😱 SALE: AI for Educators on audiobook for $3.99

Breaking news: My book, AI for Educators, is available on audiobook!

We might be out of my minds, but …

We decided to offer a STEEP discount in this first week it’s available.

Regular price: $12.99

Price this week: $3.99

Get that deal in Audible audiobook on Amazon this week!

PS: Look for the “Buy with 1-Click” option under the $0.00 membership free trial.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

AI text adventure stories for your class

“If you want to go into the cave, turn to page 42. If you want to go up the mountain, turn to page 81.”

If you’ve subscribed long, you’ve probably read about my childhood obsession with Choose Your Own Adventure books.

They were innovative! They let my young mind make decisions for the characters.

And they made me want to go back to the beginning of the book and choose a new path — over and over again.

There’s good news …

AI assistants like ChatGPT let us create stories like these …

… and they can be based on the content we teach!

Best news: They can generate “text adventure” stories instantly — in the moment!

The example I used: a “text adventure story” to help high school history students explore Mesopotamia.

Below is my prompt:

(You can copy/paste it into ChatGPT or Google Bard to try it yourself.)

I'd like you create a text adventure game for me. I'm studying history in high school. I'd like it to explore Mesopotamia and help me explore important people, events, and concepts in its geography and language. Create it like a historically accurate story, teaching me about Mesopotamia while I'm interacting with it. Give me three paragraphs of story at a time. Then, stop and ask me to make a decision. Continue the story in a way that's consistent with the decision I've made. Ideally, I'd like about 6 prompts before the story ends. When the story ends, ask me a few questions that help me reflect on what I've learned.

Of course, if you use this prompt, you can customize any of the bold parts for whatever you’re teaching your students.

The results?

Super cool. 😎

In today’s new post, you can see:

• how I crafted the prompt

• what the results looked like

• five ways to use this in your classroom

READ: Classroom AI 101: AI text adventure stories for your class

🎯 Quick Teaching Strategy

Make learning stick with brain dumps

Our quick teaching strategies are all about low-prep, high-return activities, and today have a super simple strategy that can boost your students’ learning and memory. It’s called a brain dump!

🧠What’s a brain dump?

A brain dump is when you ask your students to write down or say everything they can remember about a topic. No peeking at notes, textbooks, or Google. Just pure memory.

Sounds easy, right? But it’s actually a very powerful way to help your students lock information in their long-term memory. It’s based on science, and it’s called retrieval practice.

Retrieval practice is when you pull information out of your memory instead of putting it in. This strengthens your brain connections and makes you more likely to remember it later.

Dr. Pooja Agarwal is a cognitive scientist and a former Ditch Summit speaker who knows all about retrieval practice. She has tons of resources and research on her website, RetrievalPractice.org. Check it out!

🤷🏼How do I do a brain dump?

You can do a brain dump anytime, anywhere, and with any topic. All you need is a prompt that asks your students to recall something they have learned. For example:

• What do you remember about fractions?

• What are the main events of the Civil War?

• How do you conjugate verbs in the present tense in Spanish?

You can do a brain dump at the start of the class, at the end of the class, or in the middle. You can do it for a few minutes or longer. You can do it by yourself, with a partner, or in a group.

The key is to have your students use their memory muscles and write down or say everything they can remember. Don’t let them look at anything. Just let them dump their brains.

🧐Why do a brain dump?

A brain dump is a great way to make your teaching more effective and memorable. It helps your students think deeply and actively about what they have learned. It also helps them find out what they know and what they don’t know, which can guide their future study and review.

A brain dump is especially handy right now at the beginning of the semester when you want to get your students into the habit of retrieval. You can use it to review previous topics, to check for understanding, or to preview new topics. You can also use it throughout the year, to reinforce and consolidate learning.

💭Want to try a brain dump?

If you’re ready to give brain dumps a try all you really need is a blank piece of paper. However, if you want to try a digital brain dump we have multiple templates that you can copy and use with your students today!

🔗 Google Slides Brain Dump Template

🔗 PowerPoint Brain Dump Template

🔗 Google Form Brain Dump Template

👋 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!