Best Practices for Building AI Awareness in Young Learners

AI for Young Learners: Balancing Tech Use with Authentic, Off-Screen Experiences by Nneka J. McGee (Jump Start Guide)

Press Start: AI in Early Education by Nneka J. McGee (Blog)

Love to Learn: The Transformative Power of Care and Connection in Early Education by Isabelle C. Hau (Book)

AI in the Math Classroom, Grades PK-2: 25 Enhancements to Make Tech Work for You by Dr. Nicki Newton (Book)

AI for Education SEE Framework

Plate Activity

Vicky Sedgwick (teacher mentioned by Nneka)

LinkedIn for Nneka

Amanda Bickerstaff

Amanda is the Founder and CEO of AI for Education. A former high school science teacher and EdTech executive with over 20 years of experience in the education sector, she has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that AI can offer. She is a frequent consultant, speaker, and writer on the topic of AI in education, leading workshops and professional learning across both K12 and Higher Ed. Amanda is committed to helping schools and teachers maximize their potential through the ethical and equitable adoption of AI.

Dr. Nneka McGee

Dr. McGee is an educator, researcher, and advocate dedicated to creating or promoting access and opportunities for students navigating a future driven by artificial intelligence. She has served as an educator for nearly two decades. She taught middle school mathematics and was recognized as a district finalist for teacher of the year. Nneka has also served as District Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Director of GT and Advanced Academics, Executive Director for Learning and Innovation, and as a Chief Academic Officer.

As part of her doctoral studies, Dr. McGee researched the experiences of K-12 teachers implementing or planning to implement artificial intelligence in classroom learning environments. She has shared her work as a keynote speaker at events such as the NYSCATE Annual Conference and the Technology Leadership Institute. She has also served as a panelist or presenter at events sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Teach for America, ISTE, Foundations, Inc., National Education Association, and the American Association of Publishers. She has contributed to publications released by the U.S. Department of Education, Digital Promise, American College of Education, and the International Literacy Association.

Most recently, Dr. McGee served as project lead and principal co-author of “AI + Learning Differences: Designing for a Future with No Boundaries,” published by Stanford Accelerator for Learning. Her latest work, “AI for Young Learners: Balancing Tech Use with Authentic, Off Screen Experiences,” was published as a Jump Start Guide by ISTE in January 2026. She also served as an AI practitioner advisory board member for the Engage AI Institute and was selected as an EdSAFE AI Alliance Fellow in its augural cohort.

‍ 00:00
Amanda Bickerstaff
Hi, everyone. We're so excited to have you here today. We were already having a good conversation before you even walked in the door. So we're excited to be with you all. This is a real pleasure. Nneka and I have been around each other for a while, but we got to hang out at a conference not too long ago where Nneka and I both presented to New York State leaders. And so I was so thrilled to see a new piece from you, which she'll introduce herself in a moment. Really focused on our youngest learners. And we really think deeply here at AI for Education about what it means to start building AI awareness and AI literacy in our youngest learner. So it was such a no brainer. I'm like, nneka, friend, you need to come and hang out.

00:44
Amanda Bickerstaff
And so I'm really glad that she said yes. And so what we're gonna do is, as always, feel free to say hello. I already see people saying hello, so we've got say hi. Everyone can drop resources. If you have things are happening within your organization around early learning, please do that. We know we always have a beautiful mixed group of practitioners around the world and so love to see the faces in the room. Just as a reminder, make sure that you have your chat set to all, like everyone, because otherwise, sometimes it only goes to us. But if you do have a question that's specific to Nneka and myself, you can use the Q and A function. If you've ever been to one of our webinars, you know, I love to be able to weave those in as we go.

01:30
Amanda Bickerstaff
And then we'll have a little bit of time at the end as well. But I want to stop the share and to. And to welcome Nika. So, you know, were just having a conversation about how while general BI literacy is pretty new, like AI literacy isn't. And so I think that someone that has had such a wealth of understanding experience, You've done your PhD in this. I'd love you to first say hello, introduce yourself and then talk a little bit about this moment in time from the perspective of someone that's been thinking about it for more than the last three years. Right.

02:02
Dr. Nneka McGee
Thank you. First of all, thank you so much, Amanda. This is wonderful to be here with you today. I'm happy to contribute to this conversation, particularly because it's so near and dear to my heart. Yeah. So when I tell people that it's my basically 9th year focused on AI education, sometimes people are like, yeah, right. People comment and it's interesting to me, because AI, as we all say, it's been here since the 50s. It's been here, but particularly AI in education, I like to branch it out, has been a focus of many scholars since the late 1980s. My experience and diving into it was purely to inspire, to give my kids something different. I'd always had a love of computers.

02:59
Dr. Nneka McGee
Artificial intelligence was kind of in the background and I was just finding I had math students, some who were high performers, and it was a way. How do I get them engaged? Once I started my work in AI, I started doing my doctoral studies for my EDD program. It was interesting because toward the end, as I, and I'd like to mention, two weeks after I got my IRB approval, ChatGPT came out. So it's interesting, not only did I have to go back and make changes called deviations, but it was interesting.

03:33
Dr. Nneka McGee
But even before then, I also had two initiatives that had started in two different school districts before ChatGPT and so working with kids, understanding the nuance from kids, starting with, yes, the pedagogical aspects, making sure they're engaged, making sure that what they're learning is connected to standards, ensuring that the outcomes are meaningful to whatever coursework comes next. All of that's important. But even greater still, you start thinking about the safety aspects of it, the privacy aspects of it, the ethical aspects of it, the legal and policy aspects of it. It's so layered and it's different for our kids, for our youngest kids, I'm not talking about high school, even later, middle school. For our elementary early childhood students, the context is different.

04:29
Dr. Nneka McGee
And I think I'm glad that we're able to talk about this context today because it's essential that we start putting an emphasis on why we have to treat AI literacy for our youngest learners under a different lens, a thousand percent.

04:49
Amanda Bickerstaff
And that's one of the reasons why I was so glad that I saw when you put out this piece, because I think for us, let's be honest, we've been doing this for much less time, right? Nneka, when you were getting your PhD, I was locked in Australia working in ed tech. But I think what we found over and over again is that we have to think about getting to our youngest learners in an awareness driver very early, especially knowing how integrated generative AI systems are going to be. Like all of our kids, probably one of the places they use that's like about your 5 year old home, if you have one. Every time they asked Alexa for a joke, a fact, anything along those lines, they are interacting with, excuse me, machine learning. They're interacting with voice, AI and machine learning.

05:42
Amanda Bickerstaff
But soon that interaction is going to be generative. That no longer is it a vetted list of jokes that are appropriate for a household, but something that could be completely off the wall or an entire story or something along those lines, which is going to completely change the relationship that young people have with their home, with their environment. And so I was really pleased to see that. I will say that for us, it's a space that we believe that the most research needs to happen in. That's a place in which we know there's a dearth of any real research about how young people conceptualize gendervi specifically. But I think it would be great to start. We're gonna share the resource that you have created and published through Stanford.

06:18
Amanda Bickerstaff
But I'd love to talk through when you approach this research and this really practical guide, what are you thinking about? Where did you go for the research space? And then what are some of the ways in which the attendees can do this in their own organizations?

06:34
Dr. Nneka McGee
So let me kind of break it up in terms of the work from Stanford, the work with ISTE that I've done and then the work that I do just generally for presenting so for Stanford. And I'm going to back it up a little bit because you talked about the research base. So a great research base. I'm not affiliated, but not because I do write and have written papers for Stanford Accelerator for Learning. But I have to recommend scale. And Chris Agnew is doing a wonderful job at. And they came out with a report several weeks ago that talk about how to. Out of all of these papers, I think there are only like 22 that are relevant and even fewer available for our, that address our youth populations. But that is an essential hub. So if someone asks me, I say go there first.

07:26
Dr. Nneka McGee
That is a research base that is very aligned to the work that we do. In terms of the article that was dealing with learning differences with iste, I actually created the AI for Young Learners guide which is specific to how students, particularly youth, should interact with AI. I know we'll get more into those hands on aspects as we're talking about the C framework that you all so wonderfully developed. Then where that work came from is stemmed from again the work I was doing while I was still serving in districts. I turned that into a series called AI for Littles. I've done that and worked with thousands of educators with AI for Littles, with those specific things that were talking about from That I was able to and quite honored to have that opportunity to work with Iste for that guy.

08:26
Dr. Nneka McGee
There's several layers of my work. I've been honored to be in a position to contribute in a research base, but also in a practical and practitioner base because we have to straddle both worlds to make sure that our educators have resources that they can use.

08:47
Amanda Bickerstaff
Absolutely. So I love the idea of the little. So let's talk about it. So we have a question from Stephanie and others. So we find with elementary schools it's a little bit harder to get the buy in because it's not connected to academic integrity. Like we so much of, like the willingness to do anything. I think right now, unfortunately in schools is around academic integrity. But so the Littles, right, They're. They're not writing necessarily. They're not. No high stakes assessments. So can we talk a little bit about how you approach getting the buy in first and then like what's your like go to like, what is your best tip to start? Like? I know you have an example, right. But I'd love to kind of see something in process that you would do with the Littles themselves.

09:31
Dr. Nneka McGee
So in terms of buy in from adults, it is difficult, right? Not only the integrity of it all, but plates are full. And the realities of our situations are coming from the perspective of a teacher and from an administrator point for an administrator. I'm like, hey, shiny new object. The teacher is like, hey, look at all of these things that our kids have to learn. And in addition to all of the external factors that are impacting their learning. When do I have time to do this? My approach is always this. The second thing that you ask, start with talk. I don't think we give as much weight to conversation that we need to. And going to research Hattie, who has done effect sizes on different types of engagement, Visible learning is great.

10:31
Dr. Nneka McGee
He talks about effective questioning and discussion can lead to one to two years growth just in having conversations with questioning. And so that's where I say to start. And I think when I'm addressing our audiences and I say if you start with a question, everyone can talk or communicate because it's always not vocal. Okay, everyone can communicate. That opens a door. And then you have to show them simple, effective hands on ways and say, is this something you can do now from an administrator, a coach's lens, I wanna be able to support if someone is starting out to say, try this first. And then let's come together and talk about did it meet your goals, what worked well, what didn't work. Well, this is not a one stop shop type of situation.

11:25
Dr. Nneka McGee
When you are dealing with teachers who are helping our youngest, most vulnerable and yet the most promising individuals in our education and the ones that are system.

11:38
Amanda Bickerstaff
Can be the most impacted. Right. The younger you are, the more this will impact you. So John. Hattie's so funny. I know John, by the way. Nick, I don't know if you ever talked about this, but because I was in Australia, I got to meet John a couple of times.

11:49
Dr. Nneka McGee
That's amazing.

11:50
Amanda Bickerstaff
And I think that the idea of the effect sizes, if you're not familiar with it, is that what are the kind of teacher moves that are going to have the largest visible impact on learning? And so we talk about effect sizes. Absolutely. Questioning is such a good one. But I think what you're talking about is creating accessible entry points. Okay, so when you use Alexa, what do you think is happening? When you use your parents like Siri or Google Home, like why do you, like, what do you use it for and what do you think is happening? Think about how, first of all, it's just very basic, right? It's something that most kids will have some impact with. They might even have a voice assistant in the classroom.

12:33
Amanda Bickerstaff
But the idea here is like just getting to them be like I think it's a person or I think it's a computer. It's a robot. We love all the littles are like,.

12:42
Dr. Nneka McGee
They are, they're all robots. It's robots.

12:45
Amanda Bickerstaff
I know, it's always so funny. They are, they're hacking and it's robots. Like those are the two things. But, but like, okay, so let's talk about it. So the way it's working is that it actually is. It's waiting, it's always listening. Like what a crazy safety thing there, right? And then when you say something, it's able to pick up your voice. Like and so if you're, if that feels too technical, what I would say is that's a really great way to do your own learning about this too. But even talking about like some voices, it has more trouble understanding and that could be a biased conversation. Like you think of how that could be done with your littles, right? And I think that none of it necessarily like has to be super technical or overly intense, right?

13:27
Amanda Bickerstaff
But it can be something that could be that bridge right into those conversations about real experience and awareness of what's happening around you.

13:35
Dr. Nneka McGee
I love it. And that's, I mean that's a perfect example because I'm reminded And I wish I could give this educator credit for, but I don't know her name. But if I remember, I will tell you because her first entry was during the pandemic. She was talking with kids online and she said something about Alexa. Well, what happened is so many of the kids had Alexa in the background and it started responding. It was such a teachable moment of all of these kids in the background. Like you said, always listening. And it engaged. And it was like a moment of aha. Moment for her. In terms of, you know, when I'm working with Littles, I always think for all of us to have a kind of understanding or awareness of what AI is.

14:30
Dr. Nneka McGee
And some of those initial conversations I'd love to piggyback off in terms of, like, what do you hear? What do you think it's doing? Like, what do you think it is? Is one of those things. And like you said, across the Littles, they say, it's a robot. But it's okay to use terms like artificial intelligence. They can say it, they can mess with it, but we have to use the terminology that is in the field, and then we can help guide them through that conversation. So I like to start with the definition. I tend to like it to be tangible, hands on, but through a way of conversation. So another thing. And we'll talk about the plates. But one of the activities that I like to do too is if you have a plate. I love paper plate. Okay.

15:21
Dr. Nneka McGee
If you deal with elementary, all the things you can get for under a dollar, just go, but plate in crayons and say the sky is. And then the kids color it in, you know, so any, no matter what the youth, how little they are, they can scribble, they can go, okay, so hold it up. What color do you see most? Blue or whatever. Are there other colors? You know, and then it might be a gray. You know, you don't always assume that it's blue. And so I was like, if I trained, you know, the computer, which all of you call a robot, if I train that robot, what do you think the robot would say? Well, blue. So that's another way in which if you're talking about patterns or you're saying, and then you connect it.

16:04
Dr. Nneka McGee
Well, this is how artificial intelligence works, particularly generative AI. If you bring something in and say, this is the main. In terms of weights, that blue would be the color. This is what it's most likely to generate. Those are some ways too that I like to have entry points. I like to Share those with educators because they find that it's something that's doable with materials and resources that they can use.

16:31
Amanda Bickerstaff
And you know what? We do that same sky is blue piece. And what would be really cool, I'm going to say you could then read them Chicken Little and then ask them to do it differently and see how the context changes. Right now, what is this guy falling? And so the thing that we do with adults and your students, how cool is it to connect it now to something that a little can do? I absolutely love that. And I think that I'm going to plus one hard this idea of do not shy away from the real terms. Like, yes, Nneka, I'm going to tell you. So we have our student use guide for two years. This is like a decision tree and it actually says check for hallucinations and bias.

17:14
Amanda Bickerstaff
And we have people pushing back, saying, why would you tell a kid that it's called a hallucination? We didn't name it. First of all, this is not us advocating for hallucination as a title, but why wouldn't we give the kids the real words and the real terms and the power of that moment to cause if they're talking to someone and they say hallucination, people be like, that kid knows. Like, that kid really understands. And I think that it is. There are these, like, tropes that get kind of built when they're. When we're really young, like robots and hacking. And then when they get to, like, coding, they're like, I hacked the. No, you did not hack the system. You did not hack the system. If you did, we'd be in a lot of trouble.

17:53
Amanda Bickerstaff
But we haven't really pressed young people enough to really get Chris on their language because I think sometimes we're not that comfortable. But so I think that when we think about these pieces, what I love is the through line is that the same thing that awareness setting for young people is the same awareness setting that needs to happen for adults because it's so new. But eventually, let's say five years ago, let's say that we're killing the game. And AI literacy and awareness is very strong in adults and high school students. It does mean something different because then what we have is our littles being put into position to not only be AI literate and aware, but also fluent over time. Right. Because they're going to have those wonderful bases. Is there any other really cool. I love the plate one.

18:36
Amanda Bickerstaff
Is there another example you have that you really love to do? I know, I'M putting a spot, but I think it's so cool.

18:42
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yeah, I put another play activity, which is I love plates. But the other thing that I like to do is play doh again. And you want to talk about 100% engagements, kids getting involved again, something that's doable so they can create whatever type of robot friend. Right. That they want. And then what I'll do is I will select one depending on the age. Right. Select one and try to enter in a prompt to try to recreate it online.

19:18
Amanda Bickerstaff
Right.

19:19
Dr. Nneka McGee
And then they could critique, you know, how close it was. And so we'll talk about words and talk about ways in which we can modify and then talk about would it be fair if I did this without your permission? See, I asked you if I could use it. How would you feel if I just took your work and then put it on a screen so those lead. And again, when you trust kids, people will be surprised. 3, 4, 5, 6, It doesn't matter. They can give you some great conversations. And what happens is that younger kids don't really have the filters that older kids do in adults. So you're really going to get the unvarnished.

20:08
Amanda Bickerstaff
How great is that with ownership? One of the things you could do is Canva has. You could upload an image and then it uses that as an inspiration. If you have Canva, that's a way to, to do that. And then now with Nana, but like none of the tools do a very good job. But like Nana Banana on Gemini is probably a little bit better consistent character that you could describe. So if you're thinking about that application, I would highly suggest that. So Nika, I'm gonna pull up our C framework just to kind of talk through like when we thought about this and I'm gonna show you. I'm sure I, I'm pretty sure you've seen it. But I wanna rats, by the way. I know. It's crazy, right?

20:48
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yes. I know y' all been working a long time, so.

20:51
Amanda Bickerstaff
Yeah, we did guys. It was a year and a half. Don't tell anybody but. But I will say someone did. Did say in the comments is not the.

21:00
Dr. Nneka McGee
The.

21:01
Amanda Bickerstaff
The what I want to show you. But we do have a common misconceptions table that we feel is really strong. And a lot of these misconceptions start at the youngest ages, but they're also in adults. Like it's a search engine. It learns from my chats, it's capable of human level cognition is unbiased. Will challenge me if I'm wrong. Guess what guys? It will not challenge you if you're wrong. Especially young people. I could see a really cool one for this too, Naika, where you could do something around sycophancy with the littlest kids or would you want someone to always agree with you? You could have like a little role play where you're like the bot and like tell me something wrong and be like oh my God, you're so. That's so right. Two plus two is five. Like how smart are you?

21:40
Amanda Bickerstaff
You could totally do like a role play for sick and fancy. But one of the things that we did, and I'm pretty sure it is, we have a pretty strong call out for young learners. But I want to, I'm going to try to figure out where it is. I don't know exactly where it is. So for us and if you see up here everybody, I'll make it a little bit bigger. One of the things that I think like we both agree with and it's a little bit of a so were talking about that hands on component but one of the things that we know right now is that some AI literacy is putting and some AI decision making is putting our youngest children on chatbots immediately. So for example, Google Gemini is all ages, which is still something that I just cannot fathom.

22:24
Amanda Bickerstaff
You've got your school AIs and your magic schools that allow it to be used in kindergarten. And we've seen this. We've got snorkel with 4th grader 4 year olds. I'm not calling out anyone to say that they're not thinking about this, but it is a trend. One of the things that we wanted to write really strongly about is that even the 13 years and up has nothing to do with research about developmental appropriateness of the tools. It has everything to do with privacy acts when you think about genai use with your youngest. For us, what we suggest, if you want to see how we've thought about it, is the progression is early elementary. We actually are pretty strong everybody. We do not recommend independent use of gen AI tools at all of any type, including Elio and others. And we got some pushback.

23:10
Amanda Bickerstaff
We then say that third or five fifth grade is more developmentally appropriate, secured with support and then some moving into gradual ace responsibility. Nneka, two things. One, do you think about the age ranges and do you think we're being too conservative or do you think we're right?

23:28
Dr. Nneka McGee
I agree. I cannot think of an instance where generative AI is appropriate for young learners. At this time, generative AI for the most part, although AI itself and AI use in classrooms is decades old, I like to tell people, particularly educators, the first AI related system that you will encounter in your classroom will not be generative AI. Yes, it'll probably be a computer adaptive assessment or computer adaptive test. A cap. Generative AI in particular since the Transformers, they released a report in 2017 is pretty new. We already discussed that in terms of the research base. In terms of. Yes, there's a lot of correlation, not a lot of causation out there. Even with the few things that we have, we still do not have a standard definition amongst experts expertise on what AI literacy is.

24:49
Dr. Nneka McGee
Experts still don't agree on a term for artificial intelligence. There's still so much uncertainty there that I don't feel that it's a necessary enhancement at that age group where we still have time. Does that mean that we say no, AI, don't have them, just totally shield them from a world that they live in? No, that's part of the conversation we've already talked about. Yeah, it is in their homes, it is in their schools. You can have those conversations and you can have different types of activities that can make them aware, that can still meet all of the elements of what we consider AI literacy at this point, but still keep them safe and still comply with some very robust regulations that are out there and rightfully so. Even with coppa. COPPA just had some very new. They just enforce their new.

25:51
Dr. Nneka McGee
Are starting to enforce their new regulations which is going to require specific. Not just a general, hey, use this tool. Specific permissions for parents if their children are under 13. If I am an educator right now, I am not trying to run afoul of federal regulations. There's too much uncertainty and I always tell people, take time to breathe, just close your eyes, inhale deeply, there's time to breathe and make it safe for kids. That's my position. I don't feel you're very far off at all.

26:29
Amanda Bickerstaff
Yeah, John in the chat is talking about not preparing them to use AI in some way. I think there's a huge difference between a young person using a research backed evidence based machine learning model learning platform. I don't think that's what we're saying. We're talking about generative AI which has huge issues around accuracy bias, pedagogical value around sycophancy. I think that's why we wrote our framework not as AI literacy writ large for that reason completely because we're not making a statement that kids should not have an experience with tools that are research backed. But I do think that there's a couple questions from like Jessica and Randy around the screen time bans that are happening and how it's being really brought into all technology is kind of flattened into one monolithic, like good or bad.

27:27
Amanda Bickerstaff
I think for us with generative AI there is a space, I think that we can slow down for our youngest learners. Right. Because we don't have any evidence really of what this does. And for us, at least when we've taught so many teachers who've had their cognitive work bypassed or over trusted or like, we know that's going to be the most critical for our youngest learners and we've seen that. I'll use an example of YouTube. YouTube being able to not even have to type, but just talk it in or the algorithm doing it for you has shifted the ways in which very young kids approach the ways in which they communicate. And I think that if we can say and correlate around, we know that there's a risk here.

28:14
Amanda Bickerstaff
And luckily because they're the youngest learners, we can create a space in which it's protected. Right. But it has to be a commitment. So I think that. But what Nick and I are saying is that you can still teach about awareness, you can still model, you still show, but you don't release them into using a chatbot.

28:34
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yeah, I mean, I wholeheartedly agree and I understand John's point. I mean, yes, AI is all around us, it's been around us. But generative AI, I think it's so important to separate or make a distinction between. Again, there is no child today that particularly in public school systems that is not going to encounter some type of AI or AI related system that is not generative AI. Just no doubt they're going into a system. If you all take MAP, for example, that is a computer adaptive test. If you are in certain states, like Texas, where I am, when they take the star, not only there is AI scoring. AI scoring has been around forever. So those things are. They will encounter it. It is essential. But it is okay. You know, I know that there's this rush.

29:34
Dr. Nneka McGee
I've seen it, I've experienced it when I was a CEO. And you know, it's like, Jenny, I came on the scene and people were just all over me because I banned it in district. I say it has literally nothing to do with the system itself because they were like, we thought you were. I say it has everything to do with these terms of service and everything to do with Understanding what are we bringing into our system Because I have to answer to the community, not the tech company. And so while there are so people are asking for specific examples so I'll provide one and I usually do not do this, but one company that I do know that has done a lot is Amira Learning and they are a reading platform. But they didn't start and they are research based.

30:24
Dr. Nneka McGee
So it actually starts started as a research project and has been around for some time and has had modifications because of their origins and how they apply their technology. Now I'm not saying go out and buy it. That is not what I'm doing. I'm saying it as example of a system who has started to adapt different types of AI and AI related systems that you can look to and do your own research to see if it's something that'll fit. Because I do know that based on that research base that they have that they've been doing that lot of work. But it's not going to look like some of the other systems that you see. It is not built off an AI wrapper, you know, that you will see from some of the other products.

31:09
Amanda Bickerstaff
Absolutely. And I think that, you know, there's a lot of really good questions because it is a little bit hard. And I think that, you know, I always feel like Naika, like our lives would be a lot easier in this work if we could have like a yes or no, a black or white instead of something that requires like flexibility, nuance, like some risk taking, like some, you know, some slowing down. And I think that but for our youngest kids, I think we just know that this is important. One of the things that Jessica brought up about the like we can and this is something we believe in general is that we can more of what's happening in schools. But knowing that students are going to access this in multiple ways outside of it is why the AI literacy work is so important.

32:00
Amanda Bickerstaff
Because AI literacy work, generative AI literacy work should be like the goal should be like informed and critical use whether in or out of school. Like it should be like we believe pretty strongly it should be whole child. That's why our C framework is not stopping at academic integrity. It's got over reliance. It's got mental health and well being. It's got safety, like you know, all those pieces. So when you think about that in terms of like the school to home, how have you found like the bet, like what's the best way to get parents kind of on board? I think part of what we Think is they need AI literacy too. Right. And support. But what do you think about how you bring.

32:39
Amanda Bickerstaff
Because the Littles, like their parents or caregivers or guardians are so integral to what's really going to happen after they leave the walls of the school.

32:49
Dr. Nneka McGee
One of the recommendations that I make in the AI for Littles Jumpstart guide is to either have an AI literacy night or even better, to incorporate it into. Many schools and districts will have steam nights or they'll have math review nights. Any of these interactions with parents incorporated in and include them on doing joint activities. So again, that plate, the. The plate activity that I added, you may have to pull it up. I forgot. I have like a bunch of security features on this computer. And so it does not allow me to link in because certain systems, when they do updates, my security will not allow interaction. So just based on the system we're using, I don't want to.

33:35
Amanda Bickerstaff
That's how I called him out.

33:38
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yes, that is a good one. But also the Play DOH one. So I've used these. So these are not just things that I pulled out. The Play DOH one in particular is pretty powerful. So when you have not just the Play doh, it's the easiest because it's just Play doh. Sometimes I will get other materials and I'll say, just spend some time. And I'll actually put up a quote from Frankenstein, the book that talks about creation. I say, we're going to create something. And so every, you know, they put together things. And then I talk about, hey, if you're interacting with the child, you know, it's not just parents. Remember, we have our caregivers out there, many of our grandparents out there supporting other family members. So what I'll do is say, now interact with each other with these questions.

34:24
Dr. Nneka McGee
And it'll be like, what did it feel to. How did it feel to create? How did it feel? You know, what if someone took the same type of questions? What if someone took your creation? They Then I can talk to families as well about if you are interacting with the AI system. Let me show you the simplest way. This way you're not. Because it could be something like you said, a nano banana, where it's, don't log in. You're not entering any personal information, but you can still have it generate an image. And so those have been pretty powerful. But that is a great entry point for families. It is. Again, we live in a world where people are busy, people have a lot of things going on.

35:08
Dr. Nneka McGee
You have to meet people where they Are I will tell you the other thing that I've seen starting to happen is actually outreach into some of these communities. I am seeing outreach where it's like we're going to take our not just AI but incorporate it in. We're going to go out to the community. I'm starting to see more school pop ups which I think is amazing to go out into the community. Instead of saying come to us. Think of the power of saying we're going to come to you. We're going to work with you and your young people because we want to make sure that you are all have the AI literacy you need. The other types of things that you need in a supportive community. Those types of things are very powerful entry points in working with our families.

35:56
Amanda Bickerstaff
Well, it's a great and I'm gonna so Wendy on our team, Wendy if you don't mind dropping the two resources the resources at the plate and the play DOH for our ncaa we also have a parent guide everybody that's like the design for something similar. We do a lot. We're doing more and more parent events with our partners and so we created that guide so feel free to use that as well. And then I think that the most important thing is everyone's learning at the same time and so it's such a great time to do it together.

36:30
Amanda Bickerstaff
I'm going to just share Naika, I'm going to share our C framework again just to look at if you're interested later everybody we've got this pre create through early elementary with what knowledge you would need to know recognizes that computers are technology knows AI and chatbots are not human that technology tools can create multiple things Like Nike, you already talked about you know text and image. You can do video and voice. We talk about the mindset, show curiosity about how the tools work, understand that these tools can be wrong and that some computers of technology are not appropriate for me like I shouldn't be using this thing at home and then those safe ethical and effective practices about what might be AI or not like that they're not.

37:16
Amanda Bickerstaff
They're not using this at like you talked about the mindset and that the actual practice is that even if a parent wanted to give them an AI tool the kid could say I don't actually I'm not sure that I want especially when they get to second grade or we see that really happening and then for late childhood if you're more interested we've got our upper elementary. You'll see it grows on this in terms of the level of complexity. So to actually be able to explain the difference, nneka, between your machine learning and your generative, to be able to understand why bias happens. Right. And that these tools are reflected. But this is what I think is so great, is that if you're looking for something more tangible based on this.

37:57
Amanda Bickerstaff
And of course, I would say that, you know, take it with a grain of salt that we're still learning, but we feel really positive. We're also have here these like, examples of like, what a kid could be doing. This is a little bit more for our upper elementary or for our middle school, but we're about to release a blank version that you could actually do for elementary with your teachers or even your parents. Right. Of what it would look like if a kid like an AI toy, for example, would be a great one. Or an early, like a chatbot used in second grade, for example. The last thing I'll show you, everybody is at the end of the document, we have these activity banks. And so we've got. Similar to you. I almost feel like, Naika, we might make the next version.

38:37
Amanda Bickerstaff
Maybe we'll like, give you a little bit of a shout out for the play doh. And the plate one, because I really love it. But things like AI like sorting and my life, the role play where you ask an adult versus a chat bot. But these hopefully are really helpful in getting started with getting into this and having these really tangible opportunities to learn. And I think that what's really great about this is it doesn't have to be one thing. Right? You could do so many of these things together.

39:07
Amanda Bickerstaff
But I think one of the things that you and I have been saying in a lot of different ways, nneka, is that, like, the teacher or the parent does not need to be a crazy expert in all the technical side and everything to be able to start building AI awareness and literacy for the younger students. And I feel like sometimes we hold ourselves back because we like. Well, I'm not sure. Right. But I think some of it you could do together. Right? You can, like, if you don't know answer, do the research together and show, hey, you know what? Model that lifelong learning, like that mindset of keep learning. But I think that this is definitely something that I just think we have to get through that barrier that like. Like, we can't do it because we don't know enough.

39:51
Amanda Bickerstaff
What do you think about that?

39:53
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yeah. So, I mean, and there are many things we don't know. I wholeheartedly agree. We do not have to Be in terms of the types of entry points, we're talking about experts and I wholeheartedly agree with you that particularly because we're focused on young learners and young youth, that these type of activities should be done together. In the Jumpstart guide, I actually call them CAP activities Kid, Adult partner, because it's a kid and adult and they partner together to do these activities because it's so essential that they see us as a guide. Because, for example, someone even mentioned here, and I'm just looking at one of the comments and they're like, well, if we're, you know, if educators are using it and telling the kids, you know, what message does that send? And I think that's an important point.

40:45
Dr. Nneka McGee
And honestly, kids pick up on things and they will say, well, I mean, you're on, you know, ChatGPT, we heard the conversation you were having with your ChatGPT and you're telling us or something like that. But I think that's the distinction. And this is why it's important to start with talk to say there are different layers as to which in the importance of why we have to ensure that the access is different. And going back to these are the conversations that we need to have with kids, I wholeheartedly agree. If we just say ban, that's not realistic. If we say, hey, you know what? The reason why I'm able to have the full access to this system and you have limited access to this system and is because of these protocols.

41:32
Dr. Nneka McGee
That is a conversation you can have with a child and they will understand. And again, you can have activities that you can work through together. And that just makes it even more important or essential that they know an adult needs to be in a room and adult, we need to ask an adult before we use the systems, et cetera.

41:57
Amanda Bickerstaff
Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting because like, I think that we're getting some feelings here about this idea that, you know, we're saying that we're banning gen AI or the Internet. And I think that neither you nor, I mean that at all. Like, I think that what we need to do is just think about the developmental appropriateness of the tools for the age. I mean, I think, you know, having right now there's a really interesting time where generative AI has been put in a lot of places that there's nothing that proves that like, for example, someone talked about, Nancy talked about the first result on a Google search is an AI overview. Those AI overviews have been shown to be 10% of the times, billions of times a day. Wrong.

42:40
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yes.

42:41
Amanda Bickerstaff
And that 50% of them are based on unreliable, like unreliable resources. I actually think that in some cases just because you can does not mean you should. And so I talked to google like 2 weeks ago saying why isn't there an age gate for AI overviews? And first of all I think that they should be fixed before they're put into every single search on the Internet. But I think that some of what we have to do is the discernment, this is building discernment. And no one is saying in any way, shape or form. If you're familiar with our work, you know that we both care a lot about kids being prepared for the future that's coming. So none of that is putting your head in the sand.

43:20
Amanda Bickerstaff
But knowing that generative AI systems require expertise to evaluate like that, like no 8 year old is going to be able to evaluate a bot to know if it's biased or inaccurate. Especially when some of those things can be incredibly subtle. And so I think that what we have to be aware of is that we are not in any way type or form anti tech, but we're pro human. Right. And I think that is something that. But it requires nuance, it requires developmental appropriateness, it requires a plan. If you don't agree with us, that's okay. But all we would say is what's the plan though? To ensure, if you are going to give, if you make a decision to not follow, let's say our guidance. Amazing. That's up to you.

44:07
Amanda Bickerstaff
But what is the plan to make sure that those youngest students, when they're using chatbots or they're using generative tools are safe, that the development is appropriate, that they're not getting harmful content and that they're not having their skills potentially impacted. So I think that's what no matter what you take out of this, I think we all think that we just want to make these really thoughtful evidence based, you know, ideas and approaches. Because if we don't do that, think about social media and devices and YouTube Kids, we did not have a plan for those. Right. And I think that the thing is like there's no necessarily one way, right way to do this. But we like not making a plan is a choice.

44:48
Amanda Bickerstaff
And I think for us right now there's nothing in my mind even more imperative than having that be something that is really thoughtful and intentional at all levels.

44:59
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yeah. And I think it's okay to take time. I think too. And I Talk about this a lot. First of all, and it's interesting because the first question, and you know this through our talks, is it necessary? Is the essential question that you should ask for any tool in AI? I think we're living in a world where it's like, oh, we have to use it really? Do we have to, Is it really going to help us meet our goals? And it's okay that it's one of the tools in the toolbox, but it's not the whole toolbox.

45:35
Dr. Nneka McGee
I think that we have to be able to ask that question then when it comes to our youngest learners, is it more important for them to learn tools or is it more important for them to learn how to think collaboratively, critically, complex thinking, communication, all of the 21st century skills and beyond. If we teach them to think, they can adapt to any tool. Flavor of the month, technology, innovation. And I don't want us to get lost from that. I think when we start with talk, ask essential questions again. Going back to the research base, I'm glad I saw some shout outs to Hattie. It's there, it shows it's effective and it works. Starting with hands on activity again, you saw every activity I talked about. It was leading with questions. This is the perfect time.

46:35
Dr. Nneka McGee
Our youngest learners are not going to be writing paragraphs, but they can talk your ears off and it helps them. If you saw one of the books I recommended, Isabel Howe, her excellent book Love to Learn is just amazing. And one of the things they talk about is how 90% of the brain development occurs before the age of five. Yeah. Yet, you know, I know it's real.

47:05
Amanda Bickerstaff
I mean, the how. I mean, phonemic awareness, elasticity, like they're like so much of what happens with young people is between 0 and 5 and then 5 to 8. Right. And, and I mean, I think that first of all, can we just say thank you to everybody for the lively, like comment?

47:26
Dr. Nneka McGee
I love this discussion.

47:28
Amanda Bickerstaff
Yeah. I mean, one of the cool things about this work is that you, especially for me, I get to meet cool people and then I get to have a conversation with them with my closest Internet friends. But I think that these are the types of conversations that are incredibly important right now. Not all tech is created equal. Not all tech is created equal in the sense of it's evidence based, it's pedagogy, it's impact, but it's also not all created equal in its terms of like, who it should be for and what it should do. And I think right now there's never Been a time where it's been easier to build whatever you want. That, that is like building more is not what we need to focus on, but building better.

48:12
Amanda Bickerstaff
Like, so, for example, like if you're a builder in this room, like, talk to Naika, talk to experts about young children and like, and their development when you're developing tools is the same thing. Like, it doesn't mean that in five years Nneka and I are not going to change our tune and say there's the best new reading app in the world that can totally nail learning to read. Because I do think there's a generative AI idea there that could be. If you talked about mirror learning, let's say. But something even more zone of proximal development, like creative hits the kid where they want, you know, pedagogically sound like that's a possibility. If that happens, I think Nick and I will both be very comfortable saying absolutely. The evidence is there. It's pedagogical, it's developmentally appropriate and it has impact.

48:57
Amanda Bickerstaff
I think right now, the dearth of any of that impact statements really, especially on gender. Bi is going to be the thing that keeps us and holds us the furthest back. Because our young people are our most vulnerable.

49:10
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yes.

49:11
Amanda Bickerstaff
They don't get to make the choices. Right. And they're also those that will be the most. I will never, ever underline this even more. They are the ones that will be impacted the most. Your five year old will not graduate until 20. Like, what is it now? What's 12 years from now?

49:27
Dr. Nneka McGee
I think it's what, 20, 38. Yeah,.

49:33
Amanda Bickerstaff
Like that is like a wild statement. What is that even going to mean?

49:36
Dr. Nneka McGee
Right.

49:36
Amanda Bickerstaff
But anyway, so I'm off that.

49:38
Dr. Nneka McGee
Don't get me started. Because then you'd be talking about quantum computing.

49:41
Amanda Bickerstaff
And that's exactly if you're interested in quantum computing. Although we've been blowing your mind. Naika is amazing on that too. But let's wrap it up. So Nneka, let's do you talked. I'm going to kind of. We already know that. Starting with questioning. But is there like one tip you want to give to kind of. Or one kind of like last moment that you'd like to get to all the attendees?

50:04
Dr. Nneka McGee
Yeah. Again, don't be afraid to jump on in. But I say one of the things I like to say. Is it okay to breathe? But don't hold your breath. It's okay to take your time. But yes, you do need to learn these things. You do need to have AI literacy and you do need to learn to adapt them to your specific situations. That is so important. Every different districts and different communities are in different places and we need to have an understanding of that. And that's why the work is so important. That's why it's so important not to just dive right in. Like you said, we've learned the experiences from social media. I've seen it, like I said, in two different districts. I mean, not so long ago, a couple months, I may have shared this with you.

50:56
Dr. Nneka McGee
I mean I still talk with people and someone says, hey, this is the devil's tech. And I'm like, okay, you're not ready but we're going to come back. You know what I mean? So this is important also and I'm going to share some things in the link. So one of the people I highlight in the Jumpstart guide, one of them is Vicki Sedwick and she is a computer science teacher second to none in terms of her work with AI for Littles. I should have mentioned her in that previous or giving you the link. I want to drop that in now. But yes, please explore. If you're an educator, I'm going to recommend, like I said, hands on activities and questioning. It really is as simple. I know that's a part of our work.

51:42
Dr. Nneka McGee
I know that people think like it's complicated, like you have to have all this stuff and computers everywhere and screens everywhere. And I think sometimes when I say yes, start with talk and people are like, huh? And they're looking at me like, did she really? Did she what? Yes, just start, you know, just start somewhere. If you're going to start, you can go home today and ask a child what do you know about artificial intelligence? And have a conversation that is meaningful and deep and doesn't take the whole evening and you will be surprised at what you learn from them.

52:17
Amanda Bickerstaff
Absolutely.

52:18
Dr. Nneka McGee
So that's the biggest point. And then I'll drop my LinkedIn as well.

52:21
Amanda Bickerstaff
Yeah, and we're gonna, we'll Follow up. Your LinkedIn will be in the follow up too. Well everyone, just to piggyback and kind of wrap, I think the most important thing is that like have a plan, just get out there, have a plan, get started. You do not need to be a crazy expert, but you do need to ask hard questions genuinely. Especially if there's someone or there's an organization or a product that is wanting to get in front of your young people that is generative AI, push them, ask questions about impact evidence based. This is an incredibly important time we need to absolutely think about protecting our young people, but also supporting them.

53:03
Amanda Bickerstaff
And that means you can still learn, even if it's like, I'm going to show you and we're going to do it together, or we're going to do it in a way that's really structured. And you know what? We can use generative AI, But I'm going to be your proxy because I'm going to be able to help you evaluate the outputs until you're ready to evaluate them on your own. Those are the ways in which it doesn't have to be a Stark yes or no, 0 or 1. It can be something that is really uniquely collaborative and meaningful because everyone right now, we're all figuring it out together. I want to say thank you to Nneka so much for being here with me and having this incredible conversation. Thank you for everybody that had such a good like, we love it when it's really active.

53:41
Amanda Bickerstaff
We'll be following up with the. With all the information. We've been reviewing more and more on this type of work. So I'm sure Nneka will be back and we just appreciate you all and have a beautiful rest of your day wherever you are. Thanks, everybody.

  Transcribed by https://fireflies.ai/