Dozens of educators from across Ireland met on a sunny Saturday in County Tipperary today to learn more about artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and other post-COVID issues that are reshaping education. When the conference opened, I noticed a major change in how my Edge browser was set up. The new Bing had appeared at the top of the screen.
I’ve been using voice search with Bing on Android because spoken search helps my 11yo son find things faster than using a keyboard. I’ve heard Bing interact with Dylan dozens of times during the past month. He thinks Bing gives him better information than Alexa. Since he learned to talk, Dylan has given his music requests to our kitchen smart speaker, he taps the microphone on Google Maps in the car to find directions for travel, and he has also discovered Bing will chastise him if he uses bad words.
As every teacher knows, AI is already in classrooms, backpacks, and purses. I wish we had planned to collect audio snippets from many of those attending ictedu today. Our Youth Media team is in a holding pattern yet we know the young curiosity that sparked dozens of previous conversations continues unabated. I expect that if you follow ymt.fm you’ll discover strands of thought from clever teachers who will share how they’re integrating the ethical use of AI in their practice.
