THE PREP PERIOD

Quick tips, tools & tricks you can take to the classroom on Monday

5-Week Series on Prompting for Students | This week's tip comes from AI for Education​

Week 4: Explain it to me like…

Welcome to week 4 of this 5-week series on prompting for students!

I’ll be honest… I use this one all of the time. One day while reading a higher level article on AI politics I became frustrated and quickly asked Gemini “why do AI models need chips?” and then immediately after it responded I threw it a “explain it to me like you would a middle schooler”. A little less sophisticated than the prompt I’m offering here… but that’s what learning looks like! You can read more about this eye-opening experience (and the free resource born from it) in Sarah’s pick today.

So this is another tip that I’d suggest teaching students for when there’s no expert in the room to help answer their questions. We know that the interpersonal relationship between a student and a teacher or a student and a tutor is far more effective and meaningful than a chatbot interaction. That being said, sometimes a student is on their own and just needs help understanding something on their level and this skill can give them a tool to try when that happens.

SARAH'S PICK

Aldeya

Explain it to me like you would a middle schooler…

Ever catch a TikTok or read an article about AI and think, “I don’t know what half of those words mean”. I’ve been diving in deep on AI for some time now and this happens to me. Every. Single. Day.

Technology moves fast… but AI is moving at the speed of light. In fact, the frontier model company, Anthropic (maker of Claude), has put out a warning on this progress “When AI Builds Itself” which I felt definitely warranted a spot in Lounge Reads this week (it too contains some handy definitions).

So… no one can blame us for not feeling “caught up”. As I mentioned above, one morning I was diving into some articles on AI in general attempting to learn more about the fundamentals. I realized pretty quickly that I needed an even more foundational understanding of all of the working parts including a term as seemingly simple as “chips”. I knew what a chip was but I found myself reading an article about competition with China and thought “you know what? Why the heck do they even need chips?”

If I was going to understand AI on a deeper level I needed to get down to the basics and inform myself.

So I went to Gemini and asked what felt like a very basic question, “Why do AI models need chips?” As a novice, let’s just say I did not find the answer particularly helpful…

AI companies need specialized chips (GPUs, TPUs) because they provide the massive computational power and efficiency needed to train and run complex AI models like LLMs.

GPUs? TPUs?

“Gemini, explain it to me again as you would a middle schooler.”

And Eureka!

The way the chatbot interpreted this request was actually to explain it to me in terms of school systems… like districts, schools, departments, department chairs, teachers, specialists, and students… which given my education background turned out to be a good thing.

This led me down a long rabbit hole that helped me learn more about so much more than just the basics of chips. I learned about NPU (Neural Processing Unit) chips that cell phone companies are already installing directly into our devices. I learned how to tell if information like health data is leaving my phone, and even how the temperature of my phone during AI use can tell me something about how my AI is running (locally or via the Cloud).

I saved this conversation, edited it for educator audiences, and added it to the Aldeya Resource page. It lives there as a question and answer PDF to share for free with others like me who just want to be able to read an article on AI and have a basic understanding of the terminology. Check out the AI 101 Guide here.

One of my goals is to prevent tech and AI literacy from being gate-kept. When tech is shrouded in a growing list of inaccessible terms it feels distant, impersonal, even frightening at times. That really only makes it easier for us to be taken advantage of at worst and make uninformed decisions for our students at best.

You can find this Sarah-and-AI conversation turned guide here if you’d like to have some of the more common terms that are affecting your daily life!

More questions? That’s what I’m here for! Simply reply to this email and I’d be happy to chat. Let’s stay informed together!

LOUNGE READS

The AI headlines that matter for your classroom

Anthropic makes the case for building systems that would let AI companies verify a coordinated slowdown, an unusual argument coming from inside the industry. New survey data shows over half of teachers believe AI is already harming students' critical thinking, and momentum is building to limit student-facing use. And a piece in eSchool News argues that districts writing AI policy should start with educators, not vendor pitches.

Anthropic

​When AI Builds Itself​

An AI company makes the case for slowing down its own product, if everyone else agrees to do the same.

"The Anthropic Institute will conduct research—in collaboration with many others—and take actions to help build the systems that a credible slowdown or pause would require. These systems would enable frontier AI developers to verify that others globally have actually stopped or slowed, and that a bad actor could not use the auspices of a coordinated slowdown to jump ahead in secret."

K-12 Dive

​Over Half of Teachers Say AI Is Harming Students' Critical Thinking​

New survey data shows most teachers are already worried AI is dulling students' thinking skills.

"... As teacher and student use of AI proliferates, momentum is gaining to curb student-facing AI use, especially for younger students."

eSchool News

​We need to start giving agency to educators instead of edtech vendors​

States and districts are writing AI rules fast, and what they decide will affect your classroom soon.

"Teachers are the closest source for identifying what is missing from the classroom, and when school leaders start there rather than at the vendor’s value proposition, the solution space opens up in ways that serve schools better."

A NOTE BEFORE YOU GO...

I'm glad you're here! If something resonated this week, hit reply and tell me. If you know a fellow educator who would find this useful, forward it their way. The village grows when educators share with other educators.

Never hesitate to send me an email if you're looking for some human-forward, AI thought partnership!