AI Tools for Inclusive Schools (The Universal Sandpit)

Hi team,

A couple of months ago I began tinkering with the creation of some inclusive tools for the classroom to support diverse learners, using a ChatGPT API linked to some web forms. The result is six tools that might benefit you or teachers you work with: https://theuniversalsandpit.org/

The six tools include -

Using Interests: Interest based learning is one of the best ways to excite student imagination and help them focus on new learning experiences. Use this tool to input an interest that a student has (for example, Pokémon) and a class topic you’re planning to teach (for example, Shapes in numeracy), and then you’ll provided with ten ideas for incorporating that interest into the content.

Visual Teaching: We know how important the use of visual supports are in the classroom. They render abstract concepts concrete and they provide a stable point of focus to help with student comprehension. Use this tool to input a lesson topic (for example, How electricity works) and the age of the students in your class (for example, 7). Then hit ‘Show Ideas’, wait around ten seconds, and you’ll read a list of ten ideas to help add visual teaching strategies into your classroom.

Differentiation: It can be useful, when planning for diverse needs in the classroom, to consider how you might pitch content to your students, as well as how you might focus assessment. Use this tool to input a topic (for example, Australian history) and then the age of your students (for example, 13), hit the button and wait around ten seconds to receive five levels of differentiated instruction.

Social Scripts: Writing narratives to help students understand emerging social skills is a wonderful way to build capacity. There are many formats that can be used to achieve this: use this tool to enter a social skill you need support with (for example, Learning to make friends) and then hit the button. You’ll receive a unique social script that you can then adjust and individualise for a student.

Explain To Me: Explaining concepts in a way that is suitable and accessible to different ages is a remarkable skill. We all know how to do it with a few concepts we understand well, but there are many others that can be difficult to spontaneously scale up or scale down. Use this tool to enter a concept (for example, How does electricity work?) and the age of the student you want to explain it to (for example, 5) and then hit Explain to receive an age-appropriate summary of the concept.

Task Analysis: One of the most valuable skills for in, and out, of the classroom is being able to break a task down into simple steps. Type a task into this tool to break it down into simple steps. For example, you could try something like ‘Making toast’, or you could try something social like ‘Saying hello to my friends’.

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See how you go, I hope these tools are using for teachings looking to support diverse learners in the classroom: https://theuniversalsandpit.org/

Thanks team, all the best -

Craig