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Middle School Technology Lesson Plans: Where to Find Them

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September 20th, 2022 | 8 min. read

Brad Hummel

Coming from a family of educators, Brad knows both the joys and challenges of teaching well. Through his own teaching background, he’s experienced both firsthand. As a writer for iCEV, Brad’s goal is to help teachers empower their students by listening to educators’ concerns and creating content that answers their most pressing questions about career and technical education.

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If you’re a new middle school computer applications teacher, you’re facing many choices for technology lesson plans for your students. Making the right choices for your classroom can seem overwhelming since learning basic computer and technology skills will set them up for later success.

Thankfully, finding the right resources isn’t as difficult as you might think. Four of the most popular topics taught in middle school technology classes are:

• Website Creation and Beginner Coding Lessons
• Digital Citizenship Lessons
• Google Suite Lessons
• Microsoft Office Lessons

In this article, you’ll find an example resource for each topic and where to find additional lesson plans so you can choose the most appropriate materials for your program.

1. Website Creation and Beginner Coding Lessons

Example: TechnoKids Intermediate Resources

An excellent resource for middle school technology lesson plans in coding and website creation comes from TechnoKids. TechnoKids publishes K-12 curriculum to help students understand key technology and computer science concepts.

While TechnoKids offers several different lesson options, middle school teachers will find their Intermediate resources the most appropriate for their students. Designed for learners in grades 6-9, the resources assist students in learning some of the most popular topics within a middle school technology class.

These materials are available individually or as an intermediate-level collection. The TechnoKids Intermediate lesson plan options include:

• Website Creation
• Entrepreneurship
• Personal Finance

One strength of the TechnoKids lessons is that it makes complex computer coding simple and accessible for students, so it’s great for middle schoolers who are just starting to learn these skills.

How Much Do These Technology Lesson Plans Cost, and Who Are They For?

If you only want a single TechnoKids project to use in your classroom, you’ll pay $40. You can also buy the entire Intermediate Curriculum Collection for $295, which includes access to more than a dozen projects.

TechnoKids is an excellent fit for instructors who want to emphasize computer coding and website creation since the resources make learning these skills accessible to younger learners.

Teachers who don’t think they’ll use all the materials in the collection may want to focus on one or two projects or look for a set of lesson plans that’s a better fit.

Related Resources to Teach Coding

• 5 Top Middle School Technology Curriculum Options
• Top 5 Free Middle School Computer Science Resources to Teach Coding

2. Digital Citizenship Lessons

Example: Common Sense Education

Technology teachers often look for lesson plans to teach digital citizenship and literacy skills. Addressing these topics in a middle school classroom is critical to ensuring students can safely, responsibly, and respectfully use technology going forward.

Common Sense Education is a nonprofit organization that helps students and families understand and responsibly use media. Their Digital Citizenship resources provide ready-to-teach lessons for K-12 teachers that were developed in partnership with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The Common Sense digital citizenship lessons are divided into six categories:

• Media Balance and Well-Being
• Privacy and Security
• Digital Footprint and Identity
• Relationships and Communication
• Cyberbullying , Digital Drama, and Hate Speech
• News and Media Literacy

You’ll find a lesson for grades 6, 7, and 8 for 18 middle school digital citizenship lessons for each of these topics. You’ll also find take-home resources to share with families.

As a nonprofit organization, Common Sense Education provides its lesson plans for free.

You could easily supplement your existing materials with these resources if you cover one or more of the lesson categories in your technology classes.

However, consider additional materials to build a complete technology curriculum if you're covering these areas in more depth.

Related Resources to Teach Digital Citizenship

• What Is Internet Safety and Why Is It Important to Teach?
• 4 Best Digital Citizenship Lesson Plans for Middle School
• Top 4 Digital Citizenship Activities for Middle School
• The 5 Best Cyberbullying Resources for Middle School  

3. Google Suite Lessons

Example: Google Drive Bundle from Gavin Middleton

Because they’re easy to use and allow for quick, web-based collaboration, more and more teachers include the Google suite of applications in their middle school technology lesson plans. One example of a quality Google lesson plans provider is Gavin Middleton.

Gavin Middleton is a notable computer applications resource provider on Teachers Pay Teachers, the marketplace where instructors can buy, sell, and share classroom resources.

His Google Drive Bundle is a set of resources designed to help teach the Google Suite of applications for students in grades 6 and up.

These lesson plans cover all of the fundamentals of using Google applications, including:

• Files, Folders, and Sharing within Google Drive
• Google Docs
• Google Slides
• Google Sheets
• Google Drawings
• Google Forms
• Updates and Add-ons in Drive

When you use each lesson plan, you’ll be able to give your students a working knowledge of applications they’ll use for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and file sharing.

Gavin Middleton’s lesson plan bundle costs $19.95, a 40 percent savings over purchasing each of the resources individually.

If you cover the Google Suite in your technology lessons, there’s a high chance you’ll benefit from these materials. Considering the bundle contains over 500 pages of content, you’ll be able to teach many classes using just these resources.

Related Resources to Teach Google Apps

• How to Teach Google Docs in Middle School  
• Top 3 Google Docs Lessons for Middle School
• 3 Best Lesson Plans for Teaching Google Sheets in Your Middle School Classroom  
• 3 Places to Find Google Sheets Activities for Middle School Students
• Top 3 Google Slides Lesson Plans & How to Use Them

4. Microsoft Office Lessons

Example: Microsoft Office Mega Bundle from TechCheck Lessons

Microsoft Office lessons remain popular in many middle school technology classrooms because they introduce students to a suite of productivity tools they can use throughout their careers. A solid place to start is with TechCheck Lessons, another reputable seller offering lesson plans through Teachers Pay Teachers.

Designed for grades 7-11, TechCheck’s Microsoft Office Mega Bundle includes an incredible 856 pages of resources.

The bundle includes an extensive amount of Microsoft Office lesson plans and activities:

• 33 Word lessons
• 35 PowerPoint lessons
• 20 Excel lessons
• 9 Outlook activities

In the bundle, you’ll also receive other lesson plans to teach your students essential computer skills like keyboarding and digital citizenship.

The TechCheck Microsoft Office Mega Bundle is available for $45. With 856 pages of content, you should be able to teach an entire course on these computer applications. On the other hand, if you need just a few lessons on a specific Microsoft Office topic, you can purchase individual units from within the TechCheck Bundle.

These lesson plans are of great value for a teacher focusing on the Microsoft Office application suite and provide a wealth of content you can incorporate into your middle school technology classes.

Related Resources to Teach Microsoft Office

• 3 Top Places to Find Excel Lesson Plans for Middle School
• How to Teach Microsoft Word for Middle School
• The 4 Best PowerPoint Lesson Plans for Middle School
• 4 Best Microsoft Office Curriculum Resources for Middle and High School

Meet Your Technology Lesson Plan Needs with a Comprehensive Curriculum

Covering technology topics in a middle school classroom can often feel overwhelming. Whether you’re covering digital literacy or computer coding, you must give your students appropriate resources to help them learn and grow.

Depending on the subjects you need to cover, any of these technology lesson plans could be an excellent choice for your middle schoolers.

However, we’ve often heard from educators that students learn best when they have continuity in the learning process.

If this is true in your classroom, consider a comprehensive curriculum system, such as Business&ITCenter21 from AES. When you teach with a curriculum system, you’ll be able to cover a range of technology subject areas while providing consistency and continuity for your students.

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9 Collaborative Technology Projects Your Students Will Love!

If your classroom is far from a 1:1 environment (more like 1:32), it can be hard to find great technology projects that really work.

If your classroom is far from a 1:1 environment (more like 1:32), it can be hard to find great technology projects that really work. Here are some simple tech tools students can use to create awesome projects. Students can work together in cooperative learning groups or independently depending on your access to technology in your school district. Bonus: They’re all free!

Inkle   is a fun digital storytelling tool for students. Rather than having students use Microsoft Word, change things up by having them create a digital book. Students will love adding images to make their story come to life! Cooperative learning idea: Students can collaborate and create a Choose Your Own Adventure story! Each child adds a paragraph to the story and at least two options for readers to choose from. They insert images by adding the link to an image they like online. This Web 2.0 tool is free and the children’s work can be saved and shared.

2. Story Bird

With Story Bird , kids can choose images and invent their very own unique story to go along with the pictures. Students must use their inference skills to depict an image. What is the character feeling? Where does the story take place (setting)? What’s the plot? It’s up to kids to decide after they carefully examine every detail of their image. There is no right or wrong answer.

Cooperative learning idea:  Have students share a computer and agree on an image. Then they go off and depict the image as they see it. The students can then compare and contrast their results.

3. Build Your Wild Self

New York Zoos and Aquarium / Wildlife Conservation Society has an interactive game called  Build Your Wild Self!  Students choose different body parts and limbs for their creature. Then, they choose a habitat. When they’re all finished, the site describes each attribute they chose. For example, orb spider eyes: “You have six eyes, but you can’t see very well. You use your keen sense of touch to track down prey.” 

Cooperative l earning idea:  Have students work together to build a “wild self” and write a paragraph describing what their animal would eat, their animal’s habitat, exceptional characteristics and talents, as well as their unique adaptations. You could also group students into teams to create a habitat that would be suitable for all of their animals!

4. Blabberize

Blabberize is a free tool that makes photos come to life! Students upload a photo, create a mouth and record whatever they would like their image to say!

Cooperative learning idea: Students can take turns talking. This tool can be used to give a history or science report. Students could describe an animal’s adaptations by making the animal they researched talk!

5. Little Bird Tales

Students can create digital books, add or draw photos and insert their very own voice with Little Bird Tales ! You could have each student create a page to create a class book. Click here for an example.

Cooperative learning idea: Older students can work in teams and create a digital book for a presentation. This is a great project for students who don’t enjoy giving oral presentations.

6. What if? Genie

If students aren’t feeling inspired, have them ask the story genie ! The genie randomly generates a “what if?” question for kids. The “what if?” questions are crazy and imaginative, ones kids would have a blast writing about! Hit the genie square to generate a question.

Cooperative learning idea:  Students can share a computer, generate a “What if?” question, then go off and write! Then they can compare and contrast their results.

7. Free Rice

Have students make a difference by practicing their math, chemistry, anatomy, geography, foreign language, vocabulary, grammar, humanities and even for the SAT. “For each answer they get right, 10 grains of rice is donated  through the World Food Programme to help end hunger.”

Cooperative learning idea: Students can go on Free Rice and calculate how much rice they donated as a group and create a graph to show their weekly results. This can be an ongoing project throughout the year. Groups can compare and contrast their results.

A free Animoto account lets students create 30-second videos, which can be challenging!

Cooperative learning idea: Have students explain something in 30 seconds through music and images. Above is an example of a water cycle video.

How many letters can you chain together to form a word? Point value: 3 or 4 letters = 1 point, 5 = 2 points, 6 = 3 points, 7 = 5 points, 8 or more = 11 points. Goal: Try to form as many words as you can before time runs out! Visit  Teacher Led  for a free letter generator!

Cooperative learning idea: Have students work in teams to create words. Then as a math project, they can create fractions (words created / how many times they rolled the dice) or graphs (compare/contrast the number of words created).

Erin Bittman is a designer turned teacher. Check out her blog E Is for Explore ! You can also find E Is for Explore! on Facebook and Pinterest .

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20 Activities to Support Letter Naming Fluency

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Collaboration, communication, and safety

An interactive platform for educators and students to create videos to share and discuss their ideas.

  E-Safety Commissioner:  

This website provides a range of information and resources to support and promote online safety.

Google Classroom:  

A tool that allows teachers to set up a safe learning management system. Teachers can organise classes, build collaborations, and provide learning resources to students through this tool. 

A platform that allows teachers to engage the students and families to participate in multimodal learning. Its platform provides many tools, such as videos, drawings, and notes enhance the learning experience.  

Selected Resources: Flip

Flip is a platform that provides a social platform for teachers and students to discuss and share ideas through creating videos. It involves editing tools, texting, and audio message functions. This tool can engage the students to learn outside the classroom in a less pressured way. Furthermore, using this platform encourages students to have a voice and build confidence.

Selected Professional literature : 

1, Australian Curriculum- Digital Literacy:

-           Element: Creating and exchanging

Sub-element: Create, communicate and collaborate

-           Element: Managing and operating

Sub-element: Manage content; Select and operate tools

-           Element: Practising digital safety and wellbeing

Sub-element: Manage digital privacy and identity

Flip provides a platform for students to create and edit their videos. It aims to share their ideas with their peers on the learning goals. Students may retrieve content from personal files, networked or cloud space into their videos during the process. They realise their digital account represents their digital identity. They will understand that the videos or comments they share in the group will express their ideas.

(Reference: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2023a)

2, Australian Professional Standards for Teachers:

Focus area:

-           2.6 - Information and Communication Technology (ICT):

Flip can be used to support effective teaching strategies to expand learning opportunities and content knowledge for all students.

-           3.4 - Select and use resources

Teachers use Flip as a selected tool to engage students in learning.

-           6.2 - Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Teachers understand that relevant and appropriate sources can be a chance for professional learning, such as Flip. Teachers realise the source (Flip) is the opportunity to improve teaching practice.

(Reference: The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2018)

Digital Literacy with Flip

Flip allows teachers to create a digital platform to safely engage students in learning online. Based on the Australian Curriculum, students need to develop an awareness of online safety knowledge to support their use of technology (ACARA, 2023b). When teachers introduce Flip to the students, teachers can explain that this group will monitor by the teachers and only for the class students. It is a safe platform because it can keep the privacy of the teachers' and students' discussions. Teachers can also explain why we must be careful about choosing the technology and the risks we face online. 

Students build learning motivation by exploiting the new digital tools which allow them to engage, play and explore their learning goals (Green, 2020). Flip lets the students express their opinions in a multimodal way. Students can build their knowledge and digital skills simultaneously. It may also encourage the quiet students to express their thinking differently. Australian Professional Standards for Teachers indicate that teachers are responsible for using effective strategies to broaden the students' learning opportunities (AITSL, 2018).

Pedagogical statement 

Social interaction is one of the critical elements in children's learning development under the social constructivism theory (Howell & McMasters, 2022). Every student has their strengths and weaknesses in learning. During the interactions, students can discuss their work and help each other reflect on their concepts. It also improves their learning efficiency (Kolb, 2020). Hence, teachers should use different strategies to encourage students to participate in different group activities. Flip uses the same concept to enrich the student's learning. In this platform, students use various methods (videos, texts, and audio messages) to exchange their ideas on a topic. They will implement the evaluating, analysing, and criticising procedures when creating or commenting on a post. This procedure enriches their learning and improves their collaboration in their study. In the meantime, students may notice that engaging with their peers effectively improves their learning and achieves their learning goals (ACARA, 2023c).

Even though technology has many benefits in teaching, teachers cannot deny that online learning confronts many risks simultaneously, such as bullying, exposing privacy, or false information. However, banning technologies is not a solution to this problem because students need digital skills to survive in this digital world. Conversely, teachers should provide the appropriate guidance and implement the conversation for students to use the technology correctly and safely. This guidance shapes the students' attitudes toward using technology and recognises their responsibilities in the digital world (Gonski Institute for Education, 2020).

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Integrating AI into assignments

Main navigation.

Here we offer strategies and perspectives on integrating AI tools into assignments and activities used to assess student learning.

Creating your course policy on AI

• An effective syllabus works to motivate learning, define goals, explain course structure, and provide support to students as they learn.
• Be clearly stated and specific
• Clarify the context or conditions of allowable AI use
• Explain processes and consequences for non-compliance
• Have a thoughtful pedagogic rationale in support of student learning
• Connect to support resources
• Show support for student well-being

Outcomes for this module

In this module, we will analyze activities and assignments used for assessing learning, provide student-centered perspectives, and offer strategies for developing assessment activities and assignments that integrate student use of generative AI chatbots.

After completing this module, you should be able to:

• Describe why your assessment activities are meaningful to learners.
• Identify and clarify the learning objectives of your assessment activities.
• Identify relevant strategies that can be applied to assessment activities in your course.
• Empathize with student perspectives on using AI in course assessment activities.

Warm-up with a metacognitive exercise

As you begin to explore, think about what you already know and the opinions you may already hold about the educational aspects of AI chatbots. This metacognitive exercise can help you identify what you want to explore and what you already understand. Making connections to what you already know can deepen your learning and support your engagement with these modules.

Begin with the prompt, “Describe an assignment or assessment activity that integrated technology in a way that was effective and engaging for your learning,” and respond to the poll below.

Unpacking your assessment activities and assignments

When designing or adapting an activity or assignment used to assess learning, whether you integrate AI or not, we encourage you to consider two questions: why is this meaningful, and what are students supposed to learn from it?

Define why it is meaningful

Students can learn better when they are motivated and can make meaningful connections to coursework (Headden & McKay, 2015). We might assume that students’ motivations focus on their grades, but that assumption does not provide the full picture, and when applied in isolation it is not likely to sustain deep learning. Articulating what makes an activity meaningful, motivational, and memorable for students can help you create an engaging activity or assignment that enhances student learning and motivation.

Concerning AI chatbots, perhaps the activity or assignment addresses AI in ways that prepare students for future careers, enhance their social connections, or touch upon broader issues they care about. We encourage you to talk with your students about what they find meaningful to inform the design of your activities and assignments. What leads them to want to engage?

Also, reflect on why the assignment is meaningful to you. Is it simply convenient to implement (and standard in your experience as a student and teacher) or does it connect to something deeper in your pedagogy? Perhaps the assignment reinforces the norms and values that you share with other professionals in your discipline, allows you to connect with students in more meaningful ways, builds foundational skills for other parts of the curricula, or explores emergent opportunities and challenges with AI for your field.

Define what students are intended to learn

Next, identify and clarify the underlying learning objectives of the assignment or activity. The objective should describe the observable skills or behaviors students will have learned to perform after completing the activity. Clearly articulated learning objectives can help you develop activities that support learning and assessments that accurately measure student learning.

When thinking about AI chatbots and how they impact writing, you might ask yourself, “What are the underlying learning objectives being addressed through writing?” Instructors may assign writing tasks to assess how students engage with content. In the past, teachers could assume with good reason that a student producing coherent writing must have engaged with the content to generate writing that makes sense. However, we might also question this assumption about the automatic connection between coherent writing and deep engagement. The advent of generative AI has certainly exacerbated this.

Do you ask your students to write to demonstrate and reinforce content knowledge? Do they write to analyze and critique a position? Do they write to formulate arguments and cite evidence? Do they write as a form of creative expression? When you think about the available options, you can likely develop many ways for students to learn and demonstrate these skills with or without writing. Ultimately, honing in on the underlying learning objectives can help you integrate generative AI tools into an assignment.

Students can benefit from understanding how AI works and the educational opportunities and challenges that it presents. Consider offering the content in the modules in this guide to your students as supplemental reading or as part of a class activity.

Strategies for implementing AI into activities and assignments

As you think through how you might address or integrate AI tools in an assessment activity or assignment, we encourage you to consider a range of possibilities related to the specific aims of your course and the needs of your students. Here we offer a variety of pedagogical strategies for you to consider. We present these strategies in the context of students using AI chatbots, but they also apply to contexts without AI. Remember why your assignment is meaningful in relation to your learning objectives to help you select appropriate strategies.

Leverage multiple modalities

Consider ways to diversify when and where you assess student learning and the formats students use to express what they’ve learned.

Use more in-class assignments

Strategies like the flipped classroom model assign lecture content as homework and use the in-class time for learning activities (Lage et al., 2000). You can use this in-class time to integrate more low-stakes assessment activities during which you can better guide students toward using AI in ways that support learning.

Multiple modes of expression

Students may differ in how they can best articulate what they know. Using multiple modalities of expression, such as having students complete assignments that require speaking or graphic representations instead of only written text, stands out as an established strategy within the Universal Design for Learning framework that could apply here. While chatbots primarily generate written text, other AI tools can generate music, graphics, and video. You can thus create assessment activities that integrate multiple modalities at once.

For example, if you are assessing students’ understanding of cultural exchange in the ancient world, students might create a mind map or timeline to visually represent important trends, events, or concepts covered in the assigned readings. AI might then be used to generate images of artifacts, portraits, or cityscapes based on historical descriptions.

Make grading practices clear

Consider ways to clarify for students how they are being graded and what is expected of them.

Require robust citation

Have students learn about and adopt more robust citation practices, especially if they use AI tools for writing. You might begin with conversations about what plagiarism entails and why ethics matter in higher education and your discipline. Then connect students to resources on citation and documentation .

If you and your students decide to use AI tools, you can find style guidelines about citing AI-generated text for APA style and MLA style . These guidelines advise writers to cite the AI tool whenever they paraphrase, quote, or incorporate AI-generated content, acknowledge how they used the tool (for brainstorming, editing, and so on), and vet secondary sources generated by AI. For example, students could include citations for AI in the Works Cited section of their work and also include a statement describing why and how they used AI chatbots.

Establish and communicate clear assessment criteria

Try to bring assessment activities, learning objectives, and evaluation criteria into alignment. For example, if your objectives and assessments center around students proposing a solution to an open-ended problem, then the evaluation criteria might touch upon the feasibility, impact, or comprehensiveness of the proposed solutions. The criteria can vary a lot depending on your content and course, but your students benefit when you communicate these criteria and the purpose and reasoning behind them (Allen & Tanner, 2006).

For example, when integrating AI chatbots into a writing task for students, you might put more weight on the quality of their ideas and the validity of cited sources and less weight on structure, grammar, and word choice. You might then create a rubric that you discuss with students in advance so they have a clear understanding of what will guide you in assessing their work.

Assess learning throughout the course

Consider ways to assess student learning throughout your course as opposed to assessing mostly at the end of the course.

Emphasize the process

You may be able to more effectively assess student learning during the different stages of the process as opposed to assessing learning based on their finished work (Xu, Shen, Islam, et al., 2023). Whether or not students use AI tools, they can benefit from segmenting a large project into smaller components with multiple opportunities for feedback and revision. Also, consider how you might adjust grading criteria or grade weights to put more emphasis on the process.

For some steps in the thinking process, such as brainstorming ideas, formulating a position, and outlining a solution, allowing students to use AI tools might benefit their process. For example, you might have students begin with low-stakes free-writing, such as brainstorming, then use AI chatbots to explore possible areas for further investigation based on the ideas students generate through their exploratory writing. Students might then critique and revise the AI-generated ideas into an outline.

Leverage formative feedback

Teachers provide formative feedback to students throughout the learning process to stimulate growth and improvement. Formative feedback can help students identify misunderstandings, reinforce desirable practices, and sustain motivation (Wylie et al., 2012). You and the teaching team might provide feedback directly to students or you might facilitate students giving feedback to each other. You might then assess how students follow up on feedback they receive.

You can use AI tools to inform your feedback to students or generate feedback directly for students. AI tools could provide instant, individualized feedback efficiently and frequently, supplementing the feedback provided by your teaching team. For example, you might share your existing assignment, rubric, and sample feedback with the chatbot and give it instructions on when and how to give feedback. Importantly, you should review feedback generated by chatbots for accuracy and relevance. Refine and save the prompts that work best. You might later share the prompts you’ve developed with students so they may use them to generate feedback themselves.

Make assignments more meaningful

Consider how you might make your assignments more relatable and meaningful to your students.

Personalize assessments

When done thoughtfully, connecting assessments to the personal experiences, identities, and concerns of students and their communities can help to motivate and deepen learning (France, 2022). You might also connect assignments to contexts specific to Stanford, your course, or your specific group of students.

With AI, you or your students might generate practice questions on topics that came up during a specific class discussion or generate analogies for complex concepts based on their interests and backgrounds. You might ground an assessment activity in local contexts, such as having your engineering students propose a plan to improve Lake Lagunita.

Use real-world assessment tasks

Assignments that leverage real-world problems, stakeholders, and communities that students are likely to engage with in their work lives can be motivational and valid ways of evaluating a student’s skills and knowledge (Sambell et al., 2019).

For example, students might work with real (or AI-simulated) business or community partners to develop a prototype product or policy brief. Students might have more time to work with those stakeholders and refine their proposal concepts if they can use AI tools to assist with time-consuming tasks, such as summarizing interview transcripts, writing a project pitch statement, or generating concept images.

AI itself might provide a relevant topic of study for your course. For example, you might examine AI as part of a discussion in a course about copyright and intellectual property law. Or you might analyze AI companies such OpenAI or Anthropic as case studies in a business course.

Assess more advanced learning

Consider ways you might assess more advanced or wider-ranging learning goals and objectives.

Emphasize metacognitive reflection

Metacognitive reflection activities, where students think about what and how they learn, can help students improve their learning (Velzen, 2017). You might use polls, discussion activities, or short writing exercises through which students identify what they already know about the topic, what they learned, what questions remain, and what learning strategies they might use for studying.

AI chatbots can help guide the reflection process like this reflection tool being developed by Leticia Britos Cavagnaro at Stanford d.school . Or perhaps students complete some activities with AI, then reflect on how it benefits or hinders their learning, and what strategies they might use to best leverage AI for learning.

Prioritize higher-order thinking

While students should develop mastery over foundational skills such as understanding concepts, identifying key characteristics, and recalling important information, practicing higher-order thinking skills, such as solving complex problems, creating original works, or planning a project, can deepen learning. For example, you might frame student essays as a defense of their views rather than a simple presentation of content knowledge. You might adjust assessment criteria to prioritize creativity or applying skills to new contexts.

Prioritizing higher-order thinking can encourage students to use AI tools to go beyond simply generating answers to engaging deeply with AI chatbots to generate sophisticated responses. Students could conduct preliminary research to find reliable sources that verify or refute the claims made by the AI chatbots. AI chatbots might then generate feedback, provide prompts for further reflection, or simulate new contexts.

Putting it all together

Here we offer a practical example: first, a typical assignment as usually designed, and then how you could enhance the assignment with some strategies that integrate AI chatbots.

When thinking about your course, start with small changes to one assignment and steadily expand upon them. Try to use AI chatbots for your other work tasks to build your fluency. Talk with students and colleagues about how the changes to your course work out concerning student engagement and learning. When integrating AI into an existing assignment, begin with an assignment that already has clearly defined learning objectives and rationale. Begin by using AI or other technology to supplement existing parts of the process of completing the assignment.

More examples of AI assignments

• AI Pedagogy Project from metaLAB (at) Harvard
• Exploring AI Pedagogy from the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI
• TextGenEd: Continuing Experiments, January 2024 Collection from WAC Clearinghouse

Example of an assignment without AI

Currently, your students in an epidemiology course write essays summarizing the key concepts of an academic article about the socio-determinants of diabetes . This assessment activity has meaning because it focuses on a foundational concept students need to understand for later public health and epidemiology courses. The learning objective asks students to describe why socio-economic status is a strong predictor for certain diseases. Students write a five-page essay about a disease that can be predicted by socio-economic status including at least three additional citations. Students complete the essay, which counts for 30% of the final grade, before the final exam.

An example of an assignment that integrates AI

Using some of the strategies in the above sections, you might redesign this assignment to integrate the use of AI chatbots. Keep in mind that you would likely make small changes to a major assignment over multiple quarters. Consider some of the ideas below.

A meaningful assignment

The redesigned assessment activity carries more meaning to students because they might have personal experience of some communities adversely affected by these kinds of diseases, and public health issues like this intersect with other social injustices that students have expressed concern about.

Learning objectives

The objectives of the assessment activity include that students will be able to:

• Describe how this disease affects particular communities or demographics
• Explain the difference between correlation and causality regarding socioeconomic status and the disease
• Propose a public health intervention that could help to address this issue

Assignment elements with AI

Students generate explanations of medical terminology in the selected articles to aid with reading comprehension. They generate several analogies for the core concept that apply to their own life experiences and communities. Students share these analogies in a Canvas forum graded for participation. Instructors provide general feedback in class.

Informed by the article, students then prompt a chatbot with biographical stories for two fictional characters from communities they care about incorporating differing socio-economic factors. Then they guide the chatbot in generating a dialogue or short story that illustrates how the two characters could have different health outcomes that might correlate with their socio-economic status. Students might use AI image generators for illustrations to accompany their stories. Students submit the work via Canvas for evaluation; the teacher shares exemplars in class.

Using an AI chatbot prompt provided by the instructor, students explore possible ideas for public health interventions. The provided prompt instructs the chatbot only to help students develop their ideas rather than suggesting solutions to them. With the aid of the chatbot, the students develop a public health intervention proposal.

Assignment elements without AI

Students discuss the differences between correlation and causation, critically analyze the generated characters and stories, and address any biases and stereotypes that surfaced during the activity. You facilitate the discussion with prompts and guidelines you developed with the aid of AI chatbots. Students write an in-class metacognitive reflection that you provide feedback on and grade for completion.

Students draw posters that summarize their proposed intervention. They critique and defend their proposals in a classroom poster session. Students complete a peer evaluation form for classmates. You evaluate the posters and their defenses with a grading rubric that you developed with the aid of an AI chatbot.

Students write an in-class reflection on their projects summarizing what they have learned over the length of the project, how the activities aided their learning, and so on. This is submitted to Canvas for grading and evaluation.

Student-centered perspective on using AI for learning

When thinking about integrating generative AI into a course assignment for students, we should consider some underlying attitudes that we, the authors, hold as educators, informed by our understanding of educational research on how people learn best. They also align with our values of inclusion, compassion, and student-centered teaching. When thinking through ways to integrate AI into a student assignment, keep the following perspectives in mind.

AI is new to students too

Like many of us, students likely have a wide range of responses to AI. Students may feel excited about how AI can enhance their learning and look for opportunities to engage with it in their classes. They may have questions about course policies related to AI use, concerns about how AI impacts their discipline or career goals, and so on. You can play a valuable role in modeling thoughtful use of AI tools and helping students navigate the complex landscape of AI.

Work with students, not against them

You and your students can work together to navigate these opportunities and challenges. Solicit their perspectives and thoughts about AI. Empower students to have agency over their learning and to think about AI and other technologies they use. Teaching and learning are interconnected and work best in partnership. Approach changes to your teaching and course to empower all students as literate, responsible, independent, and thoughtful technology users.

Look at AI and students in a positive light

Education as a discipline has repeatedly integrated new technologies that may have seemed disruptive at first. Educators and students typically grapple with new technology as they determine how to best leverage its advantages and mitigate its disadvantages. We encourage you to maintain a positive view of student intentions and the potential of AI tools to enhance learning. As we collectively discover and develop effective practices, we encourage you to maintain a positive and hopeful outlook. We should try to avoid assuming that most students would use generative AI in dishonest ways or as a shortcut to doing course assignments just because some students might behave this way.

Assess and reinforce your learning

We offer this activity for you to self-assess and reflect on what you learned in this module.

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• After submitting your responses, you will have the option to view the anonymized responses of other Stanford community members by clicking Show previous responses .

Non-Stanford users

• Complete the activity embedded below.
• Your responses will only be seen by the creators of these modules.
• Course and Assignment (Re-)Design , University of Michigan, Information and Technology Services
• ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today , University of Central Florida

Works Cited

Allen, D., and Tanner, K. (2006). Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners. CBE - Life Sciences Education. 5(3): 197-203.

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., & Brown, C. (2014). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566&nbsp ;

Bijlsma-Rutte, A., Rutters, F., Elders, P. J. M., Bot, S. D. M., & Nijpels, G. (2018). Socio-economic status and HbA1c in type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 34(6), e3008. https://doi.org/10.1002/dmrr.3008&nbsp ;

CAST. (n.d.). UDL: The UDL Guidelines. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://udlguidelines.cast.org/&nbsp ;

Exploring AI Pedagogy. (n.d.). A Community Collection of Teaching Reflections. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://exploringaipedagogy.hcommons.org/&nbsp ;

France, P. E. (2022). Reclaiming Personalized Learning: A Pedagogy for Restoring Equity and Humanity in Our Classrooms (2nd ed.). Corwin.

Headden, S., & McKay, S. (2015). Motivation Matters: How New Research Can Help Teachers Boost Student Engagement. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED582567&nbsp ;

Hume Center for Writing and Speaking. (n.d.). Documentation and Citation. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://hume.stanford.edu/resources/student-resources/writing-resources… ;

Lage, M. J., Platt, G. J., & Treglia, M. T. (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment. Journal of Economic Education, 31(1), 30-43.

metaLAB (at) Harvard. (n.d.). The AI Pedagogy Project. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://aipedagogy.org/&nbsp ;

MLA Style Center. (2023, March 17). How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/&nbsp ;

Office of Community Standards. (n.d.). What Is Plagiarism? Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://communitystandards.stanford.edu/policies-guidance/bja-guidance-… ;

Sambell, K., Brown, S., & Race, P. (2019). Assessment to Support Student Learning: Eight Challenges for 21st Century Practice. All Ireland Journal of Higher Education, 11(2), Article 2. https://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/414&nbsp ;

The WAC Clearinghouse. (n.d.). January 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/collections/continuing-experiments… ;

U-M Generative AI. (n.d.). Course and Assignment (Re-)Design. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://genai.umich.edu/guidance/faculty/redesigning-assessments&nbsp ;

Van Velzen, J. (2017). Metacognitive Knowledge: Development, Application, and Improvement. Information Age Publishing. https://content.infoagepub.com/files/fm/p599a21e816eb6/9781641130240_FM… . ISBN 9781641130226. 

Wylie, E. C., Gullickson, A. R., Cummings, K. E., Egelson, P., Noakes, L. A., Norman, K. M., Veeder, S. A., ... Popham, W. J. (2012). Improving Formative Assessment Practice to Empower Student Learning. Corwin Press.

Xu, X., Shen, W., Islam, A. A., et al. (2023). A whole learning process-oriented formative assessment framework to cultivate complex skills. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, 653. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02200-0  

Yee, K., Whittington, K., Doggette, E., & Uttich, L. (2023). ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today. UCF Created OER Works, (8). Retrieved from https://stars.library.ucf.edu/oer/8  

You've completed all the modules

We hope that you found these modules useful and engaging, and are better able to address AI chatbots in your teaching practice. Please continue to engage by joining or starting dialogues about AI within your communities. You might also take advantage of our peers across campus who are developing resources on this topic.

• Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
• Accelerator for Learning
• Office of Innovation and Technology , Graduate School of Education

We are continuing to develop more resources and learning experiences for the Teaching Commons on this and other topics. We'd love to get your feedback and are looking for collaborators. We invite you to join the Teaching Commons team .

Learning together with others can deepen the learning experience. We encourage you to organize your colleagues to complete these modules together or facilitate a workshop using our Do-it-yourself Workshop Kits on AI in education. Consider how you might adapt, remix, or enhance these resources for your needs. 

If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected] . This guide is licensed under  Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 (attribution, non-commercial, share-alike) and should be attributed to Stanford Teaching Commons.

Integrating Technology in Middle School

Creative educator lesson plans can help you provide your middle-school students with an engaging and creative approach to content learning..

Depending on your student's abilities, you may also want to explore sixth-grade lesson plans.

Design a Book Cover

Students create a new cover design for a book they are reading to demonstrate comprehension and explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict.

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover

In this lesson, students build visual literacy and engage in close reading as they investigate the text and imagery on book covers to evaluate whether they are worth reading.

Take Reading SERIESly

In this lesson, students investigate the potential of a book's characters, plot and themes and develop a proposal for turning it into a series.

Hero's Journey

Students will create an eBook identifying and explaining the events in a hero's journey in a text they are reading.

Character Scrapbook

Students will create a digital scrapbook that showcases the viewpoint of the main character.

Interview a Book Character

In this lesson, students craft an interview with a character from a book they are reading to demonstrate comprehension.

Create a Card Game

Students create a card game based on the storyline of a book they are reading.

Students will create a mock social network page from the viewpoint of the protagonist or antagonist in a novel they are reading.

Create a Visual Poem

Students will create a visual, or video, poem as they analyze the imagery in a text.

Publish a Digital Magazine

Students take the lead and design and create their own digital magazine.

The ABC’s of …

In this lesson, students create an alphabet book to share knowledge and information they have learned, organizing their writing using the ABC’s.

Vocabulary Trading Cards

In this lesson, students create vocabulary trading cards that use images to help other students master the meaning of new words.

Book Trailers

Students will develop a movie-style trailer for a book they have read.

Persuade with Emotional Appeals

Students will build persuasive skills and media literacy as they explore techniques of propaganda and develop commercials that persuade viewers.

Here's to Your Health

Students will research a health issue, write an essay, and transform their argument into a public service announcement.

Don’t Let the Earth Down

Students will write persuasively on a conservation issue and create a public service announcement to promote their cause.

Pop-up Plaza Proposal

In this lesson, students craft a proposal for a pop-up plaza or parklet where community members can relax, reflect and connect.

Persuasive and Presidential Writing

Students learn persuasive writing and presentation skills.

Save from the Flames

In this lesson, students share why they would save a specific book from the "firemen" in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Infographics

Students will create an infographic poster to share knowledge and data about an issue they are studying.

Plan an Event

Students will plan for an event and create a proposal demonstrating how the event might look and how much it would cost.

Tessellation Sensation

Students will create their own tessellations study the mathematical concepts of patterns, planes, symmetry, and translation.

Surreal Symmetry

In this lesson, students use symmetry to create bizarre creatures around a self-portrait and then write a poem about the image.

Fastballs, Free Throws and Physics

Students will create an animated video that showcases how physics concepts apply to their favorite sport.

Healthier School Lunches

Students will learn about nutrition and create a sample menu for a week of healthy school lunches.

Virtual Museum

In this lesson, students create an online museum for their community.

Commemorative Ceremonies

Students develop a ceremony to honor a person or commemorate an event in history.

The President's Team

In this lesson, students nominate literary characters for each seat in the President's cabinet.

Artifact Interviews

Students will research a historical person or event and retell the story as an animated interview with an artifact from that time or place.

Tourism Trade Show

In this lesson, students develop materials to promote a specific region they are studying and make their pitch for a visit to this location at a tourism trade show.

Video Biographies

Students complete research on a historical figure and create a video biography of that person.

Postcards from the Past

In this lesson, students will create a collection of postcards that demonstrate how different people in the past may have viewed a single event or culture and analyze the range of perspectives in all class postcards to gain a deeper understanding of history.

Set SMART goals

In this lesson, students set SMART goals for the coming school year, identifying action items they can complete to achieve them.

Create a Vision Board

In this lesson, students create a vision board to turn their goals into words and images that represent what life will look and feel like when they reach them.

Political Cartoons Then and Now

Students will analyze and share the history of a political cartoon and then create their own cartoon about a current event.

Not Your Average Portfolio

Students will learn about the life of a famous person and create non-fiction porfolio about the individual.

Historical Journal

Students will create a historical journal from a fictional character's point of view.

Ancient Cultures News Broadcast

Students create a news broadcast while studying ancient civilizations.

A Day in the Life

Students will create a daily newspaper edition to learn about the politics and culture of ancient Rome.

More sites to help you find success in your classroom

Share your ideas, imagination, and understanding through writing, art, voice, and video.

Rubric Maker

Create custom rubrics for your classroom.

Pics4Learning

A curated, copyright-friendly image library that is safe and free for education.

Write, record, and illustrate a sentence.

Interactive digital worksheets for grades K-8 to use in Brightspace or Canvas.

Professional Learning

Digital Storytelling

21st Century Classrooms

Project-based Learning

Teaching and Learning

Informational Text

English Language Aquisition

Language Arts

Social Studies

Visual Arts

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FREE Modern Technology Worksheets

Since modern technology plays an important role in our lives, you should include the topic in some of your lessons. there are 307 free, printable modern technology worksheets to choose from that focus on technology and you can even narrow your search as there are several subsections. this is a nice worksheet designed to introduce some sms abbreviations to your students . it would be an especially good exercise to do with intermediate level high school students because they will be able to relate to the content of the worksheet the best. by asking your students for their opinions, you can engage them in the material more than if you only ask them to answer multiple choice and true or false questions. if this is not a good fit for your esl class, consider using one of the other available worksheets. the extent to which you cover this topic in your course will depend a lot on your students. if you are teaching at a school with limited resources where none of your students have cell phones or personal computers, some basic vocabulary will probably be sufficient while if these things play a pivotal role in the lives of your students, they will be of more importance. you can talk about the amount of time students spend using different pieces of technology with any level learner and should consider asking advanced students to explain both the advantages and disadvantages of technological advances. read more... ...less.

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Let your students create their very own personalized stories using a variety of colorful and vibrant Illustrations that ignite creativity. Story Bird and Story Jumper are two great websites that allow students to bring creative writing into the 21st century with technology.

In these websites (which are especially great for students who are not good at drawing), students write and illustrate a story using the wide assortment of backgrounds by simply dragging and dropping a series of images onto the page.

With a classroom account, teachers can create assignments, and review and comment on submitted stories. They’ll also be able to arrange for printing and purchase of any student created work. Talk about becoming young authors!

2. Create their Own Quiz

Challenge your students to create their own quiz using Kahoot !

Kahoot is a student-response gamifying tool that lets teachers create multiple-choice quizzes and polls and is a great way to incorporate fun and games in the classroom! It provides quick, real-time results and gives students instant feedback on their devices without anyone being called out individually.

I use this platform mainly to review concepts and vocabulary. My students always ask to play Kahoot again and again so I decided to establish a Kahoot day for quick revision and informal assessments. I also have them write their own test questions and allow them to create their own Kahoot quiz and take lead during the game.

3. Produce Book Trailers

Book Trailer Project is a digital storytelling activity for middle school or high school students after they finish reading a book. Students need to take the key idea from the book to create a short video that persuades people to check out a book they have read.

Doing the book trailer project requires students to summarize, synthesize and analyze the book and put that analysis in their trailer. Furthermore, having students create book trailers is a great way to incorporate technology in the classroom and encourage reading. Thus, book trailer project is a great alternative to boring book report assignments, and can easily be done individually or in groups.

Check out this post to read the step-by-step guide in doing the Book Trailer Project.

4. Photo Scavenger Hunt

Students are handed a list of things that can be found within school grounds ranging from very easy (ex: a world map) to moderate (ex: a student reading a book) to difficult (ex: a lizard). Vary the amount of points for each level of difficulty.

Then, students are instructed to take photos on their smartphones or tablets and cross off the items they have found.  They can form teams or work individually. Each team should decide who’s phone or camera will be used to take scavenger hunt photos. It should be the same phone for all of the team photos.

The winner is the player or team that find the most items on the list.

Optional: I try to combine this activity with the elements of the Treasure Hunt game. For example, I give clues or unlock new challenges when a team has successfully emailed their photo to me.

If you want to take photo scavenger hunt to the next level, you might want to check out Goose Chase !

5. Web Quest

Webquest is an inquiry-based approach to learning and a perfect way for teachers to begin integrating Internet searches into their curriculum.  It provides an authentic, technology-rich environment for problem solving and information processing.

A web quest guides students to search the Internet for specific information. For example, in a webquest called What Is the Most Serious Problem Facing Earth? , student teams vie for funding from the fictional Help Our World (HOW) Foundation. Each team builds a case for a critical environmental concern. Which threat is the most  critical? Which team should be awarded the foundation’s $1 million grant? (see more here ).

There are tons of already-constructed webquests out there like these ones from Zunal.com or you can create your own based on your lessons. A well-designed webquest lets you turn your students loose on the web for a specific project and get results that both you and your students will love.

ALSO READ: CLASSROOM DEVICE MANAGEMENT

6. Hunt for QR Codes

This game is similar to the classic treasure hunt game except that students have to search the school for QR codes which contain questions or clues to the game.

Playing this fun activity is easy. First, I prepare a list of questions from the topics that I want my students to learn or revise. Then I create and print the QR code for each question and place them across the school.

Students are put into small teams or pairs with one person owning a mobile device. They need to download a QR code reader first which is free on App Store or Google Play. Internet connection is not required once they have the app since the QR codes decode as text files.

Now, students need to search the school for these clues and scan each QR Code to get each question. They must then work together to find the answer to this question. The team that brings the most number of answers wins the game

Try this Pokemon Go-inspired QR Hunting activity that I made!

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: No-prep ESL Vocabulary Games for Young Learners

7. Generate Word Cloud

A word cloud is a list of words arranged randomly and forms into a shape. It is a great way for students to summarize information, increase vocabulary and make connections between concepts. I love creating word cloud with my students because they are fun and easy to make!

There many word cloud generators online but the ones that I like the most are ABCYa  and Word It Out .

8. Sing with Lyrics Training

Lyrics Training is an awesome website to learn a language with music! Students will watch and listen to a music video and fill in the missing lyrics of the song. The website has a huge collection of songs in all genres and caters to different proficiency levels such as beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert.

9. Present Using Infographics

Incorporating infographics in the classrooms is one of the best ways to engage students in the lesson while having fun at the same time.

Allow your students to digest complex information they have learned by creating eye-catching infographics. It can help students learn to interpret data, organize ideas, and make important connections. There are different free web-based applications that students can use to create infographics such as Piktochart  and Venngage , but my students find Easel.ly very user-friendly.

10. Celebrate Diversity via e-Pals

Help students develop real-life writing and learning experiences, learn the format of a friendly letter and the proper etiquette of online communication. By integrating a letter-exchange program in the classroom, they can also learn about other cultures, languages, and geographic areas that align with the curriculum in your school.

There is a website called  ePals connects K-12 classrooms in more than 99 countries to share content and ideas and collaborate on projects (including pen pal exchanges). Teachers create a profile with a brief description about who they’re hoping to connect with and why; and can search for partner classrooms by language, age, and keyword, and can also factor in region/country and class size. Once connected, classes can communicate through a private workspace on the site.

Setting up classes is time consuming but once they are in you are good to go. Finding classes to work with can also be time consuming and frustrating due to the lack of responses from my requests but once you are connected it is so worth how excited your classes become.

Or, in the spirit of letter exchanges, you may want to join our yearly Holiday Card Exchange Project .

11. Scene it with Storyboard!

12. Be Creative with Social Media

Using the concept of social media is one awesome way to engage students in the lesson, topic or theme. With a little creativity, teachers can bring the visual power of photos into the classroom! I developed Instagram and Facebook templates so that students can have real social media learning experience without actually having the need to log in to their accounts!

Using the Instagram template , students can create their Instagram post directly in a word processing document or hand out the blank templates to have them draw their photos.

With the Facebook template , students will be able to construct a Facebook profile for a person of study – whether a fictional character or a famous historical figure. This is a fun and highly motivating activity that will encourage your students to think deeply about characters, encourage cooperative work and great discussion, and keep students on task.

13. Publish an e-Newsletter or e-Magazine

Creating a classroom newsletter can be an excellent way for students to develop their language skills and to learn how to work cooperatively. They build vocabulary through writing and through interacting with others in the class.

Let students create a list of topics that they wish to write about in their newsletter. Allow them to work in collaborative groups and assign students roles such as “writer,” “editor,” “researcher,” or “graphic artist.”

There are many apps and websites that students can use to create their newsletter. Microsoft Publisher is the oldest one I know that is easy to use and free. It has the emphasis on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing. Other web-based apps that are worth looking are Adobe Sparks and Canva .

They can print out the newsletter or convert it to PDF and attached to an email to share their newsletter with the school and with family members.

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EN101 Author

Related posts.

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Top 10 ways to use Canva in your Classroom

What is FlipGrid and what activities can you do with it?

Quizalize: Differentiate and track student achievement!

5 Free Video Maker Online for Students

Article comments.

Great activities! I am excited to do the Qr code hunting with my middle school students. Thank you for sharing!

greg_faraldo

Kahoot is always a class favourite! I also let my students use online dictionary that doesn’t need an internet connection (to avoid cheating when writing essays, etc). Have you tried Wordle? It’s also a good app for making word cloud.

The digital age challenges us to use technology in ways that facilitate language learning. When teachers use technology responsibly, both teachers and students will benefit from technology in its supporting role not only in the ESL/EFL classroom but in other subjects as well.

Melchor Bernardo

You’re absolutely welcome! Let us know how your activity goes 🙂

Hi Greg! I love the offline dictionary idea! And yes, Wordle is also great on laptops. I don’t know why but it’s quite spotty (technical issues) on iPads or tablets.

to that I agree! cheers!

Thanks for this post because for some strange reason I had not been able to locate a working site that did not ask me for a lot of information about myself just to use the “word cloud” app.

You’re welcome @ghoskins I know the struggle! Sometimes its hard for students to get into or save the word cloud because some apps require too much info from the user. Word It Out is one of best and easiest app to use!

lots and lots of web 2.0 tools…truly amazing

Thank you, Fozia!

Firmansyah Kusasi

Hi Amazing, and full of inspiring activities I’ll try the web quest, qr code hunt and infogrphics which are more suitable to my class. Just suggestion..Why dont’t you give a try to video projects, and prezi presentation, and let’s see the students anthusiasm.

Thanks for the suggestion! Actually I have some videos but putting them together for a presentation takes a lot of time. I will definitely do that in the future!

And I’m glad you love the activities! Let us know how it worked for you 🙂

La caza de codigos QR me parecen interesante los empezare usar. Pero necesito mas sugerencias

Bertha Sillas

I may be teaching ESL in middle school and I appreciate the information, ideas, and resources you provide on the website.

Wow enjoy! Teaching in middle school super fun! 🙂

I will try Piktochart with my students

Wonderful suggestions! I’d love to try Lyrics Training with my music class. Thanks for your ideas ? ❤️

i think it will be very useful!!!

Syeda umme Humera

I teach history and geography to grade 8th students. The class strength is 39. Help me in different activities .specially project based. Thank you .

Radhika Jadhav

Thanks for the suggestion! Actually I will definitely do that in the future!

And I’m glad you love the activities! Let us know how it worked for you ?

Thank you 🙂

Great to hear that!

Great! Good luck with the activity!

You’re welcome! Have fun!

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10 Educational AI Tools for Students in 2024

Senior Content Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

AI tools for students are becoming indispensable, from harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to refining writing nuances to getting instantaneous feedback on presentations. 

And the best part? Many of these groundbreaking AI writing tools are not just reserved for the elite—they are accessible and affordable, making them a boon for nonprofits and individuals on a budget. 

Whether you’re looking to craft impeccable essays or master the art of communication, dive in as we explore the top 10 AI-powered tools of 2024 tailored for your academic success.

What Are AI Tools For Students?

How students can best use ai, 2. quillbot, 3. gradescope, 4. otter.ai, 7. audiopen.ai, 9. smart sparrow, 10. wolfram alpha.

AI tools for students refer to various software and applications that utilize artificial intelligence to assist, enhance, or streamline the academic journey. Unlike conventional digital tools, AI-driven tools adapt, predict, and personalize learning experiences based on each student’s individual needs and patterns.

Here’s a breakdown of what they offer:

• Personalized learning: Every student is unique, and the best AI-powered tool can recognize this. They adapt to each student’s pace, learning style, and preferences to deliver tailored content, be it in the form of reading material, quizzes, or tutorials
• Instant feedback: Artificial intelligence education tools can analyze assignments, presentations, and projects, providing real-time feedback. This immediate response helps students understand their areas of improvement without waiting for teacher evaluations
• Productivity enhancements: From organizing study schedules to setting reminders for assignment deadlines, AI tools are equipped to aid students in time management and organization, ensuring they stay on top of their academic tasks
• Interactive learning: AI tools often come with chatbots, virtual assistants, and interactive platforms that make learning engaging and dynamic, breaking the monotony of traditional study methods.
• Data-driven insights: These tools collect and analyze data based on a student’s performance, giving insights into strengths, weaknesses, and potential growth areas, aiding in better academic planning
• Accessibility and Inclusivity: Many AI tools now offer features that make learning accessible for students with disabilities. From voice-to-text functionalities to visual aids, artificial intelligence ensures that education remains inclusive

AI can potentially transform a student’s learning trajectory, but the key lies in effectively harnessing its power. Here’s how students can make the most of AI:

• Setting clear goals: Begin with a clear understanding of what you wish to achieve using SMART goals . Are you looking to improve your essay-writing skills, seeking help with math problems, or aiming to organize your study routine better?
• Blend traditional with technological: AI tools offer unprecedented advantages but’re most effective when combined with traditional learning methods. For instance, after receiving feedback from an AI-powered writing tool, discuss it with a teacher or peer for additional insights
• Engage in interactive learning: Use AI-driven interactive platforms, such as chatbots or virtual tutors. These platforms provide real-time engagement, making complex topics easier to grasp and retain
• Analyze and adapt: Many AI tools provide data-driven insights about your learning patterns. Regularly review these analytics to understand your strengths and areas needing attention
• Ensure data privacy: While using any AI tool, especially those requiring personal data or academic records, ensure that the platform respects user privacy
• Stay open to feedback: One of the hallmarks of AI tools is instant feedback. Critiques, suggestions, or recommendations provided by these tools aim to enhance your skills and understanding
• Stay curious: AI is a fascinating domain with limitless potential. Dive deep, explore its intricacies, and stay curious about how machine learning, neural networks, or natural language processing can further bolster your academic journey

10 Best AI Education Tools in 2024

In 2024, the educational landscape has been transformed by a slew of advanced AI-driven platforms. Here’s a curated list of the 10 best AI education tools leading the charge and revolutionizing learning experiences for students globally.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital tools, ClickUp has emerged as a front-runner, not just as a conventional project management tool for students but also as an AI-driven powerhouse tailored for student success. Combining the best of organizational features with the prowess of ClickUp Brain , ClickUp is redefining how students approach tasks, projects, and group collaborations.

With ClickUp’s education project management software , students can break down assignments into individual steps, which makes daunting projects more digestible, and then rank those tasks based on urgency and importance so they can focus on what matters most.

ClickUp’s collaborative tools turn group assignments from chore to joy thanks to real-time editing, advanced commenting features, and ClickUp Chat. ClickUp’s AI tools offer productivity analysis that suggests areas of improvement and optimizes your study routine.

ClickUp’s AI Writer and AI Knowledge Manager can help students summarize key information quickly, which is great for analyzing research papers or learning new topics. Using the AI Writer, students can also learn how to write better. They can see examples of good writing and get intelligent tips on improving their own work.

In a nutshell, ClickUp isn’t just another project management tool; it’s a holistic AI platform tailored to fit the unique demands of student life. By leveraging its powerful AI Writer and the intelligence of its AI Knowledge Manager, students can pave the way for academic excellence and a future of seamless project execution.

ClickUp best features

• With ClickUp Tasks, students can organize assignments, projects, and other academic endeavors into manageable chunks
• Automate routine tasks and set up workflows to streamline processes
• All ClickUp Docs , discussions, and tasks are in one place, eliminating the hassle of toggling between multiple apps
• ClickUp seamlessly integrates with various other tools and platforms that students commonly use, like Google Calendar, Drive, and even note-taking apps
• Depending on a student’s preference, they can visualize tasks and projects as a list, on a Kanban-style board, or on a calendar, offering flexibility in project management styles
• Monitor the time spent on different tasks or projects to ensure efficient time allocation
• Never miss a deadline with ClickUp’s robust reminder system. Plus, get yourself organized with the ClickUp Class Schedule and Time Study Template
• With AI enhancements, ClickUp adapts to a student’s work pattern, offering personalized suggestions and insights

ClickUp limitations

• Some users have mentioned that while ClickUp is robust and feature-rich, it can initially come across as overwhelming, especially for those new to project management tools
• While ClickUp’s desktop interface is widely appreciated, a few users have pointed out that the mobile app experience could be more streamlined

ClickUp pricing

• Free Forever
• Unlimited : $7/month per user
• Business : $12/month per user
• Enterprise : Contact for pricing
• ClickUp Brain: Available on all paid plans for $5/Workspace member/month

ClickUp ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
• Capterra : 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)

In an age where crisp, clear, and precise communication is paramount, QuillBot emerges as a beacon for students. A revolutionary AI tool for note-taking , QuillBot is specifically designed to enhance the quality and versatility of written content. 

Its intuitive interface and advanced algorithms make it a must-have for students striving for writing excellence. 

QuillBot acts as a second pair of eyes, helping students refine and elevate the standard of their written assignments and ensuring they make the best impression. Students can significantly expedite the editing and proofreading process with instantaneous suggestions and corrections, saving valuable time.

Knowing that their work has been reviewed and enhanced by a sophisticated AI-powered tool, students can confidently submit their assignments.

Over time, as students continually engage with QuillBot’s suggestions, they can organically improve their writing skills and internalize better writing habits. With its blend of advanced features and user-friendly design, it’s no surprise that many in the academic realm consider Quillbot an essential asset in their writing toolkit.

Quillbot best features

• QuillBot offers a handy browser extension and integrates smoothly with platforms like Google Docs and Microsoft Word
• Students can input sentences or paragraphs and receive alternative versions that retain the original meaning but use different phrasing
• QuillBot offers many modes, including Standard, Fluency, Creative, and more, catering to various writing needs. Each mode provides a different spin on the content, allowing students to find the tone and style that best suits their work.
• QuillBot can suggest synonyms for specific words, aiding students in diversifying their vocabulary and enhancing the richness of their content
• Beyond restructuring sentences, QuillBot offers suggestions to correct grammar mishaps and enhance sentence fluency, ensuring that students’ work is both accurate and articulate

Quillbot limitations

• Though QuillBot is adept at paraphrasing, there are instances where it might not fully grasp or retain the nuanced context of specific sentences, leading to suggestions that might be off-mark. For this reason, some people may prefer a Quillbot alternative
• QuillBot offers both free and premium versions. Some students have noted that the free version, while useful, has limitations regarding word count and access to all features. This might necessitate an upgrade for those requiring extensive use.
• On occasion, QuillBot might lean towards certain synonyms or phrasings more than others, leading to potential vocabulary repetition if not double-checked
• For very intricate or specialized sentences, especially those related to specific academic or scientific topics, QuillBot might occasionally struggle to provide a satisfactory rephrase

Quillbot pricing

• Premium: $19.95/month per user

Quillbot ratings and reviews

• Capterra: 4.6/5 (100+ reviews)

Grading and assessment, traditionally time-consuming and often subjective, have been given a 21st-century facelift with the introduction of Gradescope. This AI-enhanced platform has been specifically designed to streamline the grading process for instructors and provide valuable feedback for students.

With the detailed rubrics used in Gradescope, students clearly understand how they’re assessed, minimizing subjectivity and promoting fairness. Since instructors can grade similar answers in batches, students are ensured consistent feedback, even in large classes.

The efficiency of Gradescope means that instructors can grade assignments faster, leading to quicker feedback for students. The direct annotations on assignments allow students to see exactly where they excelled or where they need improvement, facilitating better understanding and growth.

Gradescope, with its blend of AI enhancement and user-centric design, is transforming the landscape of academic assessments. For students, it’s not just about receiving grades but gaining a clearer, more transparent insight into their academic progress and areas of growth.

Gradescope best features

• Gradescope allows instructors to create detailed rubrics, ensuring that grading criteria are consistent and transparent. Once a rubric is set for a particular answer, it can be applied to similar answers, speeding up the process
• The platform provides an easy-to-use interface where assignments can be scanned and uploaded. It supports various formats, making it versatile for different types of assessments
• Instructors can provide specific feedback and annotations directly on the submitted work
• Gradescope can analyze assignments to detect potential similarities with other submissions, helping uphold academic integrity
• Gradescope can integrate seamlessly with popular LMS platforms, ensuring that grades and feedback are easily accessible to students

Gradescope limitations

• For educators unfamiliar with the platform, setting up assignments and rubrics on Gradescope can take some time initially. It requires understanding the platform’s unique grading methodology and interface
• If students’ written answers (for scanned assignments) are not clear or legible, the platform can struggle to identify and categorize them correctly, which can sometimes affect the grading process
• While Gradescope’s AI-assisted grading is revolutionary, it works best for specific question types. More subjective or open-ended responses might not benefit as much from the batch grading feature
• While Gradescope aims to integrate with many Learning Management Systems, occasional syncing issues or discrepancies might arise, requiring manual intervention

Gradescope pricing

• Basic: $1/month per user
• Team: $3/month per user
• Solo: $3/month per user

Gradescope ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.1/5 (6+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (3+ reviews)

Check out these AI calendar tools !

In today’s fast-paced academic world, where lectures, seminars, and group discussions are the norm, having a tool to capture, transcribe, and analyze spoken content can be invaluable. Enter Otter.ai, a cutting-edge AI-powered transcription service that’s been a game-changer for countless students. 

By converting speech to text in real-time, Otter.ai doesn’t just transcribe; it transforms how students interact with auditory content. With Otter.ai, students can capture every word of a lecture, ensuring that no important detail is missed. Without the pressure of note-taking, students can be more present during lectures, focusing on understanding and internalizing content.

Transcriptions can be a valuable study aid, helping students review and revise their course content more effectively. For students with disabilities or non-native speakers, having a written transcript can immensely benefit comprehension.

Otter.ai stands out as a stellar AI tool, perfectly poised to meet the multifaceted needs of students. Whether revisiting complex lecture topics, collaborating on group projects, or ensuring that no spoken word gets missed, Otter.ai is a student’s trusty companion in the academic journey.

Otter.ai best features

• Otter.ai can transcribe lectures, meetings, and conversations in real time, allowing students to focus on listening and engaging rather than frantic note-taking
• Even in group settings, the platform can identify and differentiate between various speakers, ensuring that transcriptions are clear and organized
• Transcriptions are easily searchable, allowing students to quickly locate specific topics, phrases, or sections of a lecture
• Otter.ai can integrate with various platforms, like Zoom, to directly transcribe online lectures and meetings
• The tool allows users to add custom vocabulary, ensuring that industry or subject-specific jargon is transcribed accurately
• Transcriptions are securely stored in the cloud, ensuring that they’re easily accessible from any device
• Students can effortlessly share their transcriptions with peers, making collaborative study sessions or group projects more efficient

Otter.ai limitations

• Even though Otter.ai is one of the best in its field, no transcription service is flawless. Mispronunciations, heavy accents, or background noise can occasionally lead to transcription errors
• For real-time transcription, a stable internet connection is crucial. A weak or fluctuating connection could disrupt the service
• While the free version is useful, it comes with a monthly transcription limit, which might be restrictive for students with heavy usage

Otter.ai pricing

• Basic : Free
• Pro : $10/month per user
• Business : $20/month per user
• Enterprise : Contact Otter.ai for pricing

Otter.ai ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.0/5 (100+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (60+ reviews)

In the domain of language learning and vocabulary enhancement, Knowji stands out as a shining star. This AI-driven app combines the strengths of cognitive science, pedagogical principles, and cutting-edge technology to offer a unique learning experience. 

Tailored specifically for students, Knowji seeks to transform the often daunting task of vocabulary building into an engaging and productive endeavor. Through visual mnemonics and spaced repetition, Knowji ensures that vocabulary is learned and retained for the long term.

The app’s interactive interface and rich visual and auditory content make vocabulary learning more engaging and less tedious. The AI-driven adaptability ensures that students aren’t overwhelmed or under-challenged, making their learning journey more efficient and rewarding.

With contextual sentences, students gain a deeper understanding of how each word fits into everyday language.

Knowji isn’t just another vocabulary app; it’s a holistic learning ecosystem. With its fusion of AI technology, cognitive science principles, and pedagogical insights, Knowji positions itself as an indispensable tool for students aiming to expand their linguistic horizons.

Knowji best features

• The audio features instill confidence in students, ensuring they can pronounce new words correctly
• The student progress tracking features allow students to set and achieve vocabulary goals, giving them a clear sense of direction and accomplishment
• Based on individual student progress and performance, Knowji’s AI algorithms adapt to provide learners with tailored content, ensuring they are always challenged at the right level
• To provide context, words are paired with example sentences, helping students understand their practical application
• Knowji uses the principles of spaced repetition, presenting words at optimal intervals to ensure long-term retention

Knowji limitations

• Knowji’s vocabulary lists are curated for certain age groups and exam preparations. Some users might find the need for more advanced or diverse word lists, especially for specialized academic or professional usage
• The app heavily relies on visual mnemonics and auditory cues. Students who don’t resonate with these learning styles might find other methods more effective
• The rich visual and auditory content, while beneficial for learning, might consume a significant amount of device memory, especially if multiple-word lists are downloaded
• No desktop version

Knowji pricing

• Varies by module. Visit the Apple Store or Google Play Store for pricing

Knowji ratings and reviews

• Capterra: N/A

In the bustling world of artificial intelligence, OpenAI emerges as one of the industry’s foremost leaders. With its commitment to ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity, OpenAI has released a suite of tools and platforms with immense potential for academic arenas. 

OpenAI’s offerings can be revolutionary for students, ushering in a new era of research, understanding, and knowledge dissemination. OpenAI’s extensive library of research papers and studies serves as a valuable reservoir of knowledge for students.

Language models like GPT can assist in drafting, editing, and even brainstorming, enhancing students’ writing and research capabilities.

OpenAI isn’t just a name in the AI industry; it’s a beacon of student progress, innovation, and responsible growth. For students, it presents a golden opportunity to be part of the AI revolution, ensuring they’re equipped, enlightened, and empowered for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.

OpenAI best features

• Natural language processing makes it easy for students to get answers simply by typing in a question
• Students can use Dall-E to create artwork for their presentations
• OpenAI can adjust its tone, language, and sentence structure to fit the level of understanding a student has of the subject

OpenAI limitations

• Even though OpenAI emphasizes ethical AI, students need to be cautious and educated about the potential misuse of such powerful tools, especially in academic settings, to prevent plagiarism or misrepresentation
• Some of OpenAI’s advanced models, like the larger versions of GPT, demand significant computational resources for training, which might be out of reach for the average student

OpenAI pricing

• Depends on the model used and a number of words produced. Visit OpenAI for pricing

OpenAI ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (300+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (20+ reviews)

Navigating the digital age, students consistently search for tools to streamline their learning process and enhance productivity. Enter Audiopen.ai—a groundbreaking AI solution that magically transforms voice notes into refined, publish-ready text. Whether you’re a student drafting a research paper, pondering over a challenging essay topic, or simply brainstorming ideas, Audiopen.ai is here to redefine your content creation experience. 

Using Audiopen.ai, you can draft papers, memos, and emails in a fraction of the usual time, enhancing productivity. The tool makes it easy to navigate from vague ideas to coherent, publish-ready text effortlessly.

The tool’s adaptability to individual writing styles ensures the output reflects your authentic voice. Whether you’re verbalizing an email, text, or a blog post, Audiopen.ai is your one-stop solution.

Audiopen.ai best features

• With tagging, your notes are always accessible and well-organized
• The multilingual feature ensures non-native English speakers can equally benefit
• Add in your specific vocabulary—perfect for proper nouns or academic terms
• Whether you’re going for a casual email vibe or aiming for crystal clear precision, Audiopen.ai can adapt its writing style. There’s even an option for a customized style that mirrors your unique voice
• The AI is designed to weed out filler words, repetitive phrases, and any incoherent segments, giving you concise and meaningful content
• Web and mobile app availability ensures easy access from any device, anytime
• It comes with a handy AI Chrome extension

Audiopen.ai limitations

• The transcription time for the free version can feel limiting
• This is a very new app, so some bugs remain. However, the developer is responsive to feature requests and concerns

Audiopen.ai pricing

• Price: $75/year per user

Audiopen.ai ratings and reviews

Brainly is kind of like academic Reddit. Powered by students, experts, and academics around the globe, its database now boasts more than 250 million answers to every question under the sun.

Developed in collaboration with OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology, Brainly’s latest AI capabilities employ its vast knowledge base to furnish a more vibrant, tailored, and efficient learning journey.

Brainly’s enhanced features make AI-powered learning tools conveniently accessible, empowering students to seek homework assistance, enrich their subject comprehension, and bridge classroom knowledge gaps.

Brainly’s mission is clear: to bolster understanding and accelerate learning in this dynamic digital age.

Brainly best features

• Learners can now opt for a “Simplify” function for straightforward explanations or “Expand” for a more thorough breakdown of topics. This allows students to customize the depth of their learning based on their individual needs
• Students can now ask follow-up questions or request detailed explanations on previous responses
• To ensure the reliability of information, Brainly incorporates expert moderators who oversee content quality
• Beyond just finding answers, Brainly provides a platform for students to discuss, debate, and delve deeper into topics with peers from around the world
• To encourage participation and consistent learning, Brainly has incorporated gamification elements like points and ranks
• Brainly’s search functionality uses AI to deliver the most relevant answers, making the quest for information efficient

Brainly limitations

• Since a significant portion of Brainly’s content is user-generated, there can be occasional discrepancies in the quality and accuracy of answers. While the platform does employ moderation, the vast number of contributions can lead to some incorrect or suboptimal answers slipping through
• Even though Brainly operates in multiple languages and regions, the quality of content can sometimes vary across these languages, leading to discrepancies in the information available to students from different countries
• Some of Brainly’s premium features are behind a paywall, which might not be accessible to all students

Brainly pricing

• Plus: $24/year per user

Brainly ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.0/5 (13+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (20+ reviews)

Rooted in the mission of crafting unparalleled digital learning experiences, Smart Sparrow specializes in adaptive, simulative, and gamified learning environments. They are your partners in bringing visions to life, offering services from strategic consulting to custom software development.

Smart Sparrow uniquely marries the power of AI with the elegance of design.The editable templates and an extensive component library ensure that designing visually-rich, interactive courseware is a breeze.

With granular user permissions, collaborate on courseware creation with peers, colleagues, and external vendors.

Whether you deploy through your preferred Learning Management System or use Smart Sparrow’s platform, there’s flexibility at every step. Plus, with gradebook sync, keeping track becomes easier.

Smart Sparrow isn’t just another eLearning platform; it’s a movement towards more personalized, engaging, and innovative education technology. With its myriad features and a strong emphasis on user experience, it truly embodies the future of digital learning.

Smart Sparrow’s best features

• The platform boasts a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) authoring tool, allowing educators and students to create stunning and impactful eLearning experiences effortlessly
• With rich text editing, high-fidelity media import, and custom CSS, the potential for personalization is boundless
• The built-in Analytics and reports go beyond mere grades, offering deep insights into student learning patterns, pinpointing problem areas, and understanding how students navigate and interact with content
• From dragging and dropping elements, choosing from a vast array of interactive components, and customizing lesson plans, Smart Sparrow ensures a seamless digital journey
• Create personalized lesson plans that students love. Import rich simulations, tasks, and activities that propel students to lean in and engage actively

Smart Sparrow limitations

• The vast array of features and customization options can be initially overwhelming for users unfamiliar with eLearning authoring tools. It might take some time for educators, especially those less tech-savvy, to get comfortable navigating and maximizing the platform’s potential
• Although Smart Sparrow boasts LMS integration capabilities, users may face occasional hiccups or compatibility issues when syncing with certain Learning Management Systems
• Depending on the institution’s budget, the range of features and advanced capabilities might come at a price point that could be challenging for smaller institutions or individual educators
• While the platform is mobile and tablet-ready, the experience on these devices might not always be as seamless or intuitive as on a desktop, especially when accessing more complex simulations or activities

Smart Sparrow pricing

• Up to 5 learners: Free
• Up to 100 learners: $15/user per course
• Up to 500 learners: $12/user per course
• 500+ learners: Contact Smart Sparrow for pricing

Smart Sparrow ratings and reviews

The education landscape has experienced a paradigm shift with the advent of digital tools. Amidst a plethora of online resources, Wolfram Alpha stands out as an unparalleled computational knowledge engine. 

Designed to serve both students and professionals, it goes beyond simple search to offer answers to complex questions across multiple disciplines. Wolfram Alpha’s unique approach to online search is what sets it apart. Unlike traditional search engines that pull up web pages containing possible answers, Wolfram Alpha computes answers on the fly. This means students get direct and precise answers to specific questions, ranging from mathematical equations to historical data.

Whether you’re a history buff, a budding physicist, or a math enthusiast, Wolfram Alpha has you covered. It spans mathematics, science, engineering, geography, history, and music. Instead of just offering answers, Wolfram Alpha often provides additional information and related topics, encouraging students to explore further and satisfy their curiosity.

Wolfram Alpha is more than just a search engine. It’s a student’s companion in the journey of knowledge. Its computational prowess and extensive knowledge base ensure that students are not merely searching but truly understanding.

Wolfram Alpha’s best features

• The engine understands natural language, which means students don’t need to phrase questions in a specific technical format
• With dedicated apps for both iOS and Android, this virtual learning assistant is not confined to a desktop. Whether on a bus or in a cafe, students can have the vast computational power of Wolfram Alpha right in their pocket
• Numbers and data come alive with Wolfram Alpha’s dynamic visualization capabilities. Graphs, charts, and other visual representations help students grasp complex concepts more intuitively.
• For students grappling with math problems, Wolfram Alpha doesn’t just provide the answer but can also showcase a step-by-step breakdown of the solution, aiding in understanding and learning

Wolfram Alpha limitations

• While Wolfram Alpha can handle a wide range of questions, there’s a learning curve involved in phrasing complex queries to get the desired result
• It might not be the go-to tool for subjective topics, opinion-based questions, or areas that require human judgment
• For highly specialized academic or research-based questions, the platform might sometimes provide a more generalized answer, which might not delve into the nuances a student or researcher might be looking for

Wolfram Alpha pricing

• Basic: Free
• Pro: $7.25/month per user
• Pro Premium: $12/month per user

Wolfram Alpha ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (3+ reviews)

ClickUp: Acing The Test As The Premier AI Tool For Students

ClickUp brings to the table a suite of features specifically designed to adapt to the dynamic nature of student life. From group projects to thesis deadlines, ClickUp is the silent digital assistant every student wishes they had earlier. Its AI-driven insights help students prioritize, optimize, and visualize their academic journey, ensuring everything runs smoothly.

As we’ve navigated through various amazing AI tools that promise to revolutionize education, ClickUp stands a class apart. Not because it claims to do everything but because it delivers on its promise, ensuring students are equipped, empowered, and always ahead in their academic journey.

As the school year continues and challenges arise, students can rest easy knowing that with ClickUp, they’ve already secured an A+ in preparedness.

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Assignment 2 : Educational Technology Presentation (30%)

Addresses all ISTE Outcomes and all UVic TEP Outcomes.

In this assignment, you will form a group with shared interest in a topic, tools, or issue in the field of educational technology. As a group you will research and investigate the topic then prepare a short presentation to share your learning.

You are encouraged to work in groups of four and not overlap topics with other groups. You will be expected to showcase your learning via a presentation and/or demo. The learning pod will prepare one presentation, that may include multiple inquiry questions, and group members can certainly take different positions and tackle different aspects of the presentation. Your presentation should be captured as an 5-8 minute audio/video and uploaded and shared through a blog post. Please feel free to be creative with this project, and consider the use of screencasts, video presentations, podcasts, dramatization, simulation, animation, etc.

In addition to posting the project presentation online, your group will be expected to present a short 3-5 minute overview of your findings and reflections pertaining to the task in a class presentation. This can be done informally (without presentation media or scripts), and you are encouraged to describe the overall process, tech tools, experiences collaborating in a distributed manner or share a piece of your creation. The intention of the in-class presentation is to encourage your peers to access the presentation online.

Your planning should be structured around the following prompts:

• What is your technology inquiry question? (For example, What is the impact of screen time on children? How can one use Flipgrid in a classroom? What are some best practices in terms of copyright with regard to learning design?, etc.)
• What is the relationship of your topic to teaching and learning?
• What are the pros, cons, and risks?
• What are some of the strategies, best practices, and tips regarding your inquiry findings?

You will use the same blog as for Assignment 1. When complete, you can post your resource can be copied/posted across all group member blogs. The category “ edtech inquiry ” on your blog will be used for this assignment. Here is a Group Project Planning Guide for you to review if you would like some guidance or tips on how to plan for a successful group project.

Questions to Help Inspire Your Educational Technology Resource Development

• What is the role of cell phones in schools? What are the policies and research around this? What is my policy?
• How does technology help me in answering an inquiry question?
• Does Augmented Reality have a place in K-12 education?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of Google apps for education?
• Can Kahoot be an effective formative and summative assessment tool?
• What makes a good classroom website/blog?
• How can video recording and editing be used effectively in teaching and learning?
• What are some technologies that can help students with learning difficulties?
• Are there Ed Tech tools to make individualized learning easier to implement? What different types of individualized learning are there?
• What are the primary internet safety issues for use in the classroom, and how can they be most effectively taught?
• What role, if any, should Minecraft, coding, or 3D printing have in K-12?
• How compelling is current virtual reality technology for going on otherwise “impossible” field trips?
• Can coding tools be a more engaging way to teach?

Criteria for completion requires incorporation of all of the required educational and technology competencies in either this assignment or Assignment 1 or 3. Please refer to the educational and technology competency lists posted on the course website.

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Technology and Me Assignment One

Monday, october 25, 2010, technology this.

New Data Reveal How Many Students Are Using AI to Cheat

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AI-fueled cheating—and how to stop students from doing it—has become a major concern for educators.

But how prevalent is it? Newly released data from a popular plagiarism-detection company is shedding some light on the problem.

And it may not be as bad as educators think it is.

Of the more than 200 million writing assignments reviewed by Turnitin’s AI detection tool over the past year, some AI use was detected in about 1 out of 10 assignments, while only 3 out of every 100 assignments were generated mostly by AI.

These numbers have not changed much from when Turnitin released data in August of 2023 about the first three months of the use of its detection tool, said the company’s chief product officer, Annie Chechitelli.

“We hit a steady state, and it hasn’t changed dramatically since then,” she said. “There are students who are leaning on AI too much. But it’s not pervasive. It wasn’t this, ‘the sky is falling.’”

The fact that the number of students using AI to complete their schoolwork hasn’t skyrocketed in the past year dovetails with survey findings from Stanford University that were released in December. Researchers there polled students in 40 different high schools and found that the percentage of students who admitted to cheating has remained flat since the advent of ChatGPT and other readily available generative AI tools. For years before the release of ChatGPT, between 60 and 70 percent of students admitted to cheating, and that remained the same in the 2023 surveys, the researchers said.

Turnitin’s latest data release shows that in 11 percent of assignments run through its AI detection tool that at least 20 percent of each assignment had evidence of AI use in the writing. In 3 percent of the assignments, each assignment was made up of 80 percent or more of AI writing, which tracks closely with what the company was seeing just 3 months after it launched its AI detection tool .

Experts warn against fixating on cheating and plagiarism

However, a separate survey of educators has found that AI detection tools are becoming more popular with teachers, a trend that worries some experts.

The survey of middle and high school teachers by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit focused on technology policy and consumer rights, found that 68 percent have used an AI detection tool, up substantially from the previous year. Teachers also reported in the same survey that students are increasingly getting in trouble for using AI to complete assignments. In the 2023-24 school year, 63 percent of teachers said students had gotten in trouble for being accused of using generative AI in their schoolwork, up from 48 percent last school year.

Despite scant evidence that AI is fueling a wave in cheating, half of teachers reported in the Center for Democracy and Technology survey that generative AI has made them more distrustful that their students are turning in original work.

Some experts warn that fixating on plagiarism and cheating is the wrong focus.

This creates an environment where students are afraid to talk with their teachers about AI tools because they might get in trouble, said Tara Nattrass, the managing director of innovation and strategy at ISTE+ASCD, a nonprofit that offers content and professional development on educational technology and curriculum.

“We need to reframe the conversation and engage with students around the ways in which AI can support them in their learning and the ways in which it may be detrimental to their learning,” she said in an email to Education Week. “We want students to know that activities like using AI to write essays and pass them off as their own is harmful to their learning while using AI to break down difficult topics to strengthen understanding can help them in their learning.”

Shift the focus to teaching AI literacy, crafting better policies

Students said in the Stanford survey that is generally how they think AI should be used: as an aid to understanding concepts rather than a fancy plagiarism tool.

Nattrass said schools should be teaching AI literacy while including students in drafting clear AI guidelines.

Nattrass also recommends against schools using AI detection tools. They are too unreliable to authenticate students’ work, she said, and false positives can be devastating to individual students and breed a larger environment of mistrust. Some research has found that AI detection tools are especially weak at identifying the original writing of English learners from AI-driven prose.

“Students are using AI and will continue to do so with or without educator guidance,” Nattrass said. “Teaching students about safe and ethical AI use is a part of our responsibility to help them become contributing digital citizens.”

AI detection software actually uses AI to function: these tools are trained on large amounts of machine- and human-created writing so that the software can ideally recognize differences between the two.

Turnitin claims that its AI detector is 99 percent accurate at determining whether a document was written with AI, specifically ChatGPT, as long as the document was composed with at least 20 percent of AI writing, according to the company’s website.

Chechitelli pointed out that no detector or test—whether it’s a fire alarm or medical test—is 100 percent accurate.

While she said teachers should not rely solely on AI detectors to determine if a student is using AI to cheat, she makes the case that detection tools can provide teachers with valuable data.

“It is not definitive proof,” she said. “It’s a signal that taken with other signals can be used to start a conversation with a student.”

As educators become more comfortable with generative AI, Chechitelli said she predicts the focus will shift from detection to transparency: how should students cite or communicate the ways they’ve used AI? When should educators encourage students to use AI in assignments? And do schools have clear policies around AI use and what, exactly, constitutes plagiarism or cheating?

“What the feedback we’re hearing now from students is: ‘I’m gonna use it. I would love a little bit more guidance on how and when so I don’t get in trouble,” but still use it to learn, Chechitelli said.

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Technology and Operations Management

Mba student perspectives, assignments, rc tom challenge 2018, november 13, 2018.

The TOM Challenge provides an opportunity for you to continue exploring organizational learning and innovation through the lens of  process improvement and/or product development , the focus of RC TOM’s second module. In this challenge, you will investigate how an organization is grappling with machine learning, additive manufacturing, or open innovation. These megatrends are likely to significantly affect how organizations manage process improvement and product development in the coming years of your career. The TOM Challenge requires you to (1) conduct research and write an essay that examines how one organization is facing a particular aspect of  one  of these megatrends, and (2) write six comments that share your reflections on some of your section mates’ essays.

Your essay should address four questions in the context of the organization you choose:

• Why do you think the megatrend you selected is important to your organization’s management of process improvement and/or product development?
• What is the organization’s management doing to address this issue in the short term (the next two years) and the medium term (two to ten years out)?
• What other steps do you recommend the organization’s management take to address this issue in the short and medium terms?
• In the context of this organization, what are one or two important open questions related to this issue that you are unsure about that merit comments from your classmates?

Your essay should convey facts, analysis, and your recommendations. It should focus on a single organization (e.g., a single company, non-profit organization, or government agency) and a concern related to one megatrend. It is fine if the concern you choose relates to other megatrends that the organization is facing, but that’s not required. Roughly a third of your essay should be dedicated to each of the first three questions, with just a few sentences dedicated to the fourth question. Your essay should be at least 700 words but no more than 800 words, and must conclude with a word count in parentheses (such as 778 words).

When posting your essay to Open Knowledge, be sure to enter “Machine Learning”, “Additive Manufacturing”, or “Isolationism” in the Topics field.

More details on research, sourcing, deadlines, and other matters are provided in the RC TOM Challenge: 2018  note .  For assistance with the Open Knowledge platform during business hours (9:00 am – 5:00 pm M-F), email [email protected]. A short video with instructions on how to post an essay to this platform is available at https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-rctom/how-to/ .

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Man or bear? Hypothetical question sparks conversation about women's safety

Women explain why they would feel safer encountering a bear in the forest than a man they didn't know. the hypothetical has sparked a broader discussion about why women fear men..

If you were alone in the woods, would you rather encounter a bear or a man? Answers to that hypothetical question have sparked an ongoing and debate about why the vast majority say they would feel more comfortable choosing a bear.

The topic has been hotly discussed for weeks, with men and women everywhere chiming in with their thoughts all over social media.

Screenshot HQ , a TikTok account, started the conversation, asking half a dozen women whether they would rather run into a man they didn't know or a bear in the forest. Out of the seven women interviewed for the piece, only one picked a man.

"Bear. Man is scary," one of the women responds.

A number of women echoed the responses given in the original video, writing in the comments that they, too, would pick a bear over a man. The hypothetical has people split, with some expressing their sadness over the state of the world and others cracking jokes about the situation. Some men are flabbergasted.

Here's what we know.

A bear is the safer choice, no doubt about it, many say

There were a lot of responses, over 65,000 to be exact, under the original post, with many writing that they understood why the women would choose a bear.

"No one’s gonna ask me if I led the bear on or give me a pamphlet on bear attack prevention tips," @celestiallystunning wrote.

@Brennduhh wrote: "When I die leave my body in the woods, the wolves will be gentler than any man."

"I know a bear's intentions," another woman wrote. "I don't know a man's intentions. no matter how nice they are."

Other TikTok users took it one step farther, posing the hypothetical question to loved ones. Meredith Steele, who goes by @babiesofsteele , asked her husband last week whether he would rather have their daughter encounter a bear or a man in the woods. Her husband said he "didn't like either option," but said he was leaning toward the bear.

"Maybe it's a friendly bear," he says.

Diana, another TikTok user , asked her sister-in-law what she would choose and was left speechless.

"I asked her the question, you know, just for giggles. She was like, 'You know, I would rather it be a bear because if the bear attacks me, and I make it out of the woods, everybody’s gonna believe me and have sympathy for me," she said. "But if a man attacks me and I make it out, I’m gonna spend my whole life trying to get people to believe me and have sympathy for me.'"

Bear vs. man debate stirs the pot, woman and some men at odds

The hypothetical has caused some tension, with some women arguing that men will never truly understand what it's like to be a woman, or the inherent dangers at play.

Social media users answered this question for themselves, producing memes, spoken word poetry and skits in the days and weeks since.

So, what would you choose?

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An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary

Synthesia's new technology is impressive but raises big questions about a world where we increasingly can’t tell what’s real.

• Melissa Heikkilä archive page

I’m stressed and running late, because what do you wear for the rest of eternity? 

This makes it sound like I’m dying, but it’s the opposite. I am, in a way, about to live forever, thanks to the AI video startup Synthesia. For the past several years, the company has produced AI-generated avatars, but today it launches a new generation, its first to take advantage of the latest advancements in generative AI, and they are more realistic and expressive than anything I’ve ever seen. While today’s release means almost anyone will now be able to make a digital double, on this early April afternoon, before the technology goes public, they’ve agreed to make one of me. 

When I finally arrive at the company’s stylish studio in East London, I am greeted by Tosin Oshinyemi, the company’s production lead. He is going to guide and direct me through the data collection process—and by “data collection,” I mean the capture of my facial features, mannerisms, and more—much like he normally does for actors and Synthesia’s customers. 

He introduces me to a waiting stylist and a makeup artist, and I curse myself for wasting so much time getting ready. Their job is to ensure that people have the kind of clothes that look good on camera and that they look consistent from one shot to the next. The stylist tells me my outfit is fine (phew), and the makeup artist touches up my face and tidies my baby hairs. The dressing room is decorated with hundreds of smiling Polaroids of people who have been digitally cloned before me. 

Apart from the small supercomputer whirring in the corridor, which processes the data generated at the studio, this feels more like going into a news studio than entering a deepfake factory. 

I joke that Oshinyemi has what MIT Technology Review might call a job title of the future : “deepfake creation director.” 

“We like the term ‘synthetic media’ as opposed to ‘deepfake,’” he says. 

It’s a subtle but, some would argue, notable difference in semantics. Both mean AI-generated videos or audio recordings of people doing or saying something that didn’t necessarily happen in real life. But deepfakes have a bad reputation. Since their inception nearly a decade ago, the term has come to signal something unethical, says Alexandru Voica, Synthesia’s head of corporate affairs and policy. Think of sexual content produced without consent , or political campaigns that spread disinformation or propaganda.

“Synthetic media is the more benign, productive version of that,” he argues. And Synthesia wants to offer the best version of that version.  

Until now, all AI-generated videos of people have tended to have some stiffness, glitchiness, or other unnatural elements that make them pretty easy to differentiate from reality. Because they’re so close to the real thing but not quite it , these videos can make people feel annoyed or uneasy or icky—a phenomenon commonly known as the uncanny valley. Synthesia claims its new technology will finally lead us out of the valley. 

Thanks to rapid advancements in generative AI and a glut of training data created by human actors that has been fed into its AI model, Synthesia has been able to produce avatars that are indeed more humanlike and more expressive than their predecessors. The digital clones are better able to match their reactions and intonation to the sentiment of their scripts—acting more upbeat when talking about happy things, for instance, and more serious or sad when talking about unpleasant things. They also do a better job matching facial expressions—the tiny movements that can speak for us without words. 

But this technological progress also signals a much larger social and cultural shift. Increasingly, so much of what we see on our screens is generated (or at least tinkered with) by AI, and it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not. This threatens our trust in everything we see, which could have very real, very dangerous consequences. 

“I think we might just have to say goodbye to finding out about the truth in a quick way,” says Sandra Wachter, a professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, who researches the legal and ethical implications of AI. “The idea that you can just quickly Google something and know what’s fact and what’s fiction—I don’t think it works like that anymore.” 

So while I was excited for Synthesia to make my digital double, I also wondered if the distinction between synthetic media and deepfakes is fundamentally meaningless. Even if the former centers a creator’s intent and, critically, a subject’s consent, is there really a way to make AI avatars safely if the end result is the same? And do we really want to get out of the uncanny valley if it means we can no longer grasp the truth?

But more urgently, it was time to find out what it’s like to see a post-truth version of yourself.

Almost the real thing

A month before my trip to the studio, I visited Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli at his office near Oxford Circus. As Riparbelli tells it, Synthesia’s origin story stems from his experiences exploring avant-garde, geeky techno music while growing up in Denmark. The internet allowed him to download software and produce his own songs without buying expensive synthesizers. 

“I’m a huge believer in giving people the ability to express themselves in the way that they can, because I think that that provides for a more meritocratic world,” he tells me. 

He saw the possibility of doing something similar with video when he came across research on using deep learning to transfer expressions from one human face to another on screen. 

“What that showcased was the first time a deep-learning network could produce video frames that looked and felt real,” he says. 

That research was conducted by Matthias Niessner, a professor at the Technical University of Munich, who cofounded Synthesia with Riparbelli in 2017, alongside University College London professor Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild, whom Riparbelli had previously worked with on a cryptocurrency project. 

Initially the company built lip-synching and dubbing tools for the entertainment industry, but it found that the bar for this technology’s quality was very high and there wasn’t much demand for it. Synthesia changed direction in 2020 and launched its first generation of AI avatars for corporate clients. That pivot paid off. In 2023, Synthesia achieved unicorn status, meaning it was valued at over $1 billion—making it one of the relatively few European AI companies to do so. 

That first generation of avatars looked clunky, with looped movements and little variation. Subsequent iterations started looking more human, but they still struggled to say complicated words, and things were slightly out of sync. 

The challenge is that people are used to looking at other people’s faces. “We as humans know what real humans do,” says Jonathan Starck, Synthesia’s CTO. Since infancy, “you’re really tuned in to people and faces. You know what’s right, so anything that’s not quite right really jumps out a mile.” 

These earlier AI-generated videos, like deepfakes more broadly, were made using generative adversarial networks, or GANs —an older technique for generating images and videos that uses two neural networks that play off one another. It was a laborious and complicated process, and the technology was unstable. 

But in the generative AI boom of the last year or so, the company has found it can create much better avatars using generative neural networks that produce higher quality more consistently. The more data these models are fed, the better they learn. Synthesia uses both large language models and diffusion models to do this; the former help the avatars react to the script, and the latter generate the pixels. 

Despite the leap in quality, the company is still not pitching itself to the entertainment industry. Synthesia continues to see itself as a platform for businesses. Its bet is this: As people spend more time watching videos on YouTube and TikTok, there will be more demand for video content. Young people are already skipping traditional search and defaulting to TikTok for information presented in video form. Riparbelli argues that Synthesia’s tech could help companies convert their boring corporate comms and reports and training materials into content people will actually watch and engage with. He also suggests it could be used to make marketing materials. 

He claims Synthesia’s technology is used by 56% of the Fortune 100, with the vast majority of those companies using it for internal communication. The company lists Zoom, Xerox, Microsoft, and Reuters as clients. Services start at $22 a month.

This, the company hopes, will be a cheaper and more efficient alternative to video from a professional production company—and one that may be nearly indistinguishable from it. Riparbelli tells me its newest avatars could easily fool a person into thinking they are real. 

“I think we’re 98% there,” he says. 

For better or worse, I am about to see it for myself. 

Don’t be garbage

In AI research, there is a saying: Garbage in, garbage out. If the data that went into training an AI model is trash, that will be reflected in the outputs of the model. The more data points the AI model has captured of my facial movements, microexpressions, head tilts, blinks, shrugs, and hand waves, the more realistic the avatar will be. 

Back in the studio, I’m trying really hard not to be garbage. 

I am standing in front of a green screen, and Oshinyemi guides me through the initial calibration process, where I have to move my head and then eyes in a circular motion. Apparently, this will allow the system to understand my natural colors and facial features. I am then asked to say the sentence “All the boys ate a fish,” which will capture all the mouth movements needed to form vowels and consonants. We also film footage of me “idling” in silence.

He then asks me to read a script for a fictitious YouTuber in different tones, directing me on the spectrum of emotions I should convey. First I’m supposed to read it in a neutral, informative way, then in an encouraging way, an annoyed and complain-y way, and finally an excited, convincing way. 

“Hey, everyone—welcome back to Elevate Her with your host, Jess Mars. It’s great to have you here. We’re about to take on a topic that’s pretty delicate and honestly hits close to home—dealing with criticism in our spiritual journey,” I read off the teleprompter, simultaneously trying to visualize ranting about something to my partner during the complain-y version. “No matter where you look, it feels like there’s always a critical voice ready to chime in, doesn’t it?” 

Don’t be garbage, don’t be garbage, don’t be garbage. 

“That was really good. I was watching it and I was like, ‘Well, this is true. She’s definitely complaining,’” Oshinyemi says, encouragingly. Next time, maybe add some judgment, he suggests.   

We film several takes featuring different variations of the script. In some versions I’m allowed to move my hands around. In others, Oshinyemi asks me to hold a metal pin between my fingers as I do. This is to test the “edges” of the technology’s capabilities when it comes to communicating with hands, Oshinyemi says. 

Historically, making AI avatars look natural and matching mouth movements to speech has been a very difficult challenge, says David Barber, a professor of machine learning at University College London who is not involved in Synthesia’s work. That is because the problem goes far beyond mouth movements; you have to think about eyebrows, all the muscles in the face, shoulder shrugs, and the numerous different small movements that humans use to express themselves. 

Synthesia has worked with actors to train its models since 2020, and their doubles make up the 225 stock avatars that are available for customers to animate with their own scripts. But to train its latest generation of avatars, Synthesia needed more data; it has spent the past year working with around 1,000 professional actors in London and New York. (Synthesia says it does not sell the data it collects, although it does release some of it for academic research purposes .)

The actors previously got paid each time their avatar was used, but now the company pays them an up-front fee to train the AI model. Synthesia uses their avatars for three years, at which point actors are asked if they want to renew their contracts. If so, they come into the studio to make a new avatar. If not, the company will delete their data. Synthesia’s enterprise customers can also generate their own custom avatars by sending someone into the studio to do much of what I’m doing.

Between takes, the makeup artist comes in and does some touch-ups to make sure I look the same in every shot. I can feel myself blushing because of the lights in the studio, but also because of the acting. After the team has collected all the shots it needs to capture my facial expressions, I go downstairs to read more text aloud for voice samples. 

This process requires me to read a passage indicating that I explicitly consent to having my voice cloned, and that it can be used on Voica’s account on the Synthesia platform to generate videos and speech. 

Consent is key

This process is very different from the way many AI avatars, deepfakes, or synthetic media—whatever you want to call them—are created. 

Most deepfakes aren’t created in a studio. Studies have shown that the vast majority of deepfakes online are nonconsensual sexual content, usually using images stolen from social media. Generative AI has made the creation of these deepfakes easy and cheap, and there have been several high-profile cases in the US and Europe of children and women being abused in this way. Experts have also raised alarms that the technology can be used to spread political disinformation, a particularly acute threat given the record number of elections happening around the world this year. 

Synthesia’s policy is to not create avatars of people without their explicit consent. But it hasn’t been immune from abuse. Last year, researchers found pro-China misinformation that was created using Synthesia’s avatars and packaged as news, which the company said violated its terms of service. 

Since then, the company has put more rigorous verification and content moderation systems in place. It applies a watermark with information on where and how the AI avatar videos were created. Where it once had four in-house content moderators, people doing this work now make up 10% of its 300-person staff. It also hired an engineer to build better AI-powered content moderation systems. These filters help Synthesia vet every single thing its customers try to generate. Anything suspicious or ambiguous, such as content about cryptocurrencies or sexual health, gets forwarded to the human content moderators. Synthesia also keeps a record of all the videos its system creates.

And while anyone can join the platform, many features aren’t available until people go through an extensive vetting system similar to that used by the banking industry, which includes talking to the sales team, signing legal contracts, and submitting to security auditing, says Voica. Entry-level customers are limited to producing strictly factual content, and only enterprise customers using custom avatars can generate content that contains opinions. On top of this, only accredited news organizations are allowed to create content on current affairs.

“We can’t claim to be perfect. If people report things to us, we take quick action, [such as] banning or limiting individuals or organizations,” Voica says. But he believes these measures work as a deterrent, which means most bad actors will turn to freely available open-source tools instead. 

I put some of these limits to the test when I head to Synthesia’s office for the next step in my avatar generation process. In order to create the videos that will feature my avatar, I have to write a script. Using Voica’s account, I decide to use passages from Hamlet, as well as previous articles I have written. I also use a new feature on the Synthesia platform, which is an AI assistant that transforms any web link or document into a ready-made script. I try to get my avatar to read news about the European Union’s new sanctions against Iran. 

Voica immediately texts me: “You got me in trouble!” 

The system has flagged his account for trying to generate content that is restricted.

Offering services without these restrictions would be “a great growth strategy,” Riparbelli grumbles. But “ultimately, we have very strict rules on what you can create and what you cannot create. We think the right way to roll out these technologies in society is to be a little bit over-restrictive at the beginning.” 

Still, even if these guardrails operated perfectly, the ultimate result would nevertheless be an internet where everything is fake. And my experiment makes me wonder how we could possibly prepare ourselves. 

Our information landscape already feels very murky. On the one hand, there is heightened public awareness that AI-generated content is flourishing and could be a powerful tool for misinformation. But on the other, it is still unclear whether deepfakes are used for misinformation at scale and whether they’re broadly moving the needle to change people’s beliefs and behaviors. 

If people become too skeptical about the content they see, they might stop believing in anything at all, which could enable bad actors to take advantage of this trust vacuum and lie about the authenticity of real content. Researchers have called this the “ liar’s dividend .” They warn that politicians, for example, could claim that genuinely incriminating information was fake or created using AI. 

Claire Leibowicz, the head of the AI and media integrity at the nonprofit Partnership on AI, says she worries that growing awareness of this gap will make it easier to “plausibly deny and cast doubt on real material or media as evidence in many different contexts, not only in the news, [but] also in the courts, in the financial services industry, and in many of our institutions.” She tells me she’s heartened by the resources Synthesia has devoted to content moderation and consent but says that process is never flawless.

Even Riparbelli admits that in the short term, the proliferation of AI-generated content will probably cause trouble. While people have been trained not to believe everything they read, they still tend to trust images and videos, he adds. He says people now need to test AI products for themselves to see what is possible, and should not trust anything they see online unless they have verified it. 

Never mind that AI regulation is still patchy, and the tech sector’s efforts to verify content provenance are still in their early stages. Can consumers, with their varying degrees of media literacy, really fight the growing wave of harmful AI-generated content through individual action? 

Watch out, PowerPoint

The day after my final visit, Voica emails me the videos with my avatar. When the first one starts playing, I am taken aback. It’s as painful as seeing yourself on camera or hearing a recording of your voice. Then I catch myself. At first I thought the avatar was me. 

The more I watch videos of “myself,” the more I spiral. Do I really squint that much? Blink that much? And move my jaw like that? Jesus. 

It’s good. It’s really good. But it’s not perfect. “Weirdly good animation,” my partner texts me. 

“But the voice sometimes sounds exactly like you, and at other times like a generic American and with a weird tone,” he adds. “Weird AF.” 

He’s right. The voice is sometimes me, but in real life I umm and ahh more. What’s remarkable is that it picked up on an irregularity in the way I talk. My accent is a transatlantic mess, confused by years spent living in the UK, watching American TV, and attending international school. My avatar sometimes says the word “robot” in a British accent and other times in an American accent. It’s something that probably nobody else would notice. But the AI did. 

My avatar’s range of emotions is also limited. It delivers Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be” speech very matter-of-factly. I had guided it to be furious when reading a story I wrote about Taylor Swift’s nonconsensual nude deepfakes ; the avatar is complain-y and judgy, for sure, but not angry. 

This isn’t the first time I’ve made myself a test subject for new AI. Not too long ago, I tried generating AI avatar images of myself, only to get a bunch of nudes . That experience was a jarring example of just how biased AI systems can be. But this experience—and this particular way of being immortalized—was definitely on a different level.

Carl Öhman, an assistant professor at Uppsala University who has studied digital remains and is the author of a new book, The Afterlife of Data , calls avatars like the ones I made “digital corpses.” 

“It looks exactly like you, but no one’s home,” he says. “It would be the equivalent of cloning you, but your clone is dead. And then you’re animating the corpse, so that it moves and talks, with electrical impulses.” 

That’s kind of how it feels. The little, nuanced ways I don’t recognize myself are enough to put me off. Then again, the avatar could quite possibly fool anyone who doesn’t know me very well. It really shines when presenting a story I wrote about how the field of robotics could be getting its own ChatGPT moment ; the virtual AI assistant summarizes the long read into a decent short video, which my avatar narrates. It is not Shakespeare, but it’s better than many of the corporate presentations I’ve had to sit through. I think if I were using this to deliver an end-of-year report to my colleagues, maybe that level of authenticity would be enough. 

And that is the sell, according to Riparbelli: “What we’re doing is more like PowerPoint than it is like Hollywood.”

The newest generation of avatars certainly aren’t ready for the silver screen. They’re still stuck in portrait mode, only showing the avatar front-facing and from the waist up. But in the not-too-distant future, Riparbelli says, the company hopes to create avatars that can communicate with their hands and have conversations with one another. It is also planning for full-body avatars that can walk and move around in a space that a person has generated. (The rig to enable this technology already exists; in fact it's where I am in the image at the top of this piece.)

But do we really want that? It feels like a bleak future where humans are consuming AI-generated content presented to them by AI-generated avatars and using AI to repackage that into more content, which will likely be scraped to generate more AI. If nothing else, this experiment made clear to me that the technology sector urgently needs to step up its content moderation practices and ensure that content provenance techniques such as watermarking are robust. 

Even if Synthesia’s technology and content moderation aren’t yet perfect, they’re significantly better than anything I have seen in the field before, and this is after only a year or so of the current boom in generative AI. AI development moves at breakneck speed, and it is both exciting and daunting to consider what AI avatars will look like in just a few years. Maybe in the future we will have to adopt safewords to indicate that you are in fact communicating with a real human, not an AI. 

But that day is not today. 

I found it weirdly comforting that in one of the videos, my avatar rants about nonconsensual deepfakes and says, in a sociopathically happy voice, “The tech giants? Oh! They’re making a killing!” 

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. but nobody knows exactly why..

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

• Will Douglas Heaven archive page

What’s next for generative video

OpenAI's Sora has raised the bar for AI moviemaking. Here are four things to bear in mind as we wrap our heads around what's coming.

The AI Act is done. Here’s what will (and won’t) change

The hard work starts now.

Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment?

Researchers are using generative AI and other techniques to teach robots new skills—including tasks they could perform in homes.

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Ask Amy: My girlfriend told me I will NOT accept a six-month work assignment in Australia

• Published: Apr. 30, 2024, 7:00 p.m.

Amy Dickinson TNS

• Amy Dickinson

DEAR AMY: I would like your advice.

I have been with my girlfriend for two years. I work as a critical care paramedic.

I have been offered six months’ work in Australia training new paramedics.

My girlfriend has told me point blank that I am not going.

She is very controlling. She says that if I go this shows that I don’t love her.

But I think this is a chance of a lifetime. What do you think?

– Paramedic

DEAR PARAMEDIC: Take the job, ditch the girl.

I hope you have an amazing adventure.

(You can email Amy Dickinson at [email protected] or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook .)

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How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me)

This privacy reporter and her husband bought a Chevrolet Bolt in December. Two risk-profiling companies had been getting detailed data about their driving ever since.

By Kashmir Hill

Kashmir Hill is a technology reporter who has been covering the privacy implications of connected cars, including her own.

Automakers have been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to the insurance industry. In the case of General Motors, affected drivers weren’t informed, and the tracking led insurance companies to charge some of them more for premiums. I’m the reporter who broke the story . I recently discovered that I’m among the drivers who was spied on.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

My husband and I bought a G.M.-manufactured 2023 Chevrolet Bolt in December. This month, my husband received his “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, two data brokers that work with the insurance industry and that G.M. had been providing with data. (He requested the files after my article came out in March, heeding the advice I had given to readers.)

My husband’s LexisNexis report had a breakdown of the 203 trips we had taken in the car since January, including the distance, the start and end times, and how often we hard-braked or accelerated rapidly. The Verisk report, which dated back to mid-December and recounted 297 trips, had a high-level summary at the top: 1,890.89 miles driven; 4,251 driving minutes; 170 hard-brake events; 24 rapid accelerations, and, on a positive note, zero speeding events.

I had requested my own LexisNexis file while reporting, but it didn’t have driving data on it. Though both of our names are on the car’s title, the data from our Bolt accrued to my husband alone because the G.M. dealership listed him as the primary owner.

G.M.’s spokeswoman had told me that this data collection happened only to people who turned on OnStar, its connected services plan, and enrolled in Smart Driver, a gamified program that offers feedback and digital badges for good driving, either at the time of purchase or via their vehicle’s mobile app.

That wasn’t us — and I had checked to be sure. In mid-January, again while reporting, I had connected our car to the MyChevrolet app to see if we were enrolled in Smart Driver. The app said we weren’t, and thus we had no access to any information about how we drove.

But in April, when we found out our driving had been tracked, my husband signed into a browser-based version of his account page, on GM.com, which said our car was enrolled in “OnStar Smart Driver+.” G.M. says this discrepancy between the app and the website was the result of “a bug” that affected a “small population” of customers. That group got the worst possible version of Smart Driver: We couldn’t get insights into our driving, but insurance companies could.

Many G.M. owners have reached out with similar accounts since my article appeared. Jenn Archer of Illinois bought a Chevy Trailblazer in April 2022. She didn’t subscribe to OnStar and had never heard of Smart Driver, but last month discovered that LexisNexis had her driving data.

“I was furious,” she said. In the last two years, her insurance rate has increased by 50 percent.

In 10 federal lawsuits filed in the last month, drivers from across the country say they did not knowingly sign up for Smart Driver but recently learned that G.M. had provided their driving data to LexisNexis. According to one of the complaints, a Florida owner of a 2019 Cadillac CTS-V who drove it around a racetrack for events saw his insurance premium nearly double, an increase of more than $5,000 per year.

At no point had these drivers been explicitly informed that this would happen, not even in the fine print, they said. New reporting reveals the cause: a misleading screen that these people would have briefly seen when they bought their cars — if their salesperson showed it to them.

“G.M. established the Smart Driver program to promote safer driving for the benefit of customers who choose to participate,” said a company spokeswoman, Brandee Barker. “Based on customer feedback, we’ve decided to discontinue the Smart Driver product across all G.M. vehicles and unenroll all customers. This process will begin over the next few months.”

Last month, G.M. stopped sharing data with LexisNexis and Verisk — giving up annual revenue in the low millions, an employee familiar with the contracts said. The company also hired a new chief trust and privacy officer.

“Customer trust is a priority for us, and we are showing that in our actions,” Ms. Barker said.

How It Happened to Me

According to G.M., our car was enrolled in Smart Driver when we bought it at a Chevrolet dealership in New York, during the flurry of document-signing that accompanies the purchase of a new vehicle. That this happened to me, the rare consumer who reads privacy policies and is constantly on the lookout for creepy data collection, demonstrates what little hope there was for the typical car buyer.

To find out how it happened, I called our dealership, a franchise of General Motors, and talked to the salesman who had sold us the car. He confirmed that he had enrolled us for OnStar, noting that his pay is docked if he fails to do so. He said that was a mandate from G.M., which sends the dealership a report card each month tracking the percentage of sign-ups.

G.M. doesn’t just want dealers selling cars; it wants them selling connected cars.

Our Bolt automatically came with eight years of Connected Access, a feature we didn’t know about until recently. It allows G.M. to send software updates to our car but also to collect data from it — actions consented to during OnStar enrollment.

Our salesman described the enrollment as a three-stage process that he does every day. He selects yes to enroll a customer in OnStar, then yes for the customer to receive text messages and then no to an insurance product that G.M. offers and that monitors how you drive your car. (This sounds similar to Smart Driver, but it is different.)

He does this so often, he said, that it has become automatic — yes, yes, no — and that he always chooses no for the last one because that monitoring would be a nuisance for customers.

Ms. Barker, the G.M. spokeswoman, said that dealers are not permitted to sign customers up and that the customer must be the one to accept the terms. At my request, she provided the series of screens that dealers are instructed to show customers during the enrollment for OnStar and Smart Driver. There is a message at the top of each screen: “The customer must personally review and accept (or decline) the terms below. This action is legally binding and cannot be done by dealer personnel.”

The flow of screens was almost exactly as my salesman described, except for the second one about receiving messages, which he said he always hits “yes” on. That screen wasn’t just about accepting messages from G.M.; it also opted us into OnStar Smart Driver.

It’s a screen that my husband and I do not recall seeing — presumably because our salesman filled it out for us as part of his standard procedure.

The Forgettable Screen That Enrolled Millions

I drove to the dealership — in my Bolt, appropriately — to ask about this, and a more senior salesman said they always have the customers accept the terms themselves.

Maybe our salesman misspoke on the phone and my husband and I have forgotten a moment during our car purchase when we were asked to tap “yes” on this screen. I can’t say with certainty.

What I can say is that, regardless of who pushed the consent button, this screen about enrolling in notifications and Smart Driver doesn’t say anything about risk-profiling or insurance companies. It doesn’t even hint at the possibility that anyone but G.M. and the driver gets the data collected about how and where the vehicle is operated, which it says will be used to “improve your ownership experience” and help with “driving improvement.”

I showed the screen, used to enroll millions of people in Smart Driver, to a series of information design experts.

“What you showed me does not at all disclose clearly how G.M. or OnStar benefits from the use and sale of your info,” said Jen King, an information privacy expert at Stanford University. “Including it during the purchase process appears to be a conscious decision to get high conversion rates.”

Harry Brignull, author of “Deceptive Patterns: Exposing the Tricks Tech Companies Use to Control You,” said: “In these sorts of agreements, they need to be very clear about the true function of it. Otherwise, users won’t understand what it is they’re opting into.”

Ms. Barker said G.M.’s terms and privacy statement allowed the company to share information with “third parties” — legalese that people agree to on the first screen the salesman was instructed to show us. That wouldn’t seem, however, to meet G.M.’s own bar for such sensitive information.

A decade ago, G.M. and other major automakers made a commitment to the Federal Trade Commission to provide “clear, meaningful and prominent” notice about the collection of driver behavior information, including why it is collected and “the types of entities with which the information may be shared.”

Moreover, this innocuous-sounding data-collection program appears alongside a request to send important-seeming notifications about, among other things, “issues with your car’s key operating systems.” To get them, you have to accept the other.

Kate Aishton, a lawyer who advises companies on data and privacy practices, deemed the process poorly designed for obtaining actual user consent, particularly since it takes place in a high-pressure sales environment. She was sympathetic to salespeople who were given an incentive to sign G.M. customers up for this without realizing the consequences.

“Their job is to sell cars. It’s not to understand the details of privacy products,” she said. “Passing the buck on to that blind person, if there hasn’t been a really specific education on it, would be pretty unfair.”

Smart Driver 2.0

A former G.M. employee who worked on the company’s data engineering team said he was not surprised that drivers did not understand what data was being collected from their cars and where it was going.

G.M., he said, gets data from all of its internet-connected cars. Some of that data collection benefits drivers, such as monitoring of vehicle health. For example, if a particular model has a transmission issue, he said, G.M. can see from vehicle data which specific cars are experiencing the problem and send their owners a targeted recall.

In recent years, he said, G.M. began analyzing other driving behavior besides speeding, braking and acceleration. An internal G.M. document from 2021, which was reviewed by The New York Times and which said more than eight million vehicles were “opted in” to Smart Driver at that time, described a new version of the program called “Smart Driver 2.0.” This version tracked hard cornering, forward collision alerts, lane-departure warnings and seatbelt reminders; these metrics were being used to price policies for drivers using G.M.’s own insurance plan, then called OnStar Insurance, but don’t seem to have been shared with LexisNexis and Verisk.

Still, these in-vehicle alerts, intended to help people drive more safely, became a measuring stick for how risky they were as drivers.

A new car, like mine, has hundreds of sensors, the former employee said, so even just a 15-minute trip creates millions of data points, including GPS location — all of which is broadcast in near real time to G.M. He expressed concerns about the insurance industry’s use of this data because it lacked context about the situation that might have led a driver to slam on the brakes or swerve out of a lane.

Turning It Off

Asked how consumers can turn off G.M.’s digital access to their cars, a spokeswoman said customers could “disable all data collection” by contacting an OnStar adviser through the blue button in their vehicle or by calling the OnStar customer service line .

Some drivers have said on online forums that they don’t trust G.M. to stop remotely tracking their cars, and instead offer D.I.Y. advice for opening up the car’s electrical guts to remove the OnStar module.

Andrea Amico , founder of Privacy4Cars, a company that makes a tool to erase personal data from vehicle infotainment systems, said a line needed to be drawn between technical data from a vehicle — like that used to trigger recall notices — and personal data about drivers, such as how and where they drive, which should belong to them, not the automaker.

Beyond privacy issues, Mr. Amico pointed out that the driver behavior reports that LexisNexis and Verisk were creating were inaccurate — tracking my driving, for example, on my husband’s report.

“The fact that they cannot reconcile who gave consent and whose data it is,” he said, “is very problematic .”

Read by Kashmir Hill

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro .

Kitty Bennett and Jack Begg contributed research.

Kashmir Hill writes about technology and how it is changing people’s everyday lives with a particular focus on privacy. She has been covering technology for more than a decade. More about Kashmir Hill

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How ECMO Is Redefining Death

By Clayton Dalton

In November of 2022, a twenty-three-year-old woman named Shania Arms posted a video on TikTok. The footage shows her at a photo shoot, wearing jean cutoffs, black heels, and a crown of white flowers, lounging under palm trees. A building behind her with tall, rounded windows could be a hotel. But next to her, in every shot, is a metal trolley stacked with medical equipment. Two large plastic tubes, one cherry red, the other dark plum, loop from the trolley to Arms, entering her body beneath her clavicle. She has cystic fibrosis, a condition that damages the lungs. Hers are failing, and the machine on the trolley has replaced them.

The machine, called ECMO , which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, removes carbon dioxide from the blood and replaces it with oxygen. It can perform the work of the heart and lungs entirely outside the body. When Arms made the video, she had been on ECMO for forty-seven days, living in the I.C.U. of an Orlando hospital—the building behind her in the video—hoping for a lung transplant. Without ECMO , she would die. But owing to the complexity of the machine and its attendant risks—catastrophic bleeding, stroke, infection, malfunction—she couldn’t leave. She was waiting, stuck in a kind of limbo between life and death.

Although ECMO technology is more than half a century old, it was in some ways still considered an experimental treatment until recently. ECMO devices began to be used to replace lungs wrecked by COVID -19; stories began to spread of incredible recoveries after as long as a hundred and forty-nine days on ECMO . Family members of COVID patients called dozens of hospitals, hunting for the machines.

But some physicians worry that ECMO is creating entirely new ethical conundrums. “The unfortunate reality is that, sometimes, people get put on this machine and they don’t get better,” Jessica Zitter, a palliative- and critical-care physician, told me. A patient whose heart has stopped could potentially live on the machine for months, awake, able to walk and read the newspaper. But he might never leave the I.C.U. “It’s a trap,” Zitter said. ECMO is transforming medical care, saving lives. But it also complicates care when life inevitably begins to end, committing some patients to a liminal state with no hope for recovery. When should it be used, or withheld? And who should decide?

The beginnings of ECMO date back to 1931, when a surgical resident in Boston named John Gibbon cared for a woman with a pulmonary embolism—a blocked artery in the lungs, which made it harder for her blood to receive oxygen and ferry it to the rest of her body. Gibbon had no treatment, and could only watch her decline and die. “During that long night . . . the idea naturally occurred to me that if it were possible to remove continuously some of the blue blood . . . put oxygen into that blood . . . and then to inject continuously the now-red blood back into the patient’s arteries, we might have saved her life,” Gibbon later wrote. “We would have bypassed the obstructing embolus and performed part of the work of the patient’s heart and lungs outside the body.” The woman was gone by morning, but Gibbon set to work. By 1934, he had developed a machine that could support the circulation of a cat for thirty minutes. In 1952, it was finally ready for humans. Gibbon used the machine to replace the heart and lungs of a college student while he operated on her heart, repairing a cardiac defect. She survived; this event marked the advent of modern open-heart surgery.

Gibbon’s bypass circuit soon became an integral part of cardiothoracic surgery. But the technology relied on the direct mixing of oxygen and blood—a process that rendered the blood toxic after about an hour. Gibbon’s system left too much oxygen floating free in the bloodstream. In 1965, Robert Bartlett, another surgical resident in Boston, set out to solve this problem. Bartlett built a “membrane oxygenator” out of silicone, which mitigated oxygen’s noxious effects by allowing it to diffuse slowly into the blood across a semipermeable membrane, essentially in the same manner that it travels across the thin walls of the alveoli in our lungs. This gave the hemoglobin in the patient’s bloodstream time to absorb the oxygen. Within three years, his devices were keeping animals alive through “extracorporeal circulation” for up to four days. In 1971, his colleagues used a similar setup to support a man with respiratory failure. He lived on the machine for thirty-six hours, becoming the first human survivor of ECMO .

In 1975, Bartlett and his associates used their device to sustain a newborn who developed respiratory failure after birth. Within fifteen years, hundreds of babies with similar problems had been saved with ECMO , with a survival rate of eighty per cent. The technology became standard in the largest pediatric centers. But a trial with adult patients, in 1979, found a mortality rate of ninety per cent: it seemed that using ECMO in adults turned out to be far more difficult, because they often have multiple medical problems, and their illnesses are more complex. The adoption of ECMO for adult patients largely stalled, until H1N1 influenza emerged in the Southern Hemisphere, in 2008. “The Australians were reporting that they were having an epidemic, and the only thing that was improving outcomes was ECMO ,” Bartlett told me. The technology had advanced, and doctors were better at using it; the machines now kept patients alive while their bodies fought the infection. A 2009 trial found that ECMO helped with respiratory failure from other causes. The number of hospitals offering ECMO increased threefold within ten years. And then the coronavirus pandemic arrived.

On November 20, 2020, Henry Garza came down with a headache. He was fifty-four, living in Illinois with his wife, Michele, and four children. His COVID test was positive, and he felt short of breath. “People who go to the hospital don’t come home,” Garza told his wife, but he went anyway. A month later, he was still in the hospital, and his lungs were getting worse. He was wary of intubation—he’d heard that many patients didn’t survive for long after they’d been put on ventilators—and a nurse told him about ECMO , which would let his lungs heal by sparing them the work of breathing while inflamed by a viral infection. Michele recalled that ECMO was presented as “either a bridge to healing or a bridge to transplant.” She remembers thinking, “If it’s a bridge, let’s get on it.”

A ventilator , like many other medical technologies, can sometimes harm as well as help. It assumes the work of breathing and controls it, but forcing air into damaged lungs can damage them further. Early in the pandemic, the mortality rate for ventilated COVID patients was as high as sixty per cent. In the spring of 2020, physicians at N.Y.U. treated thirty ventilated COVID patients with ECMO . Ninety per cent survived. Later that year, a study, published by The Lancet , of more than a thousand COVID patients treated with ECMO found a sixty-per-cent survival rate. In 2022, at Vanderbilt University, physicians studied a group of ventilated COVID patients whose doctors suggested that they be put on ECMO . Thirty-five were approved, and twenty survived. Among the rest, the survival rate was ten per cent.

Jeffrey DellaVolpe, an intensivist in Texas, began to wonder if skipping the ventilator entirely might be better. From fifty-two COVID patients that he and his colleagues treated with ECMO , twelve were placed on it without going on a ventilator first. His team found that, although the average survival rate for ventilated patients with ECMO was around fifty per cent, it was seventy-five per cent among the ECMO -first patients. DellaVolpe speculated that one reason the ECMO -first patients had more positive outcomes was that they could be awake. Since ECMO doesn’t require sedation, as ventilators do, he could get them out of bed to work with physical therapists. “As I read the tea leaves, I think this is going to be a big part of the I.C.U.,” DellaVolpe told me. In theory, ECMO could largely replace the use of ventilators for respiratory failure. Today, I.C.U.s are often hushed and sepulchral; perhaps they’ll one day be full of walking, talking patients.

Garza was on ECMO for a hundred and nineteen days. He came to know the machine so well that he could tell when the oxygenator needed to be changed. He hallucinated being caught in a spiderweb, and sometimes dreamed that he was being held against his will. “It was this feeling of being trapped all the time,” he said. His lungs didn’t recover, but ECMO allowed him to be wait-listed for a transplant. He asked his nurses, “Can I just wait at home?” Their answer was blunt. “If we take you off these machines, you will die. And you can’t take them home with you.” Finally, in April, 2021, he got new lungs.

Jon Marinaro, an emergency physician and intensivist at the University of New Mexico, is pushing the use of ECMO further. Every year, nearly four hundred thousand Americans suffer cardiac arrest outside of a hospital. Despite the use of CPR , defibrillators, and powerful drugs, fewer than one in ten survive. “That’s where ECMO comes in,” Marinaro told me. In a small room crowded with ECMO pumps, next to his hospital’s pediatric I.C.U., Marinaro showed me how to place an ECMO tube, or cannula, on a model he’d built out of white PVC pipe. Hand-drawn thank-you cards from a class of first graders were tacked to a cabinet behind him: Marinaro and his team had saved their teacher with ECMO . “If you can do better than CPR, you’re going to save more lives,” he said.

In France, emergency responders have been using ECMO to treat cardiac arrest since 2011, placing patients with heart attacks onto the machines, whether in the Louvre or on the subway. In 2014, Demetris Yannopoulos, a cardiologist at the University of Minnesota, started a similar program in Minneapolis. What he found surprised him. “We could save almost half” of the patients, he told me. He paused. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of survival.” In a randomized study of cardiac-arrest patients, he found that forty-three per cent of those treated with ECMO and CPR survived; with CPR only, only six per cent did.

Marinaro initially became interested in ECMO as a way of saving patients with pulmonary embolisms—the same disease that inspired John Gibbon, in 1931. In 2016, four patients at his hospital died from it. The next year, Marinaro and his team started a program to treat such patients with ECMO . Since then, they have not had a single death in patients treated promptly. He soon began using ECMO to treat cardiac arrest, too—the machine can take over for the heart until that organ is re-started—and he became a convert. Most of his patients have had about fifty minutes of CPR before they make it to ECMO . “As an E.R. doc yourself, you know what that means,” he said to me. I work in an emergency department in New Mexico, and, in my experience, after an hour of CPR with no improvement, the possibility of survival is almost nil. I would likely pronounce those patients dead.

And yet, after this point, about thirty per cent of Marinaro’s patients survive. “If you were to triple survival with a cancer drug, people wouldn’t believe it,” he said, while a humming ECMO pump whisked water through his PVC model. “But we have tripled survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In medicine, tripling survival is unheard of!” He told me about one patient who received CPR for three hours, and was taken to two different hospitals, before Marinaro’s team put him on ECMO . “That guy walked out of the hospital,” he said. Recently, he treated a sixteen-year-old girl named Sophia who collapsed in cardiac arrest in a Starbucks bathroom. She received CPR for an hour and nine minutes. “They were about to quit,” he told me. Her mother, a physician named Angelina Villas-Adams, waited in the E.R. with her husband as the team worked on their daughter; a chaplain came by. Marinaro’s own protocols recommend against deploying ECMO after more than an hour of CPR, because neurologic recovery becomes very unlikely. But then a paramedic said he had seen her move. Sophia had exhibited something called CPR-induced consciousness; the chest compressions were circulating enough blood for her to move an arm. Marinaro made an exception and put Sophia on ECMO . Later, in the I.C.U., someone whispered “Squeeze my hand” into her ear, and she did. “We’re thinking, Is she going to wake up?” her father, Buddy, told me.

The ECMO pump, he said, reminded him of a red Slurpee machine. After two days, Sophia’s heart recovered, and she came off ECMO . Then she spoke: “My tootsies are squished.” Pneumatic boots, meant to prevent blood clots, were squeezing her feet. “ ECMO saved my life,” Sophia told me when I met her in Albuquerque, several months later. “I lived when I should have died,” she said.

“We should be doing this way more,” Marinaro said. He thinks that ECMO should be everywhere. “How do you make ECMO available to everybody so that you can die anywhere, anytime, and someone will be able to save you?” In the back of an ambulance, he showed me a hand-crank ECMO circuit that he and another physician, Darren Braude, had pioneered for cardiac arrests in the field. “We do Crank- MO !” he said, grinning. Hunched over in the back of the ambulance, I turned the crank. It whined like a Hot Wheels car. The setup was astonishingly simple. As we stepped out of the ambulance, Marinaro suggested sending a few such circuits to the rural hospital where I work. I thought of all the patients we could save.

Around a decade ago, a teen-ager who couldn’t be saved was admitted to a New England hospital. Like Shania Arms, he had cystic fibrosis. A previous lung transplant was failing, and his only hope was another transplant. He was put on ECMO while he waited. Two months later, doctors discovered that he had developed an incurable cancer. Now there was no way for him to leave the I.C.U. His lungs were beyond recovery, and the cancer made him ineligible for transplant. He was caught on a bridge to nowhere.

Some members of the medical team thought that ECMO should be stopped. Transplant was no longer possible, and ECMO machines were scarce. As long as the patient was on the machine, it couldn’t be used to save someone else. It’s also expensive; according to a 2023 study , the median hospitalization charge for COVID patients on ECMO was around eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars, and prolonged cases can exceed several million. These resources might be needed to help other patients, and the boy couldn’t live in the I.C.U. indefinitely.

But others on the team disagreed. “He was texting with his friends,” Robert Truog, a pediatrician and bioethicist who was involved with and wrote about the case in The Lancet , said. He was spending time with family, and doing homework online. Because he could be awake on ECMO , he could still engage in activities that were meaningful. Situations like this represent a “profound ethical dilemma,” Raghu Seethala, an intensivist and ECMO specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told me. “The technology is ahead of the ethics,” another expert said.

According to Truog, those in favor of continuing the treatment pointed out that patients are routinely kept alive on devices such as ventilators, or through treatments such as dialysis, without expectation of recovery. Why was ECMO any different? “It is different,” Kenneth Prager, the director of clinical ethics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told me. Patients can sometimes utilize those machines from home, whereas ECMO requires an I.C.U. Meanwhile, I.C.U. patients with severe organ failure are rarely fully conscious; with ECMO , “you can have a patient who is awake and alert, walking around, riding a stationary bicycle, and yet their heart and lungs are incapable of supporting life,” Prager said. “The contrast is totally unmatched by any other technology.”

It’s this striking likeness to life, when a patient is upon the very threshold of death, that makes the situation created by ECMO so startling and difficult. It is a “precarious form of existence, which sometimes raises questions about our traditional definitions of life and death,” Prager and his colleagues have written, in a paper published by the journal Circulation . Using ECMO , a patient with severe organ failure may look well, and feel well, but without recovery or a transplant, he cannot leave the I.C.U. and has no hope of long-term survival. The conversation about when to stop involves the patients themselves, who must contemplate choosing the moment of their own demise. Whoever decides, it’s like delivering a death sentence, Prager said.

In the end, the team in charge of the teen-age boy’s care presented a compromise to the family. Rather than actively withdrawing ECMO —literally flipping a switch to “off”—they would no longer maintain the machine. When the oxygenator began to wear out, they chose not to swap in a replacement. One day, as it failed, the boy gently lost consciousness and died. In other instances, however, patients have refused to consider any de-escalation in their care. Those patients lived in the I.C.U. for as long as they could, until a complication killed them. Here, too, ECMO introduces new complexities. A ventilator, or dialysis, staves off a cascade of deterioration that ultimately causes cardiac arrest—the final common pathway of death. And, once cardiac arrest occurs, it is often difficult to reverse. But ECMO can take over the work of the heart completely, pausing the usual progression toward death. Cardiac arrest becomes meaningless.

It seems almost certain that, the more we use ECMO to avert death, the more people will end up living in I.C.U.s, kept alive solely by the machines. “This is a big problem already,” Prager told me. “It’s just going to get worse.” In part, this is because doctors cannot perfectly predict who will benefit from ECMO , or from the treatments it makes possible. “We put people on ECMO believing it will be a bridge to something, and it turns out not to happen,” Prager said, perhaps because they aren’t able to recover on their own, or are ineligible for a transplant. Patient expectations can also play a role. Seethala told me about a lawsuit brought against a team of doctors for not offering access to ECMO : In 2019, a jury found the doctors liable for not transferring a Bronx woman to an ECMO center. (After a 2021 appeal reduced her settlement, she was awarded ten million dollars for past and future pain and suffering.) Other observers have expressed concern that patients may come to expect ECMO as a default treatment for any cardiac arrest, as CPR is now.

Blair Bigham, another emergency physician and intensivist, told me that during the pandemic, he saw many hospitals acquire ECMO machines, then deploy them indiscriminately for patients who were unlikely to recover. “As soon as you have the ECMO button, you’re going to use it,” he told me. Jessica Zitter, the palliative-care physician, calls this tendency to always add another machine, or another drug, the end-of-life conveyor belt. “We’re always trying to do more and more and more to people, when maybe we shouldn’t,” Bigham said. “The overarching problem here is that we have this fear of letting people die,” he explained.

In March, 2023, I visited Robert Barlett’s lab, which moved in 1980 from U.C. Irvine, where he originally developed ECMO in the nineteen-seventies, to the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor was gray, but the lab was bright and full of activity. Bartlett, who is now eighty-four, was at home, recovering from a medical procedure. He called in during my visit to tell me what they were working on. One focus is on finding ways to get patients who are on ECMO out of the I.C.U., or even out of the hospital. “They need to be able to eventually go home with these devices,” Bartlett said.

To that end, the lab is trying to create a mini- ECMO —a kind of wearable artificial lung. Down the hall from the conference room where I spoke to Bartlett, a research intern named Gabriele Seilo sat at a lab bench, winding grooved pucks with a gauzy plastic fabric. The plastic fibres contain micropores, allowing them to act like lung capillaries, which introduce oxygen to the bloodstream in precise quantities. “It facilitates gas exchange,” Seilo explained, turning from his bench. Beside him, a bin held prototypes of different sizes. The idea is for the puck to be worn outside the body, tethered to a portable oxygen tank. Blood can flow through the device passively, so it doesn’t need a pump.

In another room, the lab was developing an ECMO membrane that secretes nitric oxide. ECMO oxygenators tend to create blood clots, and patients require medications to prevent this. But those medications can in turn cause dangerous bleeding. “Bleeding and clotting are the biggest problems with ECMO ,” Bartlett said on the phone. Nitric oxide discourages clots from forming, but doesn’t cause bleeding. It could make ECMO far safer, and potentially suitable for use outside the hospital.

Down the hall, I found what may be the lab’s most astonishing innovation. Alvaro Rojas-Peña, the co-director of the lab, led me into an anteroom that adjoined an operating suite.

“Look at this,” Rojas-Peña said. He gestured to a pedestal in the middle of the room. I leaned forward. On the pedestal was an isolated, beating heart. Cannulas connected it to a special ECMO circuit. The heart, which had been harvested from a research animal, was swaddled in a plastic bag to prevent desiccation; it writhed and twisted with each beat, alive.

Rojas-Peña showed me an iPad, on which software tracked the heart using nearly a dozen physiological parameters. Incredibly, the heart was generating a normal blood pressure. With the help of ECMO , the heart had been kept alive and pumping, outside of any body, for almost twenty-four hours. In a few minutes, it would be transplanted into an animal in the operating room next door.

Receiving an organ transplant is like winning several lotteries at once. A donor must be healthy enough that the organ’s function is preserved, and close enough geographically that transport time is minimized; the organ must match the recipient’s blood type, and the recipient can’t be too ill to survive the operation. All of these conditions must align at the moment an organ becomes available; every day, seventeen people die in the U.S. because some part of this equation fails, or simply because organs can’t be found. “Seventy per cent of donor organs are rejected,” Rojas-Peña told me, because something isn’t optimal.

The implications of applying ECMO to organ transplantation could be profound. If organs could be reliably kept alive outside of the body, they could be sent to a centralized organ bank. Transport time would no longer be a factor. Organs could be perfectly matched to recipients, and marginal organs could be tuned up outside the body with medications. Wait lists could disappear. “Transplant would not be an emergency surgery anymore,” Rojas-Peña said. It could be planned, like any other operation. In Toronto, a group has already begun doing this with human lungs, and that has allowed them to utilize about seventy per cent of donor lungs for transplantation, compared with an average in the United States of about twenty per cent.

One of the risks of ECMO , as it’s employed today, is that it will strand patients on a bridge to nowhere. But the technology itself may be a bridge to somewhere new. Ultimately, Bartlett suggested, it may have uses beyond transplantation. “We could have organs that do things,” he has said, such as manufacturing clotting factors or red blood cells. “We could take out a liver that’s full of cancer, treat it, and then return it to the patient,” he told me. “We think all those things could be possible.” ♦

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The climate solutions we can’t live without .

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By Manvir Singh

By Casey Cep

By Louis Menand