Blog Post #3

        I'm going to begin by going over the Educator Toolkits I looked into when investigating the CPALMS website. Searching under the English department page, I came across a standard about a student's need to "Read and comprehend grade-level complex texts proficiently." When viewing the resources associated with this standard, a veritable mountain of possibilities emerged with an astonishing 1053 resources appearing, most of which were lesson plans. Investigating further, I realized just how useful these resources were with a bulk majority being an intricate lesson into analyzing a given article or articles where students would have to prove some sort of comprehension of the content along with other skills. One such example, titled Dealing with Grief: A Comparison of Tone and Theme, combines this standard's objectives with other useful instruction. It touches upon "poetic devices, form, and point of view" as well as doubles as some emotional teaching on a heavy subject, in grief. On top of this, the authors examined in this lesson, Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, are of literary significance, further enriching the student's education. I deeply believe that the thorough analysis of such sources is an integral part of any high schooler's education, so having a resource in CPALMS that gives teachers easier access to a treasure trove of lesson plans, and more importantly, texts to perhaps create their own modified lesson plans over is invaluable.

    As for internet searching, it goes without saying that we've long entered a digital age. In this "new age," the apt navigation of online spaces, especially search browsers, has become an essential skill that anybody, much more teachers, need to acquire or be left behind. The ability to locate educational resources, such as CPALMS, which we were introduced to this week, in an organic, non-taught way is imperative for any modern teacher. Furthermore, the necessity to narrow and hone searches to identify what will be truly useful for a lesson is also equally important. This is why, I believe, I'll try to rely upon the Google advanced search features introduced even more than I already have been going forward. I often find it a bit out of the way or time-consuming to go through the process of advanced searching, but the results it brings are undeniably worth the time. With that being said, I do believe that it isn't always necessary to perform an advanced search if the user knows about searching shortcuts. While these aren't exactly universal, almost every search engine has a number of shortcuts that can be thrown into a normal search (i.e for Google, using quotation marks designates words as needing to be together in the results and using a dash forcibly excludes terms), and the learning of these skills can greatly improve one's search fluency while increasing search efficiency as well. Also, it was briefly mentioned at the bottom of the Internet Searching section, but the correct navigation of the experimental AI search results of Google's is also becoming an increasingly necessary as they don't allow the toggling of it and it can frequently be inaccurate.

    Speaking of AI, specifically of the generative variety, it is almost unavoidable that it'll somehow infiltrate the classroom. At the moment, to me, whether or not this is going to end up being a good thing or bad thing in the long run is entirely unknown. I can see a world where it becomes no different than Google Search and it becomes commonplace in classrooms, and I can simultaneously see a world where it is forbidden in educational settings the same way that searching the internet isn't allowed during non-open book tests (for obvious reasons). Regardless, I believe that it's a slippery slope, for lack of better analogies. In an era where almost any information is at one's fingertips if they just know how to properly search for it, the one saving grace, in my opinion, was that the generation of unique thoughts was still, at the time, irreplaceable. However, if AI is introduced into classrooms as a tool, even if for just generating ideas to be expanded upon by a student's own investigations, I believe that learning how to think creatively and come up with individual solutions could be lost. In turn, however, I do think that if it's introduced, the new generation of students will be extremely proficient in AI usage as a launching point for research and similar ideas in a way they otherwise wouldn't be. Whether or not it's just another example of a need to adapt to the evolving technological world or if it's a tool that doubles as a poisonous fruit that'll inhibit the skills of creative thinking and personal idea generation is at this time unknown to me.

    Regardless, I can see the world is already moving in the direction of AI acceptance within K-12 settings. Looking at the CPALMS standards, I found a standard that basically indicates exactly that. Standard SC.912.TI.1.2 basically states that in order to strengthen what they call "lifelong learning" the navigation of technological spaces is a necessary skill, and among these spaces, they include AI coupled with basic web-searching (and usage of online tutorials). Now, while I feel I am competent in navigating a search engine, I've never really delved into using AI as a tool. I've always had a bit of a moral hang-up with the way that information is gathered for AI training models, and I'm also not terribly keen, as an English major, on the way such technologies could impact creative jobs in the immediate future if it started to be adopted as a tool to replace artistic jobs rather than empower them. So, I'm afraid, if I was asked to implement AI in my lessons, I would be at a total loss and have to, perhaps begrudgingly, learn it as a new skill, myself. However, I'd expect AI to be not dissimilar to other new-age tools in interface navigation and learning curve, so perhaps I, along with other people of my generation, would be able to pick up on its proper usage fairly quickly when they sink their teeth into trying to learn it.