Whiteboards with Frames:
Whiteboard.chat, Padlet Sandbox, Canva

In whiteboard.chat, you can make frames so that different learners of groups of learners can work on activities. It can be integrated with Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams. Users do not need to create accounts to participate on the white board. It has activities such as math quizzes that you can insert. You can play around for free – you do not even have to make an account to test it out. There is a teacher guide and a student guide that will introduce you to all the tools. You get 10 boards with a free account. These boards expire after 7 days unless you go in and refresh them. There are three levels of paid accounts that allow you to create more boards and keep them longer.

Padlet has introduced a digital whiteboard they are calling Sandboxes. Padlet Sandboxes have similar features to Jamboard plus extras. It has tools for voice recordings, drawing, typing, sticky notes, shapes and video uploads. You can create a slide show and play it like a slide presentation or use it as an activity board. There is a set of education templates that can help you get started. You can have different groups working on different cards (frames or pages) and prevent them from seeing what others are doing. The Sandboxes can be integrated with Google Drive and Classroom. Padlet does not require users to create accounts to participate on the sandboxes. Padlet allows you to have three active sandboxes and boards on a free account. You can store your old work but you can only have three working at one time. They have several tiers of pricing that allow for more sandboxes and boards to be active and for different numbers of editors per sandbox or board. (We made a Padlet Tip Sheet that explains how to use the boards.)

Canva has a free whiteboard where you can create pages — look in the bottom right corner of the whiteboard. It is not designed for educators the way that Whiteboard.chat and Padlet Sandboxes are, but Canva has created a set of education templates. Users do not need to create accounts to participate on the white board.

Infinite White Boards:
FigJam, Lucidspark or Miro

When Google closed down *Jamboard in December 2024, they recommended FigJam, Lucidspark or Miro as possible replacements. These boards are different than Jamboard in that you get one big, seemingly infinite board where you can create areas of activity. You do not navigate by going from frame to frame (page to page) but by floating across one continuous space and finding the area you want to work in. I think for some learners it could be quite confusing. Others may be delighted by the bouncy, nonlinearity of the boards.

  • Lucidspark has a free account but they have a note that this option may not last forever.
  • FigJam is free for students and educators but institutions need to go through a verification process.
  • Miro promises that they will always have a free account. On a free account, you get three boards that other people can edit. After that, any boards you create are view only. Boards that have been shared with you are included in that number. It seems that you cannot delete any of the boards that have been shared with you so once you hit three, you need to create a new account to create more.

Google Slides

One way to replicate some of the functionality of frame-based whiteboards is to use Google Slides. See how here: Creating a collaborative learning space using slides.

To see how this could work, take a look at some of these samples in the Collaboration Slides Folder.


*Jamboard

was a free online whiteboard. Users could add text, sticky notes, images, and links. You could create online discussions and opportunities for synchronous or asynchronous collaborative or individual learning. A nice thing about Jamboard was that workshop facilitators and instructors could see what individuals and groups were doing on each frame (page).

Sample Jamboards to translate into another whiteboard environment

In the Sample Jamboards folder you can see activities by some Ontario literacy practitioners (and me) that you can copy and adapt.

You will also see a folder called EDTechTeacher Samples where you will find copies of many of the Jamboards that were shared in the shared in the Building digital skills with Google workshop.

If you’d like to learn more about whiteboards or schedule a demonstration, contact Tracey or our Quick Tech Help service.

Our idea that literacy workers might be interested in AI policies and guidelines came from a question that a literacy instructor asked in an Ai for Educators workshop, “I showed a learner how to use AI to get help on a simple task. Now that learner is using AI for everything. I feel that this is hindering them in developing some skills that they will need. How can I get them to stop?”

The facilitator, Shawn McCusker, suggested, “Work with the learner to create guidelines that work for you and that specific learner or group of learners in the specific contexts where they are learning.”

We thought this made sense. AI is so new that there are no great templates for the use of AI in adult literacy classrooms. Literacy instructors work with learners to create guidelines for the ways they will work together and are used to facilitating this process.

Here are three workshops presented by AlphaPlus where we discussed the topic of how to create a set of classroom AI guidelines to determine ways teachers and learners can use AI to support teaching and learning in specific contexts. We kicked off the conversation at a Showcase and took a deeper dive into the particulars and how tos in a series of workshops.

To see more about using AI in educational settings, check out our What is Generative AI? resource.


Virtual Showcase: AI policies, ethics and practices in LBS

In this Showcase, three guest presenters plus three AlphaPlus staff members (Alan, Guylaine and Tracey) discussed how they are integrating AI into their practice and how they are thinking about AI policies and guidelines for organizations and for classrooms.” (November 2024)

Showcase slides and recording


Creating AI Policy with Learners

This three-workshop series, facilitated by Tom Driscoll, is about what an AI policy for adult learners in literacy could look like. We will look at how to work with learners to create a policy that offers guidance for using AI ethically and safely to do research, make material more accessible and support creativity, communication and collaboration.” On the Padlet board, you can see how literacy instructors responded to the scenarios with thoughtful and well reasoned ideas about when using AI can support learning and when it can hinder developing certain skills and knowledge. (January 2025)


AI Policy for Literacy Practitioners and Learners

AlphaPlus was invited by Calgary Learns to expand on part of what we presented at the November 2024 Showcase. Guylaine and Tracey facilitated the discussion. “Generative Ai for teaching and learning is still a relatively new technology. In this workshop, facilitated by AlphaPlus practitioners, we will discuss the why and when of using generative Ai tools in adult education classrooms. As the technology and our practices evolve, so do our questions. We will share some of the questions we have been grappling with and invite participants to add theirs to the conversation.” The stoplight discussion is one way to start the conversation about AI use with colleagues and learners. (Calgary Learns, April 2025)

Stoplight Discussion Template

What is PAL?

The Planning a Lesson website — PAL for short — is a lesson planning companion that’s a little like a conversation with a teaching peer—a peer who has already thought about planning engaging lessons that flow. 

The ideas and materials in this digital space stem from thoughtful questions, robust discussions and the collaborative efforts of the PAL working group.  Thus, PAL is a space to engage with the insights from front-line LBS practitioners just like you, and to garner some handy tips. 

PAL could  also be used as a place to return to for inspiration or to spark discussions around learner-centred approaches and strategies with LBS colleagues.

PAL is

Visit the Planning A Lesson Websitearrow right

You will find a blended-learning lesson planning flow developed for and by literacy practitioners grounded in research and research-in-practice. It is kitchen tested but flexible enough that you can add your own flavour and refine the process to meet the needs of your evolving practice.

PRE-LESSON:
Anticipating challenges

THE LESSON:
Planning for learning and lesson flow

POST-LESSON:
Taking the learning beyond the class session

Two years ago, AlphaPlus organized an advisory group to explore Open Educational Resources (OER) and establish criteria to build a collection for the field. The result is hundreds of FREE units, courses and instructional support materials (with more items being added) that you can use for reading, writing and math instruction, in addition to specific topics of interest to adult learners.

During the session we introduced the collection and demonstrated how it fills a gap, looked at a few example resources that rival paid resources and discussed priorities for adapting and modifying specific resources for your use in online and in-person settings.

Presenters

Christine Pinsent-Johnson
Policy and Research Specialist – Education and Technology at AlphaPlus

With over three decades of experience in the adult learning sector, Christine has a robust understanding of the circumstances hindering learning opportunities and access, and the impact of effective adult learning-based policies and programs. She has been a literacy volunteer, tutor coordinator, computer and classroom instructor, curriculum developer and assessor in school board and community adult literacy programs..

As an organizational development consultant, Christine applies her understanding of system dynamics, learner experiences, accountability processes and metrics, and pedagogy to support equitable and relevant learning opportunities. An experienced researcher, she also draws from evidence-based insights for initiatives, including an understanding of digital disparities in Ontario and Canada and the development of blended learning approaches.

Guylaine Vinet

Organizational Development Specialist – Education and Technology

For more than 20 years, Guylaine has worked in the adult literacy sector. Beginning her career as a librarian supporting literacy practitioners in the deaf and francophone communities, she now assists LBS organizations and practitioners in evolving their knowledge and application of technology and learning using coaching, team training and resource sharing. 

As an organizational development specialist, Guylaine provides service in French and English, specializing in information and cloud content management, curating learning resources, learning with tablets and mobile devices and technology problem-solving. Her areas of interest and professional development include online privacy and safety as well as assistive technology and information management. 

In her collaborations with LBS organizations as a technology consultant, Guylaine supports teams and educators to build their online resource collection, better understand digital privacy safety and best practices  and manage websites and content. 

OER RESOURCES LIKED/MENTIONED BY PARTICIPANTS

  • CTRL-F
  • ESL BITS
  • “Writing on the Run looks good”
  • “BC Open collection looks amazing, especially resources for the trades”
  • “I like Core Vocabulary Word Pictures….has visual and simple words…”

You might have heard about MTML’s smartphone learning modules but we want to go a bit deeper to explore how they are applied in the literacy field and what other programs are doing when it comes to using smartphones with their learners. In this showcase, we explored the modules and discussed how smartphones are changing the way we learn, teach and use technology on a daily basis. 

Presenters

Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy
Also known as MTML, is a network of organizations and individuals supporting adult literacy in Toronto and York Region. 

Ambreen Ahmad, Managing Director

Ambreen has 20 years of experience in the education field. Possessing a Masters in English Literature and in Educational Planning and Management, she has maintained successful positions as a Vice Principal, English Language Instructor, Manager HR, Communication Executive and Literacy practitioner.
Currently, she is working as a Managing Director at Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy, a non-profit organization that supports adult literacy in Toronto and York Region. Her previous work experience and life-long learning certificates and diplomas bring a wealth of information to develop learning strategies, recruitment procedures and governance.
Her dedication and determination in helping individuals grow and develop are highlighted in all her professional achievements. She is also passionate about volunteering and has been an ardent volunteer in many non-profits across GTA. She loves to cook and paint in her free time.

LAMP Adult Learning

LAMP Adult Learning Program provides a foundation to the first step back to learning, with a strength based community approach. Learners achieve health and well being, develop independence, further education for training and employment needs. They focus on personal goals of health, civic engagement, social inclusion, and quality of life. Learners improve their reading, writing, and/or digital literacy (smartphone, ipad and laptop/desktop) skills in our community-based literacy and basic skills program.

Johanna Milic
Program Supervisor
Leads creative development and collaboration with Support Organizations and
in programs at LAMP.

Anita Dhanjal
Community Literacy Worker
Digital and Computer, Reading and Writing Instructor.

Robert Connelly
Community Literacy Worker
Digital and Computer, Reading and Writing Instructor.

Literacy Council York Simcoe (LCYS)

The Skills Upgrading Center provides customized training programs and job-specific workshops to assist adults in York-Simcoe in improving their employment prospects, preparing for a higher education, and acquiring the skills they need for a successful future.

Brittany Horlings, Program and Marketing Assistant

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES MENTIONED BY PARTICIPANTS

AlphaPlus OER Library – Mobile Devices

How to scan QR codes on Android Phone

How to scan QR code from an image in gallery

Scan a QR code from photos

Computer Hope – computer dictionary, terms, and glossary

Connected for Success – Low income affordable plans from Rogers (mobile, internet and TV options)

On June 15, 2023 AlphaPlus hosted our ninth Community Gabfest.

The theme was ChatGPT – delightful or scary?

This topic came from our discussion at Gabfest 8. We wanted a place to talk about what we are finding delightful about ChatGPT and “some of these things that scare the living daylights out of us. I mean, if we can’t have each other to talk about this, then we are alone in our fear and that’s not a good place to be.”

We used a Jamboard to guide our conversation: Wayfinders Gabfest 9 Jamboard.

We started with a little background on ChatGPT in particular and Artificial Intelligence in general. We shared our experiences and these resources:

ChatGPT Resources

What is ChatGPT? from AlphaPlus: a resource a a resource for teachers/instructors with explanations and ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning and program administration in an adult literacy setting.

My Digital Companion: Making Sense of ChatGPT from Contact North: a resource for students/learners to help them use this tool safely, ethically and creatively for learning.

ChatGPT: Leveraging AI to Support Personalized Teaching and Learning in the June 2023 Adult Literacy Education Journal by Sarah Cacicio and Rachel Riggs: a resource for teachers/instructors with ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning in an adult literacy setting.

Leveraging ChatGPT Instead of Banning from Contact North: a resource for teachers/instructors with ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning in a college setting.

EdTechTeacher Chat GPT Tips by Tom Daccord: a resource for teachers/instructors with ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning in a K-12 setting. You can find links to the tip sheets in our resource (they are not easy to find on the EdTechTeacher website).

People were asking about text-to-speech options and Guylaine shared this resource: Speech recognition and text to speech tools for various devices

Where we are at

We talked about where we are on the delightful to scary continuum.

We were pretty much dotted across the continuum.

  • “I am generally an optimist. I pretty much see every barrier as an opportunity to learn and that has been my approach to AI.”
  • “I’m I’m that green circle right in the very middle. It was in front of me and I was curious and I knew we were having this this meeting. I thought I’d try it. But I approach it with caution.”
  • “I live with a software tester and this whole thing makes me very nervous.”

We did not all stay in a fixed place.

As one person said at the closing of the Gabfest, “I felt like I was watching a ping pong game. I was going from one side to the other.” Many of us are in a place where we read one thing and we feel quite positive and then read another that fills us with apprehension.

Here are some of the things people have tried so far:

  • I’ve been working with it and playing with it and following teachers across the world, just to learn more about how they’re using it.
  • I tried it a little bit just before the meeting. I asked it to make up five questions for time elapsed – for example, if you left work at this hour and drove 45 minutes, what time do you get home? It was so quick so I can see it as a resource for us making up something quickly for students.
  • It popped up on my screen on Bing and I decided to start asking questions. I did it because I was stuck on something. I was putting a presentation together on values and I was looking for just a short two minute video that would make it simple, and there is nothing. So I asked it to give me a brief presentation on lining up values with motivation and employment. It gave me a five point presentation with all the resources and a bibliography at the end of it.
  • I put in some descriptions for tasks. I didn’t necessarily like what I had initially and I would ask it to rephrase it. If I didn’t like that I would ask it to rephrase it again or “regenerate” – you can ask ChatGPT to regenerate.
  • I’ve put some information in and asked ChatGPT to explain something and then explain it at a lower level, for example at a grade five level because if it’s going to be for a learner, the language has to be at a level that they’ll understand.
  • I asked it to explain what literacy is. I got the best explanation I have ever heard in my life and I’ve been in literacy for 24 years. I don’t know where they get all their information from but it was the best explanation.

Conversation starters

We asked three questions:

  • What are the best things about AI for educators and learners?
  • What are the things that worry you most about AI for educators and learners?
  • What do we want to learn next?

Literacy skills and strategies

Somebody posed the question about what happens if we stop using certain skills ourselves and turn them over to AI.

“What do people think about the things that technology can do for you as opposed to you doing it for yourself? Is that of value? Is that an asset? Is that threatening?”

What skills and abilities will we lose if we do not do our own problem-solving when we are writing?

As one participant reported from a breakout room discussion:

“You can you can use AI to write a great cover letter or a great essay but what happens when the rubber meets the road and you actually have to do something on your own. At that point, we’d call them pseudo skills to be able to solve something or write something — you just don’t have those fundamental tools. It’s the ultimate fake it till you make it. Are we are we encouraging people to to take the easy road? One of the things that came out of our discussion in our group was that we have to teach learners that this is a tool like computer is a tool, or hammer is a tool, or a screwdriver is a tool. It’s a tool, and you have to learn how to use it properly because if you use a hammer the wrong way, you end up with a very sore thumb.”

We talked about some of the ways that technology supports literacy learners who are working with emerging literacy skills and how tools such as Grammerly help literacy learners, student writers and anyone struggling to write clear sentences.

We had a conversation about how text-to-speech options support emergent writers and Guylaine shared this resource: Speech recognition and text to speech tools for various devices

We talked about the value of essay writing. In programs where learners are moving on to further education, a lot of time is spent on learning how to write essays. We talked about how this skill is something we only use in school and that many people will not need these skills once they have completed their school-based education. What other things do we learn by writing essays and are these things useful to us in our beyond school settings? We didn’t get to all the answers but the question of what we gain and what we lose when we adopt new technologies is always an interesting one.

We talked about the ways that AI will impact the work of preparing literacy learners for a world where AI exists. Some of our questions are:

  • Are our assessment tools reflecting the needs of learners in this this new reality?
  • Are we guiding learners towards staying employed or becoming employed? There are so many roles and jobs arising because of AI but many jobs that won’t exist anymore. Everything is becoming automated and that is the equivalent of job losses.
  • Is our curriculum reflective of the core needs especially as AI was released to the world?

Digital justice

We talked about how new technologies can amplify inequities. We saw some of the ways this had profound impacts on people during the pandemic. We touched on the idea of an AI bill of rights and how applications of AI beyond educational ones — such as facial recognition — can increase barriers along with gains in efficiency and convenience.

“There are always fears around new tech… It’s a good thing, it motivates us to find ethical and equitable solutions 🙂
Or maybe it’s the end of the world… Hard to say!”

What do we want to learn next?

  • To be more knowledgeable about AI in order to be able to teach it. I think that we we need to be pretty adept at using it.
  • I’d like to know more about using AI as learning tool.
  • Maybe it’s a whole new skill set that would be would be added to what is taught in literacy programs. When I think of a lot of learners I work with, they aren’t always articulate in terms of being able to speak what it is they want or would require. That’s a whole that’s a whole skill set–formulating ideas to words in order to get technology to respond. appropriately to you.
  • One of the things that came out the digital justice and equity Gabfest was teaching the language of technology. We really need something that teaches the language of technology, not teaching digital skills necessarily, but people really need to understand the language of technology.
  • I’m interested in learning about policy around this stuff (either government level or within organizations).

Thank you Gabfesters for your energy, generosity, wisdom and friendship. With your help, we won’t fall off the learning curve.

This page started as a Community Question called What is ChatGPT? and evolved into a constantly updated list of places to learn about generative AI tools and resources for teaching and learning.

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence (AI) technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with a chatbot. The language model can answer questions, and help you with tasks such as composing emails, essays, and code.

ChatGPT takes online writing tools such as QuillBot to the next level—or the next few levels—by leveraging the knowledge stored on the internet to respond to queries and requests.

ChatGPT is designed to simulate human-like responses to text-based communication.

It is built on an architecture that attempts to mimic the human brain called the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model. The GPT architecture allows ChatGPT to generate natural language text that can be coherent and contextually appropriate.

ChatGPT uses a large database of written text, such as books, articles, and websites, that it has been pre-trained on. When a user inputs a message or question, ChatGPT uses this pre-trained knowledge to generate a response.

See some additional resources below and in the ChatGPT Gabfest summary.

NOTICE: Sometimes the accordions below do not work properly in some browsers for some people. To see an accordion-free version of this resource list, go to Where can I get help using Generative AI?

A note on terminology
  • Generative AI is artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images, or other media – like ChatGPT and the tools listed below. Generative AI grew out of a field of AI study and practice called machine learning.
  • Machine learning is a type of AI that uses algorithms trained on data sets to create models that enable machines to perform tasks that would otherwise only be possible for humans. When we put a bunch of these algorithms together in a way that allows them to generate new data based on what they’ve learned, we get a model or an engine tuned to generate a particular type of data. The engine that powers Chat GPT is a large language model.
  • Large language models are a type of AI algorithm that use deep learning techniques and large data sets to understand, summarize, generate and predict new content.

People often use the term AI to mean all of these things, one of these things, or something altogether different.

Some guides:

Other Generative AI tools you might be using

Eduaide.AI – specifically for teachers
Perplexity – ChatBot and search engine
Anthropic Claude – an AI workplace assistant
Bing Chat (Microsoft chat bot and search)
ChatPDF
Google AutoDraw
Google Duet AI – for people with access to a Google Workspace account
GrammarlyGO
Microsoft Designer
Microsoft Copilot
Quizlet Q-Chat
Google Gemini

And the controversial AI image generators:

DALL-E 2
Midjourney
Canva: Text to Image or Magic Edit
Padlet: I Can’t Draw
Adobe Firefly

As this is an evolving technology, we’ve been updating this page with resources and things we have been learning about teaching and learning with and about generative AI tools.

Creating AI guidelines with learners

Here are three resources created by AlphaPlus where we discussed the topic of how to create a set of classroom AI guidelines to determine ways teachers and learners can use AI to support teaching and learning in specific contexts.

Virtual Showcase: AI policies, ethics and practices in LBS

In this Showcase, three guest presenters plus three AlphaPlus staff members (Alan, Guylaine and Tracey) discussed how they are integrating AI into their practice and how they are thinking about AI policies and guidelines for organizations and for classrooms.” (November 2024)

Creating AI Policy with Learners

This three-workshop series, facilitated by Tom Driscoll, is about what an AI policy for adult learners in literacy could look like. We will look at how to work with learners to create a policy that offers guidance for using AI ethically and safely to do research, make material more accessible and support creativity, communication and collaboration.” (January 2025)

AI policy for Literacy Practitioners and Learners

AlphaPlus was invited by Calgary Learns to expand on part of what we presented at the November 2024 Showcase. “Generative Ai for teaching and learning is still a relatively new technology. In this workshop, facilitated by AlphaPlus practitioners, we will discuss the why and when of using generative Ai tools in adult education classrooms. As the technology and our practices evolve, so do our questions. We will share some of the questions we have been grappling with and invite participants to add theirs to the conversation.” (Calgary Learns, April 2025)

Stoplight Discussion Template

Teaching and learning with Generative AI
From the Ed Tech Centre @ World Education

Open Prompt Book from CampGPT at the Ed Tech Centre @ World Education: a resource for and by adult educators about how they use AI mostly as a brainstorming tool. As they report, “Over and over again in CampGPT, educators describe the use of chatbots as a great “starting point.” In fact, some find that using these tools is most effective for generating ideas rather than ready-to-use materials.” Here is a description of the Open Prompt Book: “In CampGPT, educators experimented with generative AI-enabled tools like chatbots and image generators to learn and explore together. Their work and insights have been compiled in the Open Prompt Book from CampGPT. Throughout this prompt book, you’ll learn more about generative AI, what educators use it for, and key tips and tricks.”

AI for Learning and Work from the Ed Tech Centre @ World Education: You can find the recordings of the four Generative AI EdTech Bytes that cover the applications and implications of generative AI for education (YouTube Playlist) plus a series of blog posts about the use of ChatGPT and AI in education.

ChatGPT: Leveraging AI to Support Personalized Teaching and Learning in the June 2023 Adult Literacy Education Journal by Sarah Cacicio and Rachel Riggs: a a resource for teachers/instructors with ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning in an adult literacy setting.

from Contact North

My Digital Companion: Making Sense of ChatGPT from Contact North: a resource for students/learners to help them use ChatGPT safely, ethically and creatively for learning.

Leveraging ChatGPT Instead of Banning from Contact North: a resource for teachers/instructors with ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning in a college setting.

10 Practical Ways Faculty and Instructors Can Use AI from Contact North

Contact North has a series of recorded webinars on the use of AI in education.

from Control Alt Achieve

Super Tutor: AI to Support all Learners from Control Alt Achieve: a 1-hour training video that explores both AI tools (ChatGPT, Google Bard (now Gemini), Diffit, Eduaide, MagicSchoolAI, Brisk, Goblin Tools…) and practical uses (reading, writing, tutoring…) to help support learners. All the resources used in the video are included in a list on the page.

from EdTech Teacher

EdTech Teacher Chat GPT Tips by Tom Daccord: a resource for teachers/instructors with ideas for how to use ChatGPT for learning in a K-12 setting.

from Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence (CATE) at the University of Illinois

AI Writing Tools by Erin Stapleton-Corcoran, CATE Instructional Designer and Patrick Horton, CATE Instructional Designer (2023)

How to Approach AI Writing Tools in Your Classroom
While there is no universal approach to utilizing AI writing tools in your classroom, you should take into account different factors, including your course’s learning objectives, relevant disciplinary skills, and your level of comfort with the technology. As you create your unique AI usage guidelines, here are steps to help build your AI working policy.

from Open AI

Teaching with AI: Stories of how educators are using ChatGPT and some prompts to help educators get started with the tool.

Teaching and learning about Generative AI
From the News Literacy Project

6 things to know about AI Infographic

Artificial intelligence technology is not new, but dramatic advances in generative AI have captured the world’s attention and are transforming the information landscape. This infographic provides an overview of how this technology works and offers six news literacy takeaways to keep in mind as these tools evolve.”

AI or not? Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students consider the impact of generative AI technology on the information landscape. They start by completing a K-H-W-L [what I Know, what I’ve Heard, what I Want to know, what I’ve Learned] chart. Then students take a short quiz featuring AI-generated images and explore tips to determine whether an image is AI-generated. Finally, students will reflect on how AI tools have changed the nature of visual evidence.”

From CTRL-F

AI Lessons

You need to make a free account and log in to see this.

AI Fundamentals

These lessons introduce students to some of the major issues surrounding new AI technologies, including an overview of how new generative AI programs work, ethical issues surrounding new AI tools, and how AI can be used responsibly in the classroom.”

Using Verification Skills With AI

“Students apply their lateral reading skills to AI-generated content through a series of activities exploring AI-generated websites, fact-checking chatbots, and identifying whether an image, audio file, or video was created by AI.”

Games that show how generative AI is built

Akinator is a game that shows the questions machines ask to narrow down choices to pinpoint what a searcher is looking for. Think of a character (real or fictional), an animal or an object and answer the questions Akinator asks until it discovers what you are thinking of or gives up. The program sifts through all the data it contains after each response creating narrower and narrower categories until it can come up with a single guess. These are called decision trees.


To learn more about how data is used to train models, check out Slice of Machine Learning — an interactive tutorial that teaches you how to build a machine learning classification model using a decision tree where you can try to train a computer to identify pizza.


Quick Draw is a game that shows how AI learns to identify objects. Click Let’s play and try to draw the picture you are asked to draw. The program will try to guess what you are drawing as you go. Once you are finished playing, you are invited to see the ways other creators drew the items and how the program figured out – or didn’t – what you were drawing. You can see the complete data set it is using to make the guesses here: The world’s largest doodling data set. This is how we all contribute to to the AI datasets. We create things, put them on the internet, and programs are sent out to scrape our creations for the data they will use to create the next thing.

How to write prompts for ChatBots

AlphaPlus offered two workshops for people who had attended the AI to Create and Manage Learning Activities workshops to give participants some more hands on experience making prompts and teaching learners how to use AI.

Open Prompt Book from CampGPT at the Ed Tech Centre @ World Education: a resource for and by adult educators about how they use AI mostly as a brainstorming tool. As they report, “Over and over again in CampGPT, educators describe the use of chatbots as a great “starting point.” In fact, some find that using these tools is most effective for generating ideas rather than ready-to-use materials.” Here is a description of the Open Prompt Book: “In CampGPT, educators experimented with generative AI-enabled tools like chatbots and image generators to learn and explore together. Their work and insights have been compiled in the Open Prompt Book from CampGPT. Throughout this prompt book, you’ll learn more about generative AI, what educators use it for, and key tips and tricks.”

The RACEF (Role, Action, Context, Examples, Format) framework is explained in the Neuron’s Introduction to ChatGPT

  • Prompt Engineering 101
  • Your Go-To Prompt Framework
  • AI 101 for Teachers – Large Language Model Prompting Guide (slide deck)

    ChatGPT Prompts for Teachers: Unlocking the Potential of AI in Education from LearnPrompt.org

    GenAI Chatbot Prompt Library for Educators from AI for Education

    The Ultimate Prompt Engineering Guide for Text Generation – This site offers a spreadsheet of several hundred prompt examples.

    The Prompt Index – a community of prompt engineers is developing an AI prompt database full of prompts for ChatGPT, Bard, Claude 2, Llama, Midjourney, Dalle and Stable Diffusion!

    60+ Must-Try ChatGPT Prompts for Teachers by Monica Burns

    Updates on AI bias and ethics
    Updates on the bias risks of AI

    Some people say that using an LLM – large language model – like ChatGPT is like using a calculator but calculators do not show us content that is racist, sexist or homophobic. We can work on our critical thinking skills to adapt to a AI world but what is the benefit of being exposed to this type of content?

    We complied a document about three governmental (Canada, the European Union and the US) attempts at creating an AI Bill of rights: Towards an AI bill of rights.

    In 2024, the Canadian Government published a Guide to Using AI that “provides guidance to federal institutions on their use of generative AI tools. This includes instances where federal institutions are deploying these tools. It provides an overview of generative AI, identifies challenges relating to its use, puts forward principles for using it responsibly, and offers policy considerations and best practices.”

    The following is a list of articles that grapple with the ethics of using generative AI in different contexts.

    These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI by Lorena O’Neil at Rolling Stone Magazine (August 2023)

    Researchers — including many women of color — have been saying for years that these systems interact differently with people of color and that the societal effects could be disastrous: that they’re a fun-house-style distorted mirror magnifying biases and stripping out the context from which their information comes; that they’re tested on those without the choice to opt out; and will wipe out the jobs of some marginalized communities.”

    What ChatGPT Tells Us about Gender: A Cautionary Tale about Performativity and Gender Biases in AI by Nicole Gross (June 2023)

    This paper’s central argument is that large language models work performatively, which means that they perpetuate and perhaps even amplify old and non-inclusive understandings of gender. Examples from ChatGPT are used here to illustrate some gender biases in AI. However, this paper also puts forward that AI can work to mitigate biases and act to ‘undo gender’.”

    The Pear, You & AI by Valentine Goddard

    The Pear, You and AI is a women-led collaborative annotation initiative, designed as part of a larger project on Algorithmic Art to Counter Gender Bias in AI. In this initial phase, we are undergoing data collection based on your words and perceptions associated with words like women, beauty, imperfection.

    A People’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence by Mimi Onuoha and Diana Nucera a.k.a. Mother Cyborg via Allied Media Projects (PDF)

    1. What does fairness look like when computers shape decision-making?
    2. Who is creating the future, and how can we ensure that these creators reflect diverse communities and complex social dynamics?

    This zine, published in August 2018, explores these questions through a series of explanatory text and whimsically illustrated pages that takes the reader on a journey that demystifies the often opaque world of artificial intelligence.

    5 Ethical Implications of AI in Education: A Guideline for Responsible Classroom Implementation
    by Luis Pardo (June 2023)

    A responsible AI implementation in a school context begins with careful planning and consideration of all stakeholders’ needs. This involves ensuring that AI tools are accessible and designed to accommodate diverse learning needs, including those of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Schools must ensure all students have access to the necessary technology to prevent the widening of the digital divide. The AI tools should be trained on diverse data sets to minimize algorithmic bias and should be designed to offer personalized learning experiences, considering each student’s unique learning pace and style.”

    The Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

    The Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI) is an innovative impact-oriented community of practice seeking to understand the innumerable ways in which AI impacts equality for better or worse. We work to empower ethics in AI so that it is deployed in a just, responsible, and inclusive manner.”

    AI and education: guidance for policy-makers from UNESCO (2021)

    “…while AI might have the potential to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, the rapid technological developments inevitably bring multiple risks and challenges, which have so far outpaced policy debates and regulatory frameworks. And, while the main worries might involve AI overpowering human agency, more imminent concerns involve AI’s social and ethical implications – such as the misuse of personal data and the possibility that A

    Artists are asking for an ethical AI that respects the three Cs: consent, control and compensation. We are all content creators in the age of AI.

    Art and AI Regulation : Implications for arts and culture by Valentine Goddard (September 2023)

    Recommendations that have been submitted to the Quebec Innovation Council, and to the AI Advisory Council of Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

    Canada’s major news organizations band together to sue ChatGPT creator OpenAI

    by Josh Rubin at the Toronto Star (November 2024)

    ‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says by Dan Milmo at The Guardian (January 2024)

    AI companies’ defence of using copyrighted material tends to lean on the legal doctrine of ‘fair use’, which allows use of content in certain circumstances without seeking the owner’s permission. In its submission, OpenAI said it believed that ‘legally, copyright law does not forbid training’.

    ‘New York Times’ sues ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Microsoft, for copyright infringement by Bobby Allyn at National Public Radio (December 2023)

    The ‘Times’ is the first major media organization to drag OpenAI to court over the thorny and still-unresolved question of whether artificial intelligence companies broke intellectual property law by training AI models with copyrighted material.

    Courts have said fair use of a copyrighted work must generate something new that is “transformative,” or comments on or refers back to an original work — something the Times argues does not apply to how OpenAI reproduces the paper’s original reporting.

    ‘There is nothing ‘transformative’ about using The Times’s content without payment to create products that substitute for The Times and steal audiences away from it,’ Times lawyers wrote in the suit on Wednesday.

    OpenAI offers to pay for ChatGPT customers’ copyright lawsuits by Blake Montgomery at The Guardian (November 2023)

    The compensation offer, which OpenAI is calling Copyright Shield, applies to users of the business tier, ChatGPT Enterprise, and to developers using ChatGPT’s application programming interface. Users of the free version of ChatGPT or ChatGPT+ were not included.

    Updates on the uptake of AI in Canada
    Update on the use of AI by Canadian students and employees

    One in five Canadians using generative artificial intelligence tools from KPMG (June 2023)

    A survey of 5,140 Canadians found 1,052 (20 per cent) have used generative AI to help them do their jobs or schooling. The most common uses include research, generating ideas, writing essays and creating presentations. Respondents say the use of the technology has enhanced productivity and quality, created revenue and increased grades but, in the process, they are engaging in behaviour that could create risks for their employers.”

    Updates on the use of AI by Canadian businesses

    More than one third of Canadian businesses experimenting with ChatGPT from KPMG (April 2023)

    A majority of Canadian businesses are aware of the risks of having poor quality data, with more than half (54 per cent) admitting they are very concerned their organization might be making decisions based on poorly designed AI algorithms, and yet only 44 per cent regularly retaining independent third-party experts to vet or assess their AI algorithms for errors and bias.”

    Automation Nation? AI Adoption in Canadian Businesses from The Dais at the Toronto Metropolitan University (September 2023)

    In all businesses with five or more employees, as of the end of 2021, only 3.7 percent of firms say they had adopted artificial intelligence in any way.”

    Canada’s AI imperative – From predictions to prosperity from Deloitte (November 2018)

    Press release: AI adoption among Canadian businesses stagnant: Only 16 per cent of companies use AI, which remains unchanged since 2014 – Deloitte report finds Canadian consumers and businesses don’t understand or trust AI

    Truthfully, there are still many unknowns about general AI’s potential and humanity’s ability to grasp it. But regardless of whether we ever reach the point of general AI, there’s still a clear imperative for a country and its businesses to invest in AI technologies, and to shape the economic and social conditions required to foster their uptake.”

    Explainer videos from CommonCraft

    The CommonCraft library of videos is designed to help us introduce and explain complex subjects in about three minutes. Most come with a transcript and lesson plan. Close captioning is available.

    Find the transcript for this video here: Generative AI explained by Common Craft
    Download a lesson plan

    Find the transcript for this video here: Large Language Models (LLMs) AI explained by Common Craft
    Download a lesson plan

    Find the transcript for this video here: Chatbots and AI explained by Common Craft
    Download a lesson plan

    Presenters from four programs share how they are expanding learning and accessibility with mobile devices and apps.

    To learn about more Apps for education, check out our Useful Apps collection.

    Presenters from three programs share how they are using game-based learning and quizzes for fun and quick learning activities.

    Presenters from three programs share how they are using YouTube and TikTok videos to engage learners.