📺️ Easy AI guided notes for videos

I’m speaking at FETC in Orlando!

The Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) in Orlando is just around the corner.

🎙️ I’m a featured speaker! They’ve invited me to speak on topics like artificial intelligence, classroom creativity, tech integration, and more.

The conference is from Jan. 23 to 26 at Orange County Convention Center, right next door to Disney World and Universal.

I know it’s last-minute, but … want to come?

Use my link to register and you can save +$50 off the cost of registration!

😿 Can’t attend? I’ll be sharing on the #FETC hashtag on Twitter/X … and I’ll share some takeaways and presentation ideas in the coming weeks.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

Create guided notes for videos with AI

I’m starting a new series of blog posts called “Classroom AI 101.”

After talking with educators — and going back in the classroom myself — I’m noticing something about this AI boom …

Practicality matters.

What you need most are practical ideas that can save you time and be plugged right into your lesson plans.

“Classroom AI 101” will share some of my very favorite ways you can incorporate AI-driven tools in instruction, lesson planning, and more …

… right away!

Here’s the first one: AI-generated guided notes for videos.

Sometimes, having students watch a quick video is the best way for them to learn something quickly — or experience it in a certain way.

How do we know they’ve watched it or understood it?

Guided notes.

They have sentences with blanks. Students fill in the blanks.

They’re not at the top of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge for complexity, but when you’re forming basic understanding, they do the trick.

🙂 Good news: AI can make them for you.

🤩 Better news: One free AI assistant will create them with a YouTube link and a short prompt.

It’s Google Bard.

Bard has a plug-in for YouTube. 😱 

Give it a YouTube link and describe what you need for that video (like guided notes). It creates text you can copy/paste and use as an assessment.

(Caveat: Like most AI-generated stuff, you’ll want to check it for accuracy, and you might want to adjust it to be exactly what you need. But still … this is a HUGE time saver.)

➡️ Here’s my prompt (with a link to Crash Course Intro to Psychology):

I'd like you to create a set of guided notes for this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4pMVb0R6M. Guided notes are a summary of the transcript with blanks that a viewer can fill in as they watch. I'd like to give these guided notes to a high school social studies class.

BONUS: When it’s done, ask Bard for ✨ the answer key ✨ to the guided notes.

🙋 Want to try it?

Try it for yourself! Copy the text in the prompt above. Click here to go to bard.google.com. Log in if you need to and paste it.

You’ll see yourself … done in less than a minute!

♻️ Modify for yourself: Change the two bolded parts (the link and the audience) to adjust the prompt for your own needs.

Note: Bard might not be enabled for your school, district, or account. Try logging in with a different (personal?) Google account and/or from a different device/network.

In our new post — Classroom AI 101: Create guided notes for videos with AI — you’ll find …

• Other video activities Bard can generate for you (like pre-watching activities and “pause points”)

• Prompt engineering (breaking down why the prompt works and how you can modify it)

• How to create video activities with other AI assistants like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot

🔗 READ: Classroom AI 101: Create guided notes for videos with AI

🎯 Quick Teaching Strategy

Try Four Corners for a quick check for understanding

The Four Corners strategy is a teaching method that engages students in discussion and debate by asking them to respond to a statement or question by moving to a corner of the room that represents their opinion or answer. It’s easy to implement and one that you can use anytime you need a quick formative assessment.

It works like this:

1. Prepare a question or statement with four possible answer choices that relate to the lesson content or learning objective. The choices should be debatable and not have one obvious or correct answer.

2. If it is an opinion question or statement you can use signs to label the four corners of the room that show the answer choices strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree.

3. Display/read the question/statement and ask students to move to the corner that matches their opinion/answer.

4. Encourage students to make their own choices and not follow their peers. You might say “Go to the part of the room that represents where you are at in terms of understanding or degrees of agreement or disagreement. Talk about it with others in their quadrant. You can move if you need to.“

5. Ask students to explain their reasoning and provide evidence for their choice.

6. Allow students to debate and challenge each other's opinions respectfully. Students can change their position if they are persuaded by another argument.

☝️ Teacher Tip: Need some question ideas to get started? Ask AI using the prompt “Generate 10 questions that have 4 answers that can be used in a 4 corners activity like this one https://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/four-corners with middle school students.“

The Four Corners strategy can be used as:

• a warm-up

• a follow-up

• a check for understanding

• a way to elicit critical thinking

• a way to foster communication skills

• a mid-lesson change of pace

It can also help students to explore different perspectives and values on a topic.

🔗 Get detailed instructions, videos, and resources on the Four Corners activity at TheTeacherToolkit.com

💻 This Canva template, created by Lu Creatives, is a great way to get started with younger learners or those new to the strategy. You can edit the template to meet your needs.

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!