Acce our S AI COULD HOLD THE KEY TO Acce our S

Rhodri T Smith

The introduction of artificial has generated both exciteme trepidation as its revolutiona education is being explored teachers worldwide. With lim possibilities, educators and s urged to embrace the evolvi and anticipate significant changes in the traditional classroom setting.

In the discussions surrounding AI in education, the focus often revolves around how it can assist educators, offering support in planning, workload management, and administrative tasks. Utilising AI as an assistant has proven to be a valuable resource, and I have personally experienced its effectiveness on multiple occasions centre around concerns of cheating and writing assignments based on given criteria, leading to negative perceptions fuelled by media speculation. Despite this, I firmly believe that AI has the potential to positively impact teaching and learning in the classroom, particularly in enhancing accessibility for all learners. By prioritising pedagogy and considering how AI can support different learning rates and varying levels of support required for student success, we can approach AI with an open mind, recognizing its potential as a "revolutionary" tool in the educational landscape

AI Accessibility for Inclusive Education

Inclusive education means… thatallchildreninthesameclassrooms,in thesameschool,areincluded.Itentails providingreallearningopportunitiesfor groupswhohavetraditionallybeen excluded.

Here are some ideas on how AI could potentially support students in accessing learning and removing the barriers that affect them on a daily basis It can also provide educators with the potential to create a more inclusive classroom with a student-centred approach.

Simplify Text

Students can scaffold the topics they are working on by instructing the AI model to simplify the language of the text. When searching for explanations or finding information online, the wording may be problematic to understand, especially for younger students. Therefore, copying text into Google Bard or an equivalent model and prompting it to change the language to an age-appropriate level or highlight the key takeaways would be beneficial. This is an effective way of accessing text that students would typically find difficult to comprehend

Reformat Information

If students prefer a different way of simplifying text, reformatting the information would be an option. Instructing the AI model to place text into a table with specific headings can clarify the information For example, when the vocabulary in the text is difficult to comprehend, creating a table with key takeaways, the meaning of problematic words, and placing those words into sentences can help clarify understanding This approach encourages students to engage with challenging text.

Dictation

Dictation is an effective way to help our students overcome the barriers of typing or writing. They can dictate their prompts either directly into the AI model or by using the voice typing function on Google Docs

The dictation function is included in the accessibility settings on student Chromebooks or can be accessed in the tools section under voice typing in Google Docs. Using dictation provides all students with the opportunity to access AI and overcome potential barriers.

Text to Speech

Once students have access to new information provided by the AI model, comprehending it becomes the next step. Text-to-speech can be used as an accessibility tool to allow students to listen to age-appropriate text being read back to them You can use ChromeVox, the inbuilt text-to-speech tool for Chromebooks, Read&Write by Texthelp, MurfAI, which provides different styles and intonation of voice for specific text types, or any text-to-speech plugin of your choice. Each accessibility feature enables teachers to adapt their teaching and provide targeted support to support learning in a responsive way

Transcribe & Summarise Videos

If you choose to use YouTube as a resource to acquire new knowledge for a lesson or pre-teach, a Chrome extension called Glasp is an effective way to summarise key information. The extension transcribes the entire video and then instructs Google Bard to provide a summary of the key information. Once the key information has been summarised, students can prompt the AI model to simplify the text or reformat it to suit their personalised learning style and effectively access the video content.

Wellbeing Support

As teachers increasingly use AI as an assistant to support lesson planning, there may also be an opportunity for students to use AI to assist with their wellbeing. If students are feeling low on confidence or need support with their wellbeing, seeking strategies from AI could be helpful. They can confide in it and receive guidance on where to find help if something is troubling them. AI can also provide support to students who find it difficult to talk confidently with adults by offering guidance and techniques on developing communication skills. However, as a teacher, I would always encourage students to seek support from a trusted adult. Additionally, students may use AI to keep a journal and reflect on their learning