Did anyone see today's Google Doodle?
If you missed, it definitely head over to the Google Doodle Archive page to give it a try.
While playing with this Doodle today over our morning coffee, my husband and I had a long discussion about AI or machine learning.
We are still in Austin, reflecting on the many workshops, and even workshops we did not get to attend at SxSw EDU and SxSw Interactive.
AI was definitely a hot topic! You can tell for yourself by just reading through the titles of the different AI related sessions
There were at least 10 sessions related to AI at the SxSw EDU conference.
Meanwhile there were over 35 AI related sessions at SxSw Interactive, which definitely points to the fact that AI is not in the future, it is something that is part of our world NOW!
These students will not only hold jobs that we don't know exist, some of which will be creating AI applications, but they will also be making decisions throughout their lives in a world where they are interacting with AI.
So where do we begin preparing our students for THEIR future.
Could it be as young as pre-school? Randy Williams thinks so.
Listen to her chat about her PopBots Toolkit
and look over the related Activities Document: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fqz...
to get a feel for how preschool children might be introduced to AI.
Learn more about Randi Williams project.
As students get older, you can introduce them to Scratch which also came out of MIT Media Lab, and then add the work of Dale Lane @dalelane from the project Machine Learning for Kids filled with step by step worksheet that can help students (and teachers) learn about AI by creating AI related projects
Learn more at
Another way might be to have your students create a chat box. There are numerous tools your students can use to create their own chatbot, ranging from Qnamaker.ai – a chatbot service that runs on Microsoft Azure to Rebot.me - a solution for quickly creating a chatbot recommended by AJ Julina in this blog post.
Or perhaps you might start by bringing a Voice Asssistant into your classroom and not only learning to use it in meaningful ways, but also have some in depth conversations about the implications and ethics behind future development of technology such as Alexa and Google Home.
But don't just be a consumer with of your voice assistant, learn to use code to gain control over your Alexa from sites like Code Academy.
There is no shortage of digital tools to explore AI, but never underestimate the power of analog to really help you understand what's happening under the hood of a digital tool.
Let the folks from the LA Makerspace show you how with this step by step guide to lead your own hands on workshop on AI using EGG CARTONS. Yes, I said EGG CARTONS!
What are you waiting for - start collecting those EGG cartons!
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