Issue 33 • Date April 9, 2025

I just got back from The AI Show @ ASU+GSV at the San Diego Convention Center. It was the second year for the event and my first time attending. I was drawn in by the presentation topics and the price tag (free!).

How is it free? The AI Show is heavily vendor-driven, with dozens of companies showcasing their AI-based products. While many sessions included a sales pitch, it was still a worthwhile learning experience. I had the chance to connect with educators who are also figuring out how to bring AI literacy into their schools.

Digital Datebook Delight 🗓️

I bookmarked concurrent sessions in the AI Show @ ASU+GSV app—there were usually several interesting ones happening at the same time. As the AI Coordinator for Council Bluffs Community School District, I was especially interested in sessions that offered perspectives on AI literacy for students.

I downloaded a PDF of my bookmarked sessions and added stars next to the ones I actually planned to attend during each time slot.

I really wanted those sessions in my personal Google Calendar but didn’t want to spend time manually entering them. AI to the rescue! I uploaded the PDF to ChatGPT and asked it to create a calendar file with only the starred sessions. In moments, it generated a .ics file that I downloaded and imported. Voilà! Each session I planned to attend—complete with times, locations, speakers, and descriptions—was added to my calendar for easy reference.

I’ve also used this workflow for my kids’ soccer practices and games. I uploaded screenshots of their schedule to ChatGPT and asked it to create a calendar file.

Turning a screenshot into calendar events is my favorite AI time-saver!

Conference Capture Companion 🐝

I wore a special bracelet to The AI Show called the Bee Pioneer. It has dual microphones with advanced noise filtering and connects via Bluetooth to the Bee app for iPhone or Android.

The Bee app transcribes what it hears and uses the transcript to create summaries and insights about my day. I can even ask questions, and it answers based on the conversations it captured. I’ve been using the Bee for a few weeks. While many of its insights have been either obvious or unintentionally hilarious, the device has been learning more about me and is starting to deliver more relevant results.

I was especially excited to wear the Bee at the conference and refer back to the transcripts afterward. They’re far from perfect, but they’re good enough to summarize presentations and pull out key information.

At one point, I prompted Buzz (Bee’s built-in AI chatbot): "Search my transcripts from The AI Show and give me 3 big insights."
Here’s what it came back with:

Comprehensive K-5 AI Curriculum Framework: You found significant value in the Gwinnett County Schools’ presentation on their K-5 AI curriculum, particularly their scope and sequence framework. This seems to have provided you with a practical model for implementing structured AI education at the elementary level as discussed in your conversation on April 6.

Customizable Educational AI Platforms: Your detailed exploration of the Magic Student platform revealed the importance of customizable activities, teacher-shareable templates, and robust data privacy protections in educational AI tools. This aligns with your work in creating adaptable AI resources for different classroom settings from your conversation on April 7.

AI Literacy vs. AI Fluency Distinction: You engaged in meaningful discussions about the difference between AI literacy (basic knowledge) and AI fluency (practical application), emphasizing that effective AI integration in education requires moving beyond awareness to actual implementation of AI tools in teaching practices highlighted in your evening conversation on April 7.

These insights seem to connect well with your ongoing work as an AI coordinator for your school district and your focus on developing practical AI literacy programs.”

For the record, Bee does not save any voice recordings—only text transcripts. The company says it does not train AI models on user data or sell that data, but I understand why wearing a device like this might still raise privacy concerns.

What I loved most was not feeling pressure to jot down everything I wanted to remember. I still took notes, just not as frantically—knowing I could review what was said later brought real peace of mind.

The Bee Pioneer device costs $50. However, Apple Watch users can skip the bracelet and install the Bee app directly on their watch. Just be aware that the app drains the battery quickly since it’s always listening. The Bee apps for phone and watch are currently free, with no monthly fee.

Brisk Breakdown 💻

Brisk Teaching founder Arman Jaffe gave a short but insightful talk about his product. According to Arman, 1 in 5 U.S. teachers have the Brisk Teaching extension installed—an impressive reach.

My Bee wearable transcribed Arman’s 15-minute presentation. I pasted the transcript into ChatGPT and asked it to summarize the key points. You can view the summary in this Google Doc if you're curious.

And if you haven’t heard, ChatGPT now has incredible image generation capabilities. It can even include large amounts of text in its images! I asked it to create a stylish and colorful infographic highlighting a few takeaways from Arman’s talk. After a couple of tweaks, I landed on the version below.

Instructional Insights Infographic 🎨

One of the sessions I attended at The AI Show was titled 10 Quick Wins with AI in Instructional Design. Presenters Ken Dirkin, David Young, Jason Neiffer, and Nimesh Shah shared actionable strategies for using AI in content development, storytelling, and administrative tasks.

The Bee app transcribed the session, and I pasted the transcript into ChatGPT to summarize it. From there, I asked ChatGPT to create an infographic based on the summary. While the resulting graphic has a few quirks—like inconsistent spacing, margins, and some spelling slip-ups—it’s still an impressive artifact generated entirely from a session transcript.

Add-on for Accountability 📝

I had heard about the AI Trust You add-on for Google Docs before attending The AI Show, and I heard it came up a couple of times in my hallway discussions at the conference.

Laguna Beach Unified School District developed the add-on to bring clarity and accountability to AI usage in classrooms.

Teachers can use the add-on to generate clear assignment expectations, specifying how students are allowed to use AI on a particular assignment.

Students can use the add-on to create an “AI Truth and Trust Statement” that is inserted into the Google Doc.

The four categories of AI usage include Content Creation, Research Assistance, Audio-Visual Generation, and Content Understanding.

As AI becomes a bigger part of student work, it’s important to set clear expectations and encourage transparency. The AI Trust You add-on makes that easier for both teachers and students. You can check it out and install it for free from the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Deep Dive 🤿

I didn’t hear much about prompt engineering at the conference. As AI models improve, they better understand natural language and come pre-configured with more context. That means traditional prompt engineering isn’t as critical as it used to be—but knowing how to communicate effectively with these models can still get you much better results.

To help with that, I created a Deep Dive into Prompting a Chatbot handout for teachers in the Council Bluffs Community School District. It’s a summary of prompt engineering insights I’ve gathered from practice and research. Each page dives a little deeper into the world of chatbot collaboration:

• Floating – Introduces RAFT, a beginner-friendly framework.

• Snorkeling – Presents the 5S model for structured prompts.

• Scuba Diving – Explores SPARK and creative prompting strategies.

• Technical Diving – Details DIVER, an advanced approach I use regularly.

As AI continues to advance, I’ll update this handout accordingly. I welcome your feedback to help shape the next iteration.

Rachelle’s Resourceful Read 📘

At The AI Show, I had the chance to connect with Rachelle Dené Poth, and she personally gave me a copy of her new book, How to Teach AI: Weaving Strategies and Activities into Any Content Area. It was such a kind gesture, and I’m already finding ideas I can use as I support teachers in Council Bluffs.

Check out the chapter titles:

1. Artificial Intelligence: What Is It?

2. Navigating AI’s Ethical Implications

3. The Impact of AI in Education

4. Putting ChatGPT and GenAI to Work

5. Fostering Creators and Innovators with AI

6. AI Impact: Preparing Students for the Future of Work

7. Best Practices for Teaching AI

I’m looking forward to diving into Rachelle’s book and discovering new ideas.

Ok, so this issue of the newsletter turned out to be all about artificial intelligence. I promise that the next issue won’t be exclusively about AI!

But I’ll throw in one more AI-related thing: a list of keynotes, presentations, and workshops I offer around AI in education. If you're interested in bringing me to your school, conference, or event, feel free to reach out!

• AI Sidekicks: Partnering Up with Artificial Intelligence
  Discover how teaming up with AI can help you personalize learning, lighten your workload, and bring more joy to your classroom.

• It’s Never Been a Better Time to Have Ideas
  Learn how to generate, grow, and organize your ideas using AI as a creative partner in your teaching and planning.

• AI or Not
  Explore how to make thoughtful choices about when to use AI, while sharpening your skills at spotting AI-generated content.

• Meet Brisk: AI Where You Need It
  See how the Brisk Teaching extension puts AI tools right in your workflow to help you plan, assess, and give feedback with ease.

• Dive Deep into Prompting an AI Chatbot
  Build your confidence in writing effective prompts that turn chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini into practical classroom tools.

• Vibe Coding: You Describe It, AI Creates It
  Turn your ideas into interactive classroom tools by describing what you want and letting AI handle the code.

Smiles from Iowa,

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Al was used to revise and proofread some of the text in this newsletter. It was also used to generate possibilities for section titles.