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Artificial IntelligenceAssessment

A Teacher Rubric and Checklist for Assessing AI Tools

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

In the ever-evolving world of education, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in classrooms has become increasingly prominent. As an educator, it’s essential to navigate this landscape with a critical eye. The tools we choose can significantly impact the quality of education we deliver and the safety of the students we nurture.

The Importance of Assessing AI Tools

Imagine walking into a classroom equipped with the latest AI technology. It sounds exciting, right? But here’s the catch: just like apps and other teaching tools, not all AI tools are created equal. Some may align perfectly with your curriculum, while others might fall short in engaging your students or safeguarding their data. That’s why a thorough assessment of these tools before introducing them to your classroom is crucial.

Think of it as a bridge between technology and education. On one side, we have the potential of AI to transform learning experiences, making them more interactive, personalized, and efficient. On the other side, there are valid concerns about student privacy, data security, and the relevance of these tools to your specific educational objectives.

By evaluating AI tools beforehand, you ensure that you’re not just jumping on the tech bandwagon but making an informed choice that enhances your teaching and benefits your students. It’s about finding that perfect match where technology meets pedagogy.

Criteria for Evaluation

To simplify this evaluation process, we’ve developed a practical checklist with three levels of quality: great, good, and poor. We also made a rubric with each criterion more clearly spelled out. This rubric breaks down the key criteria to consider, making it easy for any educator, regardless of how tech-savvy they are, to make informed decisions. You can download a PDF of the Rubric and Checklist to use and share. We highlight four categories of criteria to guide you in your assessment of the AI tool you are considering: relevancy, student data privacy, ease of learning, and support.

Relevancy

For relevancy, we need to consider how well the tool aligns with your curriculum. Does it cater to the age and developmental stage of your students? Is it engaging enough to keep your students interested? Does the tool help students accomplish learning objectives and gain new skills? Additionally, how does it support differentiation and instruction in your subject or content area?

Data Privacy

In regards to student data privacy, which is a big one, it’s important to identify if the tool has a clear policy on how it collects, uses, and protects student data. It should also comply with laws like FERPA, COPPA, and GDPR to ensure student safety. Because this category can be intimidating, you may need to touch base with your technology department for help in evaluating the tool. They can help provide valuable insight and possibly offer other AI tool recommendations that are safer and yet accomplish the same task as the tool you are investigating.

Ease of Use

Next, we take a look at how easy it is to learn how to use the tool. I’m sure things are still like they were when I was in the classroom – not enough time to get everything done. Therefore, the tool should be user-friendly for both you and your students. A steep learning curve can be a significant hindrance and disrupt even the best instructional activities. The goal is for the tool to help you save time and your students learn without having to focus on the tool itself so much.

Support

Finally, support is considered. Good support can be a lifesaver. Look for tools that offer comprehensive tutorials, responsive customer support, and have an active community or forum for additional help. This is even more important if you don’t have a team at your location with whom you can bounce ideas off and ask for their input on different features of the tool. Additionally, it can be helpful if the tool offers a resource library of materials for added support.

Two documents side by side for evaluating artificial intelligence tools in education. The left document is titled "Assessing AI for Classroom Use Rubric" with criteria rated as 'Great', 'Good', and 'Poor'. The right document is a checklist titled "Assessing AI for Classroom Use Checklist" with 'Yes', 'Kinda', and 'No' options for criteria assessment.
Evaluation Frameworks for AI in Education – Rubric and Checklist

Using the Rubric and Checklist

Consider using the checklist to make a quick initial screening of the AI tool. This can help you eliminate those that obviously don’t meet the basic criteria to be used in your classroom. After the initial screening, use the rubric and possibly a friend to evaluate the tool in more depth. Discuss your findings with each other to come to a consensus on how the tool measures up and if it is worthy of further consideration. Also, look for reviews of the tool by other educators and sources that might give insight to the validity and reliability of the tool. Use the tool for a trial period and then reflect on how well it met your needs and/or the needs of your students. Continued reflection and evaluation is important since tools are (hopefully) updated and improved along the way.

Searching for AI Tools

After familiarizing yourself with the rubric and checklist, whichever is a better fit for you, consider searching for an AI tool to use. While it’s great to find ones that are labeled and intended for education, don’t limit yourself to just these. However, when using AI tools that are not intended for educators or students, be sure to take a closer look at what they do with data, since this may disqualify them for use in schools.

Here are a few websites that allow you to filter and search for various AI tools:

  • Futurepedia is a dynamic online platform aimed at professionals interested in leveraging AI tools and skills for work. It offers a regularly updated collection of articles on the latest AI tools, including practical applications and emerging trends, designed to keep its audience of over 180,000 proactive professionals well-informed and ahead in their fields.
  • The Rundown is a comprehensive online resource that categorizes and organizes a wide range of AI tools. It’s designed to help professionals easily discover and keep up-to-date with the most useful AI applications across various fields, including education, productivity, marketing, and more.
  • There’s an AI for That (TAAFT) is an extensive AI tool aggregator, regularly updated and catering to over 2 million users monthly. It provides a diverse array of AI tools for various tasks and jobs, helping professionals discover and utilize AI applications effectively in their respective fields.
  • Future Tools is a digital hub that collects and organizes a vast array of AI tools, offering users an efficient way to find the exact AI application they need for various purposes. This platform is especially useful for educators and professionals seeking to enhance their work with the latest AI technologies, featuring categories such as productivity, education, marketing, and more.
  • Top AI Tools is an extensive directory of over 5k+ AI tools, acting as a valuable resource for AI enthusiasts and professionals. It offers a user-friendly interface to explore a vast range of AI products and services, categorized for various needs and tasks, including education, marketing, and productivity, making it a one-stop destination for discovering AI applications.
  • AI Tools Arena is a versatile platform that offers an extensive list of AI tools, categorized to serve various professional needs like automation, marketing, and productivity. It serves as a valuable resource for individuals looking to stay current with AI advancements, providing insights and information across a broad spectrum of AI applications.

Check Out the TCEA Community

If you are a TCEA member, then be sure to jump into the All About AI community group. Here you’ll find other like-minded educators and leaders discussing all things related to AI. 

Share a Tool You’ve Evaluated

So what tool have you evaluated that seems to be a good candidate for you and/or your classroom? Jump in the comments and let us know what you like about the tool

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Educational ResearchGood Teaching

Powerful and Easy Digital Tools for Formative Assessment

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Interwoven into instruction, assessment has many benefits. Its biggest benefit? Aiding students and teachers in closing the learning gap. In the Fall of 2021, I attended TCEA’s Campus Technology Specialist Academy (CTSA). One of the sessions, led by Destiny Wagner and Kristofer Thurston, offered several gems related to using digital tools for formative assessment. These gems became some of my favorite takeaways. But before diving deeper into the tools, let’s take a look at formative assessment.

digital assessment
Reach out to Destiny Wagner (email: edtechdestiny@gmail.com) for more info on their excellent session.

What Is Formative Assessment?

In the Amazing Learning Design Outline (ALDO), I highlight the importance of assessment. Assessment is critical to crafting feedback that closes the learning gap. That gap, of course, is between where the student is now and where they need to be. Did you know that formative assessment can double student learning gains? Formative assessment is an ongoing, low-stakes assessment that provides such feedback to both students and teachers regularly. In other words, to gauge where students are in their learning, they must be assessed before, during, and after learning. And these assessments can tie into a wide variety of strategies.

digital assessment
digital assessment
Step 2 of Amazing Lesson Design Online (ALDO)

It is also important to note that students are active collaborators in closing this gap since they are involved in the formative assessment process. Some have organized a list of assessment criteria teachers can use, and you can read the complete list in this online document (PDF). But today we’ll focus on assessments that I’ve grouped into understanding checks, checklists, and self-assessment tools. 

Get PDF version
Get PDF version – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R4LmCIqn6vuupDer7478Vww0X3tu14j_/view?usp=sharing

When working with students, keep these three tips in mind when providing feedback:

1. Ask the four questions:

  • What can the student do?
  • What can’t the student do?
  • How does the student’s work compare with that of others?
  • How can the student do better?

2. Take advantage of single-point rubrics to convey expectations.

3. Connect the feedback language you use to specific success criteria. One example might be, “How will I know I have learned this?” Be sure to share that feedback at the start of the lesson (adapted from source).

Group 1: Understanding Checks

Checks for understanding are one aspect of formative assessment. ASCD even published a book on the topic. It can be defined as:

The frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding. These checks for understanding identify learning needs. They also allow the teacher to track and adjust teaching.

Adapted from Source: Todd Finley’s Dipsticks to Check for Understanding via Edutopia.org

An example of a type of understanding check is the pre-assessment. The goal of pre-assessment is to discover what students know and to identify what they need to learn. Students can use these to set learning goals and also predict how well they will do.

One idea for formative checks for understanding also comes from Dataworks’ TAPPLE concept:

  • (T)each first
  • (A)sk a specific question
  • (P)ause, Pair-Share, and Point
  • (P)ick a random non-volunteer
  • (L)isten to the Response
  • (E)ffective Feedback
digital assessment
Screenshot by author

Are you already thinking of some ways you could use digital tools to (A)sk a specific question about what students have learned, or to (P)ause, Pair-share, and Point?

Since digital tools are flexible and can be used for a wide variety of purposes, they may lend themselves well to checks for understanding. In their session, Destiny and Kristofer shared several powerful and easy digital tools that could be used for understanding checks. Among those tools shared were:

  • Baamboozle. A versatile tool that students can use to create or participate in a wide variety of games. View video.
digital assessment
Screenshot by author
  • Mentimeter. Provides student polling and creates open-ended results in word clouds out of responses. View video.
  • Pear Deck. Perform “on the fly” assessments with social- emotional health check-ins. It works well with a variety of Google and Microsoft Office products. View video.
  • Plickers. Print coded cards that students can use. The teacher relies on a free app to scan student cards. The direction of the card shows students’ response. View video.
  • Poll Everywhere. Assess students with a simple poll. View video.
  • Socrative. Set up multiple choice, true/false, or short answer assessments. View results in real time via a teacher dashboard. View video.
  • StrawPoll. Create easy-to-embed, mobile-friendly polls students can complete. View video.
digital assessment
Straw Poll Example – https://strawpoll.com/swau1ugve/r

StrawPoll has become one of my new favorites but others at TCEA rely on Gimkit, Kahoot, Quizziz, and Quizlet. Of course, there are others, such as EdPuzzle, Playposit, and more.

free templates

Adapted from David Perkins (2003) The Ladder of Feedback and John Hattie (2014) The Power of Feedback | Get Your Own Copy.

Group 2: Checklists

Use checklists and rubrics to identify and clarify success criteria for students. Think of success criteria as a to-do list for learning intentions. This short twelve minute video can provide some background on success criteria.

One easy tool you can use to create a checklist is simply Google Sheets. Here’s a quick video on how to do that:

You can also create rubrics for students directly in Google Classroom. Here is a quick six minute video on how this can be done.

Group 3: Self-Assessment Tools

Self-assessment tools are used by students to take their own measure. As you might imagine, many of the digital tools shared so far would also work well for this purpose.

Becton Loveless offers these suggestions for students designing their own assessments:

  • Explain what self-assessment is and why it matters
  • Show a model of what it looks like, preferably from previous students
  • Teach students different strategies of self-assessment
  • Have students practice creating assessments, then discuss as a group
  • Conference with students throughout the process

Becton also offers several low-tech examples that may get you thinking. Among those examples you can adapt and use digitally, consider these:

For example, PBIS Rewards offers several ways to create rubrics online. My top three in that list include iRubric, Rubistar, and Teachnology Rubric Generator. And a web search on rubrics will yield many PDF-based rubrics.

Choosing a Digital Tool

Which tool you decide to use will depend on the depth of complexity and funding you have available. For example, Mentimeter, StrawPoll, Plickers are free. With the others, there may be costs associated depending on the features you want. The important point to remember is that creating low-stakes assessments is your focus, and these assessments should always connect to the learning objectives.

Feature Image Source

Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

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CTO/CIOCybersecurityLeadershipTechnical Support

Checklist: Learning with Technology

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

When schools take a look at campus educational technology efforts and how the technology is being leveraged for learning, they need to keep a few points in mind. This checklist focuses on three key areas you can use to do that. Let’s take a quick look at each area.

checklist

Key Area #1: Impacting Growth

When discussing growth, it’s almost always student growth you need to consider. That is, are students able to show growth from beginning of the year to the middle and end of the year? How about from year to year? When adapting technology for use in the classroom, you need strategies that work. You can use this free app to get some insights and access digital tools. All strategies have an effect size. What you are looking for is the pairing of one digital tool that amplifies the positive effect.

Another key checklist component is ensuring that you have a well-established coaching program. Kickstart your coaching program with this easy to use multimedia text set.

checklist

Get a copy of this multimedia text set

Key Area #2: Supporting Technology

You’re not alone if you find yourself wondering, “How long will it take to get technical support?” This particular area of the checklist focuses on technical support and response time. What’s more, it addresses two sore points with end users.

The first is being able to check the status of an help request (a.k.a. trouble ticket). In one small urban school district, the help desk lead “improved” his numbers by assigning active tickets to an inactive technician account. This made them “disappear” or appear as closed in the help desk system. Ensuring that end users can check the status of their help requests can stop fraud like that.

checklist

The second sore point? Safeguarding sensitive data. It’s important that the district or campus have a process in place for protecting data. What’s more, it’s critical that all staff be a part of that process.

Key Area #3: Planning for Anytime, Anywhere Access

checklistWondering how to provide anytime, anywhere access for students and staff? It’s been a big issue for both small and large schools and districts. One of the most important ways to achieve this is to establish clear standards for all locations. In this way, you can ensure everyone has the connectivity they must have at the point of need.

Go Even Deeper: Become a Data Guardian

You can find the best ways to secure your data and device(s), as well as what you put in the cloud, plus even more, with TCEA’s affordable, self-paced Data Guardian course. Learn more here.

Learning with Technology Checklist

Here’s the learning with technology checklist which can be used to help you gauge how you are leveraging technology. The goal is ensure a positive impact on teaching, learning, and leading at your campus. Although the checklist has evolved since its creation, you can find the original in this Google Doc.

Get the PDF version for printing (Updated: 9/2/2021)

Feature Image Source

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

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remote classroom
Good Teaching

Preparing Students for Their New Remote Classroom

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Are you wondering how to prepare your students for their new remote classroom? If so, you are probably not alone. There are a lot of things to consider so that your students can start the year successfully. Begin by preparing the remote learning environment before students “arrive” at school. Then get students oriented to the new environment so that they feel at ease. Below are some suggestions to prepare them.

Getting Started

  • Provide students with instructions (written or video) on how to meet with you on the first day of remote learning. Include the time and/or a link. If you have a Bitmoji, include that and make the instructions fun and light hearted.

Class Structure

remote classroom
  • Provide students with a schedule. Include times they will be meeting with you for synchronous instruction.

Navigation

  • Make a video overview on how to navigate the remote classroom. Show them how to login, where to find assignments, how to submit assignments, etc.
  • You could also create a scavenger hunt activity that students can complete in order to familiarize themselves with their new classroom.

Expectations

  • Create a poster or some type of visual that lists the classroom expectations or norms.
  • Get student input on what the expectations should be by having a discussion with them or allowing them to vote on the most important norms. Get more information about setting norms here.

Communication

  • Students will need to know how they can contact you. Let them know your preferred method for communicating. In addition, share when they will receive an answer (24 hours, 48 hours, etc.). Post this in your remote classroom.
  • If you are holding virtual office hours, let students know when you will be available to meet with them and if they need to sign up or can just show up.
  • Students will need to know how to properly communicate with you and peers in the remote classroom. Be sure communication is addressed in the classroom expectations. 

Checklist

You can find these as well as more things to consider at Preparing Students for Remote Instruction Checklist. What else would you add to the checklist? Let us know in the comments below.

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Google Tips and TricksMicrosoft Tips and Tricks

Checklists: Scaffolding Metacognitive Awareness

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Used effectively, checklists can help students develop metacognitive awareness of their intellectual processes. Metacognitive research consistently suggests that students who know how to learn, know which strategies are most effective when faced with a problem or a task, and have accurate methods of assessing their progress, are better learners than those who don’t,” says Dr. Kathleen Dudden Rowlands (source). Several tools that can help with developing metacognitive awareness are available to educators and students. These tools can be used to create shared lists of tasks or instructions. In this blog entry, we will explore two tools available to schools.

Checklists for Metacognitive Awareness

“No matter how expert you may be, well-designed check lists can improve outcomes,” says Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto. If checklists can help students develop awareness of their thinking processes, then why aren’t more of us using them? In my own work as an educator, I quickly learned to keep a list of tasks. Checklists can help us manage the complexity that comes with learning new things, as well as sharing what we have learned.

You can find a wealth of checklists online at various Pinterest sites. Checklists are so important that the Federal Student Aid office, an office of the U.S. Department of Education, offers a variety of them .

For Students: Our checklists suggest these and many other steps you can take, as well as websites you can explore, as you prepare academically and financially for college.

For Parents:  Each checklist—from elementary school through high school—includes items for you, such as how to support your child in his or her studies, where to set up a college savings account, and what to do when it’s time to apply for financial aid.

Simple, task-based checklists can empower and assist learners to follow steps and help them accomplish tasks with many steps, as well as serve as memory aids. Recognizing that checklists are important, here are two tools you can use to scaffold students’ list-making skills. (By the way, no one is born knowing how to make and keep a check list. This is a skill that we must teach our students and help them practice.)

Tool #1: Google Keep

Google Keep, which works on multiple devices, provides Post-It like simplicity. Some of its main features are listed below:

  • Create and share checklists with colleagues, students, and others
  • Quickly format a Google Keep note with a title and note contents
  • Select a bright color for each note to distinguish them from each other
  • Turn checkboxes on for your note to create a quick checklist or add dashes in front of notes to create a more impromptu list
  • Draw on your Google Keep note with your finger or stylus
  • Snap a picture or add an image from your device photo gallery
  • Use images and pictures, one per note, to differentiate between your notes
  • Grab the text from any picture, which is a quick way to use optical character recognition (OCR) to scan the image to text
  • Use labels (a.k.a. tags or keywords) to organize notes
  • Set reminders that will pop up. These reminders can be set to turn on based on time or your location (using GPS on your device).
  • Collaborate with others on a note
  • Copy a note to Google Docs if it becomes too long

Some features Google Keep lacks include formatting text (bold, italics, different fonts), nested checklists, the ability to embed more than one image, and adding documents as file attachments. You may want to read Eric Curts (Control-Alt-Achieve Blog) entry on interactive checklists.

Tool #2: Microsoft OneNote

metacognitive

Learning Tools add-on for OneNote

Available on all devices, Microsoft OneNote brings a host of features to the table. In addition to all the features that Google Keep has (albeit with no reminders feature or grab image text in the free OneNote version), OneNote has many more. Recently, it underwent a radical simplification from OneNote 2016 to the free OneNote app. Some of its newest features (although this list is not exhaustive) in August 2017 include:

  • Text to Math: Use your keyboard to type an equation as text in OneNote, and use Math to solve it or draw a graph.
  • Smart Lookup: Get definitions, wiki articles, and top related searches from the web without leaving OneNote
  • Insert online pictures: Use Bing’s Image Search to safely insert photos and images without ever having to leave OneNote.
  • Tables of all shapes and sizes: One cell or many? Choose the number of rows and columns you need to organize your content. Once you’ve got a table, you can add or delete rows or columns, add table shading, or sort your content.
  • More highlight colors: Yellow isn’t the only color in the rainbow. Now you can highlight with blue, green, red, and more.
  • Zoom in, zoom out: Use the new Page Width option on the View tab to zoom out to see all the notes on your page, or zoom in to focus on just what you need (source: Windows Central).

OneNote also now allows for Learning Tools, which includes the Immersive Reader. This add-on includes tools that read text aloud and more. While only available for OneNote Online and OneNote Desktop (a.k.a. OneNote 2016), it is hoped to soon be available for the free OneNote app. Another must-have add-on for schools includes Class Notebook. This add-on makes reviewing student work and distributing content to students easier.

Avoid Failure, Encourage Checklists

“Failure results not so much from ignorance as from ineptitude,” wrote Atul Gawande (source). He defined ineptitude as “not properly applying what we know works.” As we help students learn what to do, let’s also help them apply what we know works.

 

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