AI for HS Students

On 24th March, ASD will turn on access to Securly AI Chat for High School students.  This is an AI tool that uses ChatGPT as its basis, but includes an extra layer of filtering to make it more suitable for school use.

To help teachers prepare for this, the Department of Technology has prepared some timed supports in the lead-up to the launch:

• Week One (10-14 March) - a recommended Digital Citizenship lesson is provided below and will be sent to schools.  Teachers planning to use AI with their students are required to incorporate this into their lessons at some point this month.

• Week Two (17-21 March) - Student Chromebooks will have a new wallpaper and homepage to inform them of AI guidelines and expectations.

• Week Three (24-28 March) - Securly Chat will be enabled for students on Monday 24th.  Wallpapers and homepages will return to normal after Friday 28th.

Literacy Bites in Seesaw

We know how busy the classroom is and how helpful it can be to have ready-to-go resources. Did you know Seesaw has a Literacy Bites collection? These are quick activities that you could assign your students to go with read alouds or independent reading. These could also be really great activities to assign when you have a substitute teacher! Use the heart icon on activities to add them to your library, and don't forget you can edit and customize anything in Seesaw to meet your exact needs. 

Choose Your Own Adventure

This month's guest Tech Tip is from ASHS Librarian Sharayah Warren:

Remember the engaging Choose Your Own Adventure books? You can recreate that experience for students using Google Slides, for both educational and entertainment purposes. This interactive format allows students to make choices through questions and options, leading to personalized learning paths.

Educational applications include assessing student understanding, fostering creative storytelling, and developing critical thinking through scenario-based decision-making. This approach promotes deeper learning and retention, increases student engagement and motivation, enhances creative thinking and imagination, and facilitates personalized and flexible instruction.

Creating Choose Your Own Adventure slides involves linking text, text boxes, images, or shapes to other slides within the same presentation. Each linked element represents a choice, directing students to different outcomes. Planning the flow of choices and consequences with a flowchart is highly recommended. The video to the left shows what this looks like in practice.

You can find pre-made presentation examples and a flowchart template here, as well as a Google Slides template here. Have fun and reach out to your Tech Coach if you need additional support.

Report Phishing and Junk with Outlook

If you receive unwanted or suspicious emails, you can report these from within Outlook.  Simply click on the Report button on the ribbon toolbar, and select which type of unwanted email it is. 

Phishing = suspected scams that may be trying to steal your identity

Junk = unwanted communications from advertisers

As a reminder, please do not report any messages coming from Auburn email addresses -- use the Ignore option from the right-click menu, or contact the Helpdesk if you are on an incorrect distribution list.