Many, many years ago, a learning advisor from Canvas told me that when talking digital technology with staff why not begin by asking this question, "What would you like to do better in your classroom but are limited by resources, time, technology or support?"
Addressing the issues arising is key if you are going to ensure staff 'buy-in'. The role of the learning technologist/e-learning co-ordinator is critical in this regard as someone who can sit down with a member of staff, listen to their needs and concerns, understand what obstacles might be in their path and then collaboratively create pathways and plans to ensure their use of digital tools is both effective and impactful.
As good as the learning technologist is, the tools they have at their disposal play a big role too. In our knowledge-crammed curricula, a series of multiple choice quizzes, no matter how engaging, is probably not going to magically cover all these units of work you have to teach or make the students understand it any better, especially if the focus is too much on the game and not the feedback/forward.
The best institutional tools I work with are those that try to take a "one size fits each" approach to resource creation where resources are tailor-made to a particular scenario or student experience. In the main, these resources are designed to replace existing (non-digital) ones with the offer of additional learning opportunities or fill a gap that was there before.
No digital tool will do this perfectly. However, from what I have already seen in just two weeks of working with staff using Canva's Canva Code vibe coding we are already taking a mahoosive leap forward.
The brief video below is from a graphing task designed using Canva Code by my school's amazingly creative and imaginative Maths teacher @YunRuTan and used with her kind permission:
She tells me it took 'a few' iterations but the outcome was well worth the endeavour.
Put simply, you complete the scenario by drawing points on a Distance v time line graph. You need to click on a minimum of two points. Pressing Submit not only gives you a mark for your efforts, if you are wrong, you get some amazing feedback which includes how the graph design should look.
It is astonishing and like nothing I have seen so far. It now opens up a world of possibilities.
I read a post yesterday about teachers feeling a little tired, jaded and anxious about AI. This is the super antidote to those feelings. Whilst the activity is amazingly creative, clever and impactful, it all began with Yun Ru asking herself the question, " I wonder if...."
"I wonder if...., imagine if..., what if...." are prompts that have been part of teachers' planning long before they became linked to a couple of vowels...
As for my own 'thought prompt', "Wouldn't it be great if we could all share ideas like these to inspire, excite and energise teachers (& students) when using AI?"
This and other vibe coding blog posts sit within the K12 space but I don't believe the benefits are solely for K12. It would be great to hear from other institutions who are using Canva code or Gemini or other vibe coding features in this way.. Share you stuff.
Please!
