Category: 568

Podcast Reflection:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/edsurge-podcast/id972239500?i=1000683061969

Michael suggested I access a book, titled “The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI.” He also recommend this podcast that addresses the themes in the book. I enjoyed listening to the podcast because the author of the book and the podcast guest, Tricia Bertram Gallant, has “hit the nail on the head” when it comes to the current collision of artificial intelligence and education. Tricia suggests there is no way around this collision, the only way is through it; which requires an enormous upheaval of our current classroom curriculum and assessments. The podcast is exactly relevant to my thesis project because she contextualizes the current situation that educators face and also provides potential solutions and ways forward. Although she is speaking primarily about post-secondary institutions, the issues are similar to the issues we are facing at a high school level. Tricia highlights that many professors are adjusting the best way they know how, doing in-class writing assignments as assessment rather than essays where students can potentially use AI. Tricia shockingly states that many professors are at the point where they would rather retire than try to tackle these huge shifts in their teaching practices. She uses the analogy that we (educators) are being held hostage on a plane:

“And when it came out, everybody just said, oh professors, stop worrying about cheating. Just redesign your courses and assessments, as if that’s easy to do.

And so I’ve said, it’s like we were being held hostage on an airplane. That we’re flying, while being told we have to rebuild it…”

Tricia Bertram Gallant

(EdSurge Podcast, 2025.)

Here is a screenshot of my Table of Contents in my Thesis Project. Under the red highlighted section is where I would include information from the podcast and Tricia Bertram Gallant’s book. “Challenging the Traditional Views on Knowledge and Assessment”. I might change this title to something else, like: “Challenging the Status Quo” or “Challenging Curriculum, Knowledge, and Assessment”

In the podcast, Tricia goes on to highlight three main takeaways:

1. Learning Outcomes & Assessment:

In the podcast, she asks the very important questions of, are our courses and our assessments still relevant in the age of AI? We need to be asking ourselves, what is the foundation of knowledge that students need to learn?

“So every discipline is going to need to look at its learning outcomes and say, what’s the foundation of knowledge that students have to learn, even with ChatGPT out there? Then we’ll have to have secure assessments for that, where they can’t use ChatGPT to pretend that they’ve learned it when they haven’t. Then we’ll allow them, we’ll scaffold a cognitive offloading to those tools once they have, like I said, the knowledge and skills to be able to assess the output that they’re getting.

But the problem is right now, students just don’t have that expertise, so they’re just blindly using it. And they’re handing in work that’s just not worthwhile reading, let alone producing. So that’s the first thing.”

Tricia Bertram Gallant

(EdSurge Podcast, 2025.)

2. Process over Product:

Tricia outlines a second issue that we have to address, which is putting the value on the process over the final product. This really is the fundamental purpose behind us having core and curricular competencies be directed at skill rather than content, a theme that I’ve reiterated over the last year and a half of the Master’s! Our curriculum is set up for us to assess skills, but it’s not always put into practice.

“The second thing is we have to figure out ways to assess process more than products. So we have been relying as products for far too long as artifacts of learning, and they’ve been defunct for a while because of internet, because of copying and pasting, because of contract cheating, because of all these things.

But what’s important is, how did this, how, what did the student learn throughout the process? What are the skills they used to get to that product? And we need to be able to assess that piece better.”

Tricia Bertram Gallant

(EdSurge Podcast, 2025.)

3. Upheaval of Current Structure:

Lastly, and perhaps most boldly, Tricia questions the way our education system is set up into disciplines that focus on content knowledge. If put up against GenAI, a student is unlikely to be able to out-think the computer. However, our human abilities should be what we focus on developing so that we can be set apart from the computers vast capabilities. These three points are all reminiscent of the same theme mentioned in the documentary, “Most Likely to Succeed” and other research I’ve come across over the last year and a half. Perhaps the changes we need to make aren’t in alignment with the structure of our current education system and bigger, fundamental shifts need to take place.

“… should we be organized around disciplines anymore, around content knowledge, or should we be organized around human or durable skills that sets us apart from this gen AI, right?

…”So should we be moving towards a competency education model?

…It’s simply out of date, and it’s time to revisit.”

Tricia Bertram Gallant

(EdSurge Podcast, 2025.)

Tricia doesn’t leave us hanging without more solutions to how this huge upheaval might need to unfold. She suggests giving educators and faculty release time to work with instructional designers and revamp the structure of courses to fit a competency-based approach.

Works Cited:

EdSurge Podcast. (2025). How AI Has Changed Student Cheating—And How to Respond [Broadcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-ai-has-changed-student-cheating-and-how-to-respond/id972239500?i=1000683061969

Monday, February 10, 2025

I met with Jeff Fitton, a teacher in a neighbouring School District, to talk about Artificial Intelligence integration. I came away with some newfound perspectives including an excellent tool to use in the classroom to communicate with students varying levels of Artificial Intelligence use. Below is our interview, followed by additional notes, reflections, and slides from a Powerpoint provided by Jeff to help communicate his conceptual understanding and application of AI.

Photo by Matt Howard on Unsplash

My first question to Jeff was about his progression and journey into Artificial Intelligence. He emerged with a reflection that he’s always enjoyed the “connections between things” and was blown away by his initial interaction with AI and how it was able to synthesize a challenging request.

His initial interaction with AI was so powerful he equates it to the impactful experience of the tragedy of 9-11. The use of AI was a pivotal moment for him, “in my life there have been a few things that were revolutionary” and that he believed will change the world as much as AI will.

Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light:

A Framework for AI Use in the Classroom

Perhaps the most impactful part of the conversation for me, was the application of a framework for students and teachers for regulating AI use in the classroom. Jeff shared the above resource with me from a Google Slideshow he has created from compiling interesting information from a variety of internet sources and colleagues. Jeff wanted me to be clear that this is not his own created framework. This information came from a resource called “Rocket PD” that was shared by his administration. In this framework, there are three categories. In the red light, students can’t use AI tools at all. In yellow light, they have to get permission – collaborate it as a partner, or design a few hooks, sentence stems, grammar, create a lesson for me, are all examples. In green light, AI interaction is encouraged, there’s a plan in place for what that looks like. Jeff said there’s an “elegant simplicity” to this framework and I agree that it facilitates open and clear communication for students and teachers. He said that AI use without any conversations, clarity or framework is “driving a wedge between our student / teacher relationship.” I believe we need simple frameworks like these to progress with clarity. Another tool he uses is having students screenshot each of their interactions with AI as a way to stay accountable and understand that they are pulling ideas from outside of their knowledge base.

Cheating or Not? Survey for Students

In these slides, Jeff introduces a continuum of AI use and the subsequent perceived level of ‘cheating’.

Students read the scenario’s, then respond with what level they believe the use of AI to fall under, ranking the level of cheating from 1-5. Level 1 is considered “Human Powered” while level 5 is considered “Bot Powered.” This survey looks to be helpful in facilitating conversations around AI use, as well as enhancing critical thinking and perspective on situational uses.

“Innovation only comes when we’re dancing around the edge”

Jeff Fitton personal communication Feb 10, 2025

Benefits for Educators:

Jeff said his expertise is mostly in helping educators use AI to save time and energy. Here are some of the benefits and tools:

• Teachers save time and these tools give them their life back
• Notebook LM – podcasts – beautiful application for teachers to use
• GAMA AI – instant powerpoints – helped a lot of teachers 
• Lesson plans or making things more concise
• Draft back – google plug in – key stroke

Critical Perspectives:

Jeff also warned against using AI without critically looking at the potential pitfalls. AI doesn’t have a soul, we still need to create AI proof lessons, and this demands even more creative thinking from teachers.

Works Cited:

Deanna Fester (Director). (2025, February 11). Interview Jeff Fitton [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6dDfKE6-Sk

Inquiry-Based Learning, Design-Based Learning, and Artificial Intelligence

The conversations around inquiry based learning had me curious about how artificial intelligence could potentially help support the two methods of learning: inquiry-based and design-based.  I read three separate papers on the topic and came away with some major takeaways to reflect on. In the following blog post, I’m experimenting with a different approach to formatting. Each article is linked, with a subsequent reflection list, thereafter, the relevant research paper quote to back my reflection. I wanted to format it this way so that I can come back to it during my thesis and collect the information and citations.

Photo by Desola Lanre-Ologun on Unsplash

In this paper, the big takeaways for me were:

1. Intergroup communication and collaboration effectiveness are important for inquiry based learning, how can I enhance this in my AI course?
2. AI can help with teacher effectiveness (organizing inquiry activities)
3. Constructivism definition to use in my (thesis) paper / project with an emphasis on teacher reflection, ideally collaborative reflection
4. Shifts the focus from results to process
5. Inquiry based mind mapping = enhances students critical thinking skills and learning motivation
6. Teacher presence and guidance is fundamental

1. “When designing inquiry-based learning activities, teachers must deliberately select tasks that cannot be fully replaced by generative artificial intelligence (Hodges et al., 2023). Activities such as oral presentations, group collaborations, and hands-on practical tasks serve as prime examples of effective engagement. These types of activities require students not only to participate actively in practical exercises but also to develop essential teamwork and communication skills, which will help mitigate over-reliance on text generated by GAI.” (Xu, 2024, p. 16)
2. “The future direction of education will be focused on providing an inclusive and stimulating learning environment where every student can study successfully and their abilities can be nurtured and developed. Therefore, AI-driven inquiry teaching can be a valuable instructional approach that aids students in learning through efficient data analysis and algorithmic decision-making. This method also allows for more classroom time to be dedicated to higher-level learning activities, thereby facilitating continuous improvement in college students’ learning outcomes.” (Xie, 2023, p. 2)
3. Their paper also outlined a definition of constructivism theory that seems more accessible than others I’ve read, because it also talked about teacher’s reflecting. The usual definitions of how students acquire knowledge and information stayed true, but the addition of teachers also paying “attention to the changes in their own identity to become guides for students’ meaning construction instead of simply imparting what students have learned” was a new aspect that I hadn’t heard before or considered myself (Xie, 2023, p. 3). And yes, it’s true – teachers to a tremendous amount of reflecting, in the moment and on the fly, and in great depth. I recently blogged about a project I did with my students and how I was happy with the success of it, but at every step of the way I was reflecting on how I could have done it better, or how I will do it differently next time. They also suggested that collaborative teacher reflection is more impactful, a tool that I’ve been grateful to have more of this year with sharing a classroom with a teacher more experienced in providing adaptations in the classroom. Additionally, “Lotter [21] found that teachers need to reflect at different levels in the inquiry teaching mode, which can provide a more realistic learning environment to enhance students’ learning outcomes. Lin [22] investigated the influence of collaborative reflection on teachers’ inquiry teaching practices.” (Xie, 2023, p. 4)
4. “Gardner [5], an American psychologist, proposed the theory of multiple intelligences, theory which encompasses spatial intelligence, linguistic intelligence, and bodily kinesthetic skills. This theory emphasizes the abilities that learners need when encountering problems or creating works that exist independently. Therefore, this theory advocates various evaluation concepts to promote development through evaluation. It transcends the traditional testing-based evaluation orientation and shifts the focus from results to the procedural review of work.” (Xie, 2023, p. 3)
5. “Sari [14] found that students who utilize inquiry-based mind mapping exhibit differences in critical thinking ability and learning motivation. Furthermore, inquiry-based mind mapping tools have a significant impact on enhancing learners’ critical thinking skills and learning motivation. Aditomo [15] indicated that inquiry teaching is positively correlated with learners’ learning outcomes. However, in the absence of teacher guidance, it is negatively correlated with learners’ learning outcomes. This further proves that inquiry teaching must take into account the role of teachers, who should provide scientific and reasonable guidance in the inquiry learning process of learners.” (Xie, 2023, p. 4)

The authors also outlined four components of AI-Driven inquiry:

1. “Questioning
2. Evidence Acquisition
3. Explanation Focus
4. Evaluation Summary” (Xie, 2023, p. 1)

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

In this paper, the big takeaways for me were:

1. GAI can help make the learning process highly personalized, catering to the learner
2. Students benefit from timely and effective feedback as they go through the process
3. They provided good suggestions on how to keep the soft skills sharp through the process of inquiry based learning

1. “GAI significantly enriches the variety of learning resources available to students, addressing the diverse educational needs of different individuals by employing sophisticated algorithms to generate highly personalized learning content. At the forefront of its capabilities, GAI possesses the ability to meticulously analyze each student’s learning history alongside their personal preferences, thus enabling the customization of personalized learning paths and content tailored specifically for them.” (Xu, 2024, p. 14)
2. “Within inquiry-based learning, the provision of timely and effective feedback is crucial for facilitating students’ growth and development. GAI is capable of conducting a thorough analysis of students’ learning processes and outcomes, offering personalized evaluations that cater to individual learning experiences.” (Xu, 2024, p. 15) This real-time feedback mechanism not only fosters an environment conducive to student reflection and self-regulation but also empowers teachers with timely insights into students’ learning statuses, allowing them to provide more effective support tailored to students’ evolving educational needs.” (Xu, 2024, p. 15)
3. “When designing inquiry-based learning activities, teachers must deliberately select tasks that cannot be fully replaced by generative artificial intelligence (Hodges et al., 2023). Activities such as oral presentations, group collaborations, and hands-on practical tasks serve as prime examples of effective engagement. These types of activities require students not only to participate actively in practical exercises but also to develop essential teamwork and communication skills, which will help mitigate over-reliance on text generated by GAI.” (Xu, 2024, p. 16)

Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

1. Design thinking is a skill teachers need more practice at, it’s not effectively being done, nor is there adequate research examining this.
2. This paper outlined an effective use of AI (in a well-established study with quantitative data) that I would like to explore with my future AI Course. They used AI in the process of creating a digital story. They reiterated the effect use of structured frameworks throughout the lessons to help guide students through the process with clarity.
3. Teacher guidance, again, needs to be specific and step-by-step
4. AI can help facilitate reflective thinking and student self-efficacy

1. “Tsai and Chai (2012) explained this situation with tertiary barriers. The learning process is not static; it is dynamic and constantly changing. Therefore, teachers need to have design thinking skills to transform this variable nature of the learning process (Tsai & Chai, 2012; Yildiz Durak et  al., 2023). Overcoming tertiary barriers significantly facilitates the effective use of technology in education.” (Saritepeci and Yildiz Durak, 2024, p. 25176)
2. “Participants were tasked with developing a digital story in a design-based process. In the context of experimental treatment, participants were systematically encouraged to use Chat GPT and Midjourney as guidance tools in the digital story development process.” (Saritepeci and Yildiz Durak, 2024, p. 25179)
3. “The students created the stories within the steps of the instruction presented by the instructor in collaboration with ChatGPT.” (Saritepeci and Yildiz Durak, 2024, p. 25182)
4. “In support of this, we have evidence that incorporating AI in various forms in educational processes has essential outcomes for reflective thinking. Indeed, Liu et al. (2023) reported that an intervention involving incorporating AI into the learning process as a feedback tool to support reflective thinking in foreign language teaching resulted in remarkable improvements in learning outcomes and student self-efficacy.” (Saritepeci and Yildiz Durak, 2024, p. 25193)

Works Cited:

Saritepeci, M., & Yildiz Durak, H. (2024). Effectiveness of artificial intelligence integration in design-based learning on design thinking mindset, creative and reflective thinking skills: An experimental study. Education and Information Technologies, 29(18), 25175–25209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12829-2

Xie, X. (2023). Influence of AI-driven Inquiry Teaching on Learning Outcomes. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 18(23), Article 23. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v18i23.45473

Xu, Y. (2024). Generative Artificial Intelligence Empowering Inquiry-Based Learning: Strategy and Challenges. Journal of Educational Research and Policies, 6(9), 14–18. https://doi.org/10.53469/jerp.2024.06(09).04

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A Reflection of Inquiry-Based Learning

Photo by Domino Studio on Unsplash

The paired readings, titled “Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching” and “A Review of Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning” could not have been better timed for my teaching practice and reflection.

The last three weeks I worked with my grade eight English Language Arts class on a Food Truck Project, which I now recognize as being in the “design-based lessons” described in the article, “A Review of Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning.”  The project was called “Food Truck Creation.”   I will come back to this topic. First, let me reflect on the readings.

The general point made in “Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work” is that inquiry-based learning can be detrimental to learning if not applied correctly.  The stress placed on the working memory to problem solve can become too great during inquiry-based instruction, which can lead to cognitive overload, subsequent frustration, misconceptions, lack of knowledge retention or long-term memory acquisition.  Fundamentally, the article argues and advocates for guided instruction during inquiry and process support for students as they move through their inquiry.  The research on cognitive load theory suggests, “guided instruction not only produced more immediate recall of facts than unguided approaches, but also longer term transfer and problem-solving skills.” (Kirschner et al., 2006, p. 80)  

“Furthermore, that working memory load does not contribute to the accumulation of knowledge in long-term memory because while working memory is being used to search for problem solutions, it is not available and cannot be used to learn.”

(Kirschner et al., 2006, p. 77)

Kirschner and others makes a strong claim – a skill I work diligently on with my language arts students while creating their own thesis in papers – and they have a strong criticism not against inquiry-based learning, but the method to achieving success in it.  The paper suggests guided instruction is fundamental to inquiry-based learning, and two major ways to provide adequate guided instruction are by providing examples, and process worksheets.

“Such worksheets provide a description of the phases one should go through when solving the problem as well as hints or rules of thumb that may help to successfully complete each phase. Students can consult the process worksheet while they are working on the learning tasks and they may use it to note intermediate results of the problem-solving process.”

(Kirschner et al., 2006, p. 80)

Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

Now I can circle back to my original point about my student’s projects the last eight weeks.  I LOVED this project.  My students worked step-by-step to engage in a collaborative, group approach that I now recognize as “Design-based lessons.”  

The process of the Food Truck Project was broken down into manageable segments, with graphic organizers to assist each step and facilitate individual roles within the groups.   As Baron suggests, students thrive when roles are designated,“ …roles are assigned to support equal participation, such as recorder, reporter, materials manager, resource manager, communication facilitator, and harmonizer.” (Barron, p. 11) I cannot take credit for this masterpiece, it was a unit plan that was purchased online, but this also speaks to open education and the benefits of sharing teacher resources openly.  

“A third genre of instructional approaches is based on the premise that children learn deeply when they are asked to design and create an artifact that requires understanding and application of knowledge. Design-based lessons have several features that make them ideal for developing technical and subject matter knowledge (Newstetter, 2000). For example, design activity supports revisions and iterative activity as students create, assess, and redesign their work product. The complexity of the work often dictates the need for collaboration and specific roles for different students, providing them with the opportunity to become “experts” in a particular area.”

(Barron, p. 7)

Why do I feel so passionately about sharing this process?  Well, it’s three-fold.  Firstly, I’m excited to learn that it falls under the concept of “design-based lesson” described in the article assigned in this week’s readings.  Secondly, the project serves to validate the concerns brought up in the research paper about minimal instruction during instruction being a flawed part of potential inquiry-based activities.  Thirdly, the project required students to share their final product in a public exhibition, which appeals to ideals set about by Barron and by Wagner and Dintersmith, earlier in previous weeks (and last year’s) required viewings in our course, in the “Most Likely to Succeed” documentary.  

I advocate for students to have public exhibition of their work. I believe it accurately reflects skills that they will need to acquire in the workforce, such as:

• Scheduling their work to be complete for a certain time frame
  (They had a certain number of days to complete each task)
• Learn to contribute to a group in a specific way
• Learn conflict resolution skills
• Go back to a step if they needed to, an example is if they lost a part of their measurement for cutting their cardboard cut outs to make their mini-food trucks
• Prepare talking points for the viewers
• Reflect on their project in a critical way, ie. one student reflected they could have “done a better job on the edges of their food truck”. Another reflected that they should have used their time better
• Take feedback from viewers, both constructive and positive ie. spelling errors in their work, and acknowledging how “cool” their lifted food truck was

“There are many ways in which performance assessments contribute to learning. For example, exhibitions, projects, and portfolios provide multiple occasions for review and revision toward a polished performance. These opportunities help students examine both how they learn and how to improve their performance. Students are often expected to present their work to an audience, such as groups of faculty, visitors, parents, or other students, to ensure that their mastery is genuine. These public presentations signal to students that their work is valued and reinforce the significance of their tasks in a real-world context.”

(Barron, p. 4)

I watched as my students thrived in the organized and structured lessons.  Here are some noticeable aspects of the project:

1. Every single student in my class had something to show on our “Food Truck Festival Day”.  There was variance in project-completion, or “process-completion” as I call it, but ultimately, everyone had completed something that they could exhibit.
2. Students who struggled with collaboration learned something from previous group projects and applied it to this activity.  In one case, a student chose to work alone rather than in a group – though this might seem like a ‘loss’ of collaboration, my observations suggest this particular student actually played a fundamental leadership role for other groups and helped them to navigate problems.
3. My students exceeded my expectations with what they were capable of, and I attribute this to the open-ness of  inquiry-based learning.  

“To develop these higher-order skills, students need to take part in complex, meaningful projects that require sustained engagement, collaboration, research, management of resources, and the development of an ambitious performance or product.”

(Barron, p. 3)

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

In addition to the success of the process worksheets, this unit also aligns with the assessment practices outlined by Barron.  Checklists and rubrics were provided for students in a formative, ongoing way through this project and it lent itself well to growth and student reflection.  Barron outlines three key characteristics of assessment systems that support inquiry approaches:

• “1. Intellectually ambitious performance assessments that enable students to learn and apply desired concepts and skills in authentic and disciplined ways. 
• 2. Evaluation tools, such as assignment guidelines and rubrics, which define what constitutes good work and effective collaboration. 
• 3. Formative assessments to guide feedback to students and to shape their instructional decisions throughout a unit.” (Barron, p. 4)

Am I suggesting I am the BEST TEACHER EVER and I should just quit now while I’m ahead?  No.  Reflecting on the readings this week, I can recognize countless times where I got it wrong and did not provide adequate support to students through their inquiries.  I can think of three or four projects I’ve done this year where I had to scaffold in the moment, back track, or guide more because I did not structure the unit well enough.

But I will celebrate the wins, donut underestimate the power of guided inquiry. 😉

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