Screens aren't everything
Digital literacy in Europe, AI tools directory, GPT-o1's crossword skills, funds for primaries, try a note-taking tool and much more....
What’s been happening
This week Sarah began working on a new European Erasmus project, Co-Create, which focuses on improving the teaching of digital literacy. The participating municipalities and groups of schools from Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands will evaluate current practice and carry out classroom-based action research projects to improve digital literacy education in each country. The three-year project will explore aspects of digital literacy including information and media literacy, design thinking, computational thinking and the use of AI, and will develop teacher professional development and student materials.
In the planning meeting this week, the project coordinators reflected on rapid policy change in relation to digital education. From an overarching push towards more digitalisation, ministries of education across Europe are now emphasising books. In July, after her re-election for a second term as European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen pledged to combat social media addiction and cyberbullying, citing concerns about their detrimental effects on mental health. Our newsletter last week covered mobile phone bans for schools sweeping Europe and the trend for a ‘digital pull back’ in education.
However, what the Co-Create project aims to do is to analyse the current state of digital education policy and practice in each country and test new ways to deliver the curriculum. As one of the Danish educators said,
“the current political policy conversations are not nuanced enough in relation to the use of technology in schools. We need to shift the focus away from discussions about screens, to the complex and vital skills and competencies children and young people need to create and learn with technology and to be critical users of information.”
Watch this space as we begin to work alongside primary and secondary teachers from the five countries to investigate what works with their students.
AI roundup
UNESCO AI framework
Last week we featured UNESCO’s useful AI Competency Framework for Teachers and AI competency framework for students. Now Tim Evans has summarised it in a handy and concise graphic.
Just get the AI to do it?
This is a fun Beat the Bot descriptive writing challenge from Jason Gulya that would work for students from primary right up to college, especially if the AI was primed to ‘write like an [age here]-year old’.
Jisc’s AI tools directory
This is a great early version of what could be a really useful lightweight directory of AI tools focused on the features people are using and how they are using them. One to bookmark.
“Using GPT-o1 means confronting a paradigm change in AI...GPT-o1 is pulling back the curtain on AI capabilities we might not have seen coming, even with its current limitations. This leaves us with a crucial question: How do we evolve our collaboration with AI as it evolves?” – Ethan Mollick
Can GPT-o1 solve a crossword?
Ethan Mollick finds out.
Illuminate, illuminate
Google has released a preview of Illuminate, an AI-powered service designed to transform written text into audio. The service is currently available as a beta version, and users can experience the results on the Google website.
Quick links
Ofcom’s Making Sense of Media team has produced a useful report looking at what works in delivering media literacy projects
Nesta’s Education: the ideas, part of of its Options 2024 project, recommends introducing legislation to create ‘safe phones’ for under 16s
Primary schools can now apply for up to £165,000 for the Paul Hamlyn Fund Teacher Development Fund to enhance teacher skills and confidence in using arts-based approaches across the curriculum
Discover how children and young people learn about money in a digital world. Thanks to Cliff Manning for this share from his More than Robots newsletter
Wikipedia needs young editors to rescue it from chatbots
From Computing At School, the British Computer Society has developed a comprehensive checklist of digital skills that teachers need to perform their roles most effectively
Give it a try
Fathom
Suffering from start of term meeting overload? This free AI notetaker records, transcribes, highlights and summarises your meetings. It claims to work with most platforms and tools and supports 28 languages.
Connected Learning is by Sarah Horrocks and Michelle Pauli
