Following our community’s commitment to providing global insights for educators, here are the highlights from our recent event. In April, we explored the theme of Creativity and Sustainability, moving beyond traditional "green" initiatives to redefine sustainability as the ability to solve problems creatively using the digital resources we already have.
Missed the live session? Watch the full webinar recording below and follow along with the expert strategies shared by our guests.
Meet the Guests
We were joined by two powerhouse educators from Wisconsin, USA, who are redefining what it means to be a "creator" in the classroom:
- Debra (Deb) Norton: An Instructional Technology Coordinator and Google Certified Trainer. Deb specializes in helping teachers integrate AI thoughtfully and was a lead instructor for the ISTE AI course.
- Gina Marchionda: A Technology Integration Specialist and ISTE Certified Educator. Gina is known for her ability to design tech-rich, playful learning experiences that empower students as active creators.
Session Highlights: AI Quests & Student Innovation
1. Redefining Sustainability
The session opened by challenging us to view sustainability as a mindset. By teaching students to harness curiosity and digital tools (like Gemini and NotebookLM), we create "sustainable engines of innovation" that last long after they leave the classroom.
2. Exploring AI Quests
Deb and Gina introduced a powerful platform developed by Google and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning: AI Quests. These interactive simulations place students in the role of data scientists.
- Market Marshes: Students build and test AI models to predict water levels and protect their community from flooding.
- Dusky Dunes: Students learn to use AI to assist in blindness prevention by scanning retinas and analyzing diverse datasets.
- Human in the Loop: A key takeaway was that these quests force students to "fail forward," revising their models based on real-time feedback and ensuring human ethics remain at the center of AI deployment.
3. Advanced "App Smashing" with Google Tools
The guests demonstrated how to take learning deeper after the quests:
- Gemini Canvas & Vibe Coding: Deb showed how to use Gemini Canvas to turn a Google Doc of data sources into an interactive matching game.
- NotebookLM for Data Analysis: By feeding local news articles about flooding into NotebookLM, students can generate structured data tables and export them directly to Google Sheets for cleaning and analysis.
- Google Vids: Gina showcased how students can "app smash" by converting their Google Slides "AI Ethics Logs" directly into movies using Google Vids, allowing them to tell their innovation stories through video.
- Teachable Machine: A fan-favorite tool that allows students to train their own AI models (e.g., recognizing "blocked" vs. "clear" storm drains) using their own collected images.
Webinar Resource
Google Resources for Your Classroom
This content was created by a human and refined by Gemini.
