wait for a response. 

Given all of this information, create a customized lesson plan that includes a variety of teaching techniques and modalities including direct instruction, checking for understanding (including gathering evidence of understanding from a wide sampling of students), discussion, an engaging in-class activity, and an assignment. Explain why you are specifically choosing each. 

Ask the teacher if they would like to change anything or if they are aware of any misconceptions about the topic that students might encounter. Wait for a response.
 
If the teacher wants to change anything or if they list any misconceptions, work with the teacher to change the lesson and tackle misconceptions. 

Then ask the teacher if they would like any advice about how to make sure the learning goal is achieved. Wait for a response. 

If the teacher is happy with the lesson, tell the teacher they can come back to this prompt and touch base with you again and let you know how the lesson went.

I hope this style of prompting is something that the EEF will look at in their study. Why not share the output us, by responding to this email or sharing it on Twitter (X). Tag me @Mr_AlmondED so I do not miss them!

We have some opportunities planned to get to know our subscribers a little better in terms of how you are using AI. Look out for some announcements soon!

Mr A 🦾