AI Literacy Toolkit for Families

In today’s episode, we'll review the contents of the AI Literacy Toolkit for Families co-created by Common Sense Media and Day of AI. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

Paul Beckermann 0:01 Paul, welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I'm your host, Paul Beckermann.

Transition Music with Rena's Children 0:05 Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann 0:16 The topic of today's episode is an AI literacy toolkit for families. Since ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, teachers and schools have been working hard to figure out how generative AI fits into the school and learning communities.

This focus on the classroom has been important and really time well spent. However, with so much energy already being spent trying to stay ahead of AI, one group of stakeholders may have been left behind: families.

Fortunately, Common Sense Media and Day of AI have recognized this potential gap and have teamed up to create an AI literacy toolkit for families. It's free and offers resources to engage families in learning about AI and discussing its potential impact on school and everyday life. In today's episode, I'm going to give you an overview of what's included in this toolkit so you can decide if it's a good fit for you and your families.

Transition Music with Rena's Children 1:13 Here's the, here's the, here's the tool for today. Here's the tool for today.

Paul Beckermann 1:19 First of all, where can you access it? The toolkit is available for free on the websites for both Common Sense Media and Day of AI. Common Sense is located at www.commonsense.org and Day of AI is at dayofai.org. I'll put links in the show notes at avidopenaccess.org as well.

While the links are organized slightly differently on each site, the content is the same. In fact, both offer a "Get Started" or "Start Here" link to set you off in the right direction. This link will take you to a one-page Google Doc that outlines an accessible, five-step approach for using the materials. It's complete with links, so if you want to, you can get everything you need right there.

Let me walk you through those five steps so you can get an idea of what's available. Step one is to review the materials. This includes an AI literacy family video, a family toolkit, and an implementation guide.

The video is three minutes long and explains what AI is, how it works, and where it appears in daily life, as well as how to get started talking about it with young people. The toolkit links you back to the Day of AI website with resources, and the implementation guide links to additional resources. You can check out both of these links to learn more. For me personally, the implementation guide felt more intuitive, but you'll want to explore on your own to see what works best for you.

Step two prompts you to decide how you'll share this information with your school community. It offers a list of options to consider, such as using the school website, parent newsletters, social media, and others. It even includes a slideshow that you can use to host a family night. The slideshow offers a customizable set of slides that includes a suggested agenda, the three-minute video, and an overview of the AI toolkit.

Step three feels a bit like an extension of step two. It's a link to customizable announcement templates that you can use to communicate through whatever channel you've chosen: social media, newsletters, websites, or something else. The templates are nice because they give you language and links that you can start with, and then, if you'd like, you can customize it on your own before sending it out to stakeholders.

Step four is to distribute the toolkit. Now that you've reviewed what's available, determined how to share the resources, and generated the message that you want to send out, it's time to take action. Send out the family toolkit and video in whatever format works best for you and your school community.

The toolkit is packed with guided activities that families can do with their children. It includes a guide for using the video, tips for parents and caregivers, conversation cards that offer short questions to discuss as a family, and fun activities.

The activities include such things as conducting an AI scavenger hunt and simulating how AI works through a really fun AI guessing game that you can do with students of any age.

Step five is to encourage continued engagement. While sharing is the first step, much of the power of this will come through the conversations that follow. In fact, although the toolkit offers educational materials, much of it is intended to be that conversation starter.

In that light, this step suggests sending follow-up reminders for families to review the content, invites them to share their feedback or personal stories, and suggests offering additional learning activities, such as a follow-up session, or perhaps more digital literacy activities.

So that's the core of what's available. It's not complicated, and it can be implemented with very little effort on the part of an already busy teacher or school leader.

If you want more, you can dig deeper into the links and find additional resources, such as tips for talking about AI with school boards or PTAs. And of course, both Common Sense and Day of AI have lots of other valuable media-related resources to check out as well.

To learn more about today's topic and explore other free resources, visit Avidopenaccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out the article collection "AI in the K-12 Classroom," and of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for our full-length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we're joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you.

Thanks for listening. Take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.