Sora's here... sorta'.

Hello human,

Like the 12 days of Xmas, there seems to be something new coming at us every hour. Below is a run down of the top AI news related to education this week.

📚 Knowledge builders

• When to use AI and when not to → Ethan Mollick has written a great article that really outlines clearly when to and when not to use AI to support your work. Of the most interesting for educators, particularly those who know students do use AI in some capacity for school work, is the following scenario around when not to use AI: when you need to learn and synthesise new ideas or information. We still cannot bypass the need to have knowledge in our long-term memory.

• Sora → Sora is the text-to-video generation tool developed by Open AI. Early readers of this newsletter will know that it was reported that Open AI was working on a tool back in February. They have now released it, but it seems that Europe will not be gaining access to it, and it is limited to Open AI’s plus or pro tier. Nonetheless, some the videos chosen to demonstrate its capabilities look mightily impressive.

🤖 Industry updates

• No More Marking’s AI webinar → I think it would be fair to say that Daisy has demonstrated a healthy scepticism around AI, but it appears that the team have developed some sort of hybrid solution that implements the best parts of teacher marking and AI. They are hosting a webinar (link to book above) about how the system will work.

• UCLA unveils a course developed with its in-house AI system  → Created using notes from previous iterations of a course, YouTube videos and PowerPoint presentations created during the pandemic, Zrinka Stahuljak’s comparative literature course will contain AI-generated textbooks, class assignments and additional teaching resources. These were created using a UCLA’s in-house generative AI tool, Kudu.

✨ Fresh prompts

1. Christmas Crafts → It is getting to that time where some teachers may be able to get a little bit more creative with their afternoons as the curriculum comes to an end. Here is a prompt to help you get your resources and a step-by-step guide for some Christmas crafts. Do not be afraid to add as much detail as is relevant for your context. The deep structure looks like this:
   
   You are a teacher of [year group and geographical location]. It is the run up to Christmas and you want to do some simple Christmas themed crafting with them. Come with a simple Christmas themed craft that pupils this age could do independently. The equipment should be [detail of the equipment you have available]. Make a list of all the resources that will be needed and write detailed step-by step instructions that the children can follow. Use in Co-pilot.

You are a teacher of Year 3 children in the UK. It is the run up to Christmas and you want to do some simple Christmas themed crafting with them. Come with a simple Christmas themed craft that pupils this age could do independently. The equipment should be things that you would find in a school. Make a list of all the resources that will be needed and write detailed step-by step instructions that the children can follow.

Here is the output:

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