EP 20| How To Use AI to Make Children's Learning Visible

🟣🟢 What’s This Episode About?

In episode 20 of the 'Early Education in the Age of AI', show, Jodie from the Empowered Educator Online discusses how to make the shift from decoration to meaningful visual documentation in early learning environments.

She highlights the challenges educators face in creating child-centered displays and explores how AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can assist in making children's learning journeys visible. Jodie also delves into the purposes of displays, including teaching, celebrating, and documenting learning, and provides practical strategies for using AI to support these activities.

You'll hear reflective questions, ethical considerations to keep in mind, and actionable steps you can take to incorproate AI into your planning and documentation processes, aiming to create more efficient, authentic, and child-centered learning environments.

What You’ll Learn

✅ The three core purposes of display in early learning environments: to teach, celebrate, and document

✅ The philosophical shift from decoration to documentation and why it matters

✅ How AI can help educators create meaningful documentation more efficiently

✅ Practical AI prompting techniques for different documentation types

✅ How to keep children's voices at the centre of any AI-supported documentation

✅ Ideas to expand documentation beyond wall displays to outdoor spaces and digital formats

✅ Time-saving documentation strategies for busy educators

Highlights

🟢 Alistair Bryce-Clegg's powerful perspective on child-centred display practices

🟢 Specific AI prompt templates you can copy and use for different documentation approaches

🟢 Strategies for creating learning walls that evolve with children's interests

🟢 Helpful approaches for balancing physical and digital documentation

AI Prompts To Try From This Episode

✨ Learning Story Generator

"I want to write a learning story about [child's name/age] who [brief description of what they were doing]. They showed [skills/dispositions you observed]. Their own words were [insert any quotes]. Help me write a learning story in first person that maintains my voice as an educator, highlights the significance of this learning, and connects to [relevant framework]."

✨ Visual Documentation Caption Creator

"I've taken photos of [describe what the photos show]. Help me create 3-5 short, meaningful captions that highlight th