Sequoia Con Presentation 2025

Essential Skills

in an Ai-infused world: familiar objectives with new applications

Lisa Snow, NBCT

Iste Certified Educator, EdTech Specialist, Eastside Catholic School

Contact me!

Why?

"For our students' sake, to prepare them for the future, we can't look at the world through 'today glasses.' We must use our 'tomorrow glasses.'"-Matt Miller

Some Numbers...

75%

51%

111%

According to a study by HopeLab and Common Sense Media, in the fall of 2023 51% of young people (ages 14-22) said they have used generative AI, but only 27% report to using it at least monthly.

According to the 2024 Microsoft and LinkedIn Work Trend Index, 75% of Knowledge Workers use AI on a regular basis.

According to the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2024, from 2022-2023 jobs in Generative AI rose by 111%

"...teens...point out that 'most of the adults need to learn about [gen-AI]'...because adnlts need to understand how to work it for themselves first.'"

- Teen and Young Adult Perspectives on Generative AI, Harvard Center for Thriving 2024

What?

Skills that look familiar, but now have new applications

AI Literacy Framework

Evergreen AI Education believes that "AI literacy is already an essential 21st century skill." Their AI Literacy framework, which hones in on six essential AI Competency Domains, articulates the human role:

• AI Essentials
• Future-Ready Thinking
• Wayfinding
• Human-Machine Collaboration
• AI-Leveraged Innovation
• Ethical and Societal Implications

AI as a Grimoire

AI as a playlist

AI as a Magic Loom

AI as the GPS

If AI can weave strands and colors together in millions of different ways, what is the role of the master weaver? What does the expert human in the loop bring?

If AI is the GPS, what does the "human in the loop" need to do? What are the essentially human tasks?

If AI is a spell book or a potion cookbook, what are the essential tasks of the practioner? What does the magical human bring to this collaboration?

At a music festival or club, if the AI supplies the playlist, what does the DJ offer? How does the DJ use the AI to augment their work?

read more

Decision Making (Analytical Judgment)

Information and Media Literacy

Emotional Intelligence

Skills for the 21st Century:

Intellectual Curiosity

Adaptability, Persistence

Collaboration

Creativity

Problem Solving

Critical Thinking

Global Awareness

Techno- logical Literacy

Communication

Information and Media Literacy

Global Awareness

Communication

Problem Solving

Intellectual Curiosity

Creativity

Techno- logical Literacy

Critical Thinking

Emotional Intelligence

Collaboration

Decision Making (Analytical Judgment)

Adaptability, Persistence

Skills for the 21st Century:

Reflection Work!

• Open the handout linked on this page:
• Look over the Competencies
• Pick 1-2 Competencies you feel interested in or comfortable with.
• Think about at least one way you already teach this skill already
• Think about tasks you already have students complete or activities you already implement.
• Brainstorm how AI could be layered on top of the skill you already teach.
• Think about activities you can add or questions you can ask to augment what you already do.

Where?

Choosing a tool can be daunting, but be willing to learn with and from students.

Padlet

Learning Objective:Demonstrate an understanding of imagery in poetic language. Apply their understanding to a complicated poetic text.

Collaboration

Communication

Techno- logical Literacy

Creativity

Adaptability, Persistence

School AI

• Using School AI (or another tool, like Goblin Tools, Magic School AI, or CoPilot from Microsoft), have students submit a recently written email (without Personally Indenifying Information) and ask the AI to offer a sentiment analysis and suggestions for making the email more polite and professional.
• School AI and MagicSchool AI are great options because you can oversee all interactions, and you can tailor the bots for your students (age, guardrails, expectations, etc.).
• Ask the students to reflect on how someone else might feel if they received the first email versus a revised email? Which do they think is kinder? More effective?
• Try out the one below.

Learning Objective:Writing professional and polite email communication. Reflecting on social-emotional impact of words and tone.

Communication

Emotional Intelligence

Adaptability, Persistence

Critical Thinking

Off Line:

Learning Objective:Reading non-fiction or informational text for understanding; Researching Current topics

Decision Making (Analytical Judgment)

• Use this Hard Fork episode (it's a podcast, but has a transcript available) OR an article from Newsela on School Phone Bans.
• You can also give them an article about marketing and algorithms that keep people engaged on social media.
• You could also use articles that indicate how AI is being used for good around the world.
• Have students investigate their own experience with smart watch or phone use in class (if younger grades, have them think about how a computer or video game might impact their classroom environment).
• If they are looking at the positive impact, have them think of problems they see in the world that they want to solve.
• Have them work together to propose a solution to the issue of young adult mental health, distraction/disengagement at school, or another "problem" they are interested in that is related to why schools are banning cell phones.
• They might also research or investigate if other countries have similar mental health problems for young adults.
• Or they can propose a solution where AI could help them solve a real-world problem in a positive way.

Intellectual Curiosity

Information and Media Literacy

Problem Solving

Communication

Global Awareness

Who?

AI affects everyone and every discipline.it needs to be infused throughout education.

Let's share!What new ideas do you have to take back?

When?

AI and Generative ai are already here; students need literacy and critical thinking skills today.

Try "I Can't Draw"

• Padlet is a freemium edtech tool. You can create an account with my referral code: padlet.com/referrals/lsnow7
• I made this padlet by select "AI Art Gallery" as my template, which isolates the "I Can't Draw" tool.

Magic School Room

• MagicSchool AI is a freemium edtech tool.
• There is a free version that includes 70+ tools for educators, 40+ tools you can monitor for student use in student rooms, and AI image generation from Adobe.
• https://app.magicschool.ai/

Back to your Competencies

Now that you have had a chance to play with a few tools yourself, head back to your competencies document and try to brainstorm another competency you could bring into your classroom OR revise a brainstorm you created during the first work time.

Resources!

The Promises and Perils of AI in Education by Ken Shelton and Dee Lanier

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick

Evergreen AI Core Competencies Document

Code.org Activities and Professional Development

How to Teach AI by Rachelle Dené Poth

AI for Educators by Matt Miller

Thanks!

Feedback

AI can brainstorm!

I used Claude from Anthropic to help come up with these four analogies.

These four analogies were just some of the ideas that Claude brainstormed, in our quick conversation. on Monday 10/21. While I am not using much of the text that Claude provided, the list of unique ideas about analogies that are good representations of AI-Human Collaboration with a focus on "prioritizing human agency" started my thinking and framed my ideas in new ways. (The image to the right is a link to the full chat, and I'm serious it only took 5ish minutes).