Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hi, I'm Maggie. And I'm Nicole. Welcome to the DAC Dyslexia and Coffee Podcast. We're so happy you could join us. We're both moms and dyslexia interventionists who want to talk about our students and children.
[00:00:12] What dyslexia is, how it affects our kids, strategies to help and topics related to other learning disabilities will all be covered in this podcast. Parents are not alone, and we want to give voice to the concerns and struggles we are all having. This is a safe place to learn more about how to help our children grow and succeed in school, in the world. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the conversation.
[00:00:33] Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 107 of Dyslexia and Coffee Podcast. We're going to start today's episode like we do every single time, and that's with the concept of the week. So the concept of the week is our opportunity as practitioners to kind of peel back the curtain a little bit bit and let everybody into an intervention session. We like to discuss things that are either we would define them directly with our students or with their parents and families.
[00:01:03] Today's concept of the week is a revisit. We have done this concept of the week before, but it is very important and I like to bring those very, very important ones back every once in a while.
[00:01:15] So today's content of the week is literacy.
[00:01:18] Here at ddc, we embrace a way more broad definition of literacy.
[00:01:28] Many people's immediate go to in their brain is thinking about reading and writing.
[00:01:36] Absolutely. Literacy is about reading and writing. However, it also very much comes includes the capacity to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and use a lot of forms of information to participate effectively in society.
[00:01:57] Right. So some kind of key dimensions if we're really thinking broadly, communication across different modalities. So being able to speak and listen, read and write.
[00:02:11] Digital interactions.
[00:02:14] Right.
[00:02:15] Being able to participate socially, so understand, achieving goals, navigating daily life, making sense of the world. And you're being able to read, body language, interact with other people. That is actually also literacy and lifelong learning.
[00:02:36] Things like financial literacy, health care, literacy, all media technology.
[00:02:47] I think the definition of literacy will only expand as things change, but very much I am a broken record on this top topic.
[00:03:00] Yes.
[00:03:02] Primarily our main gig here at Dyslexia Achievement center is that structured literacy intervention where we really do focus on teaching our students those reading and writing skills. Okay. And math, which, by the way, is literacy.
[00:03:19] So we do focus on those skills that absolutely, yes, they are academic skills, but the reasoning behind it and the why is so much.
[00:03:30] It's so much broader than just classroom achievement, which I think is kind of where literacy gets hung. It's like, oh, that's something you do for school.
[00:03:41] Correct? No, but it's really all of life. It's all of life. Yes.
[00:03:48] So episode 107 is AI literacy. Guess what? There's a new literacy out there because there's new things that come around every day.
[00:03:58] Right now, AI is the topic.
[00:04:02] Yeah. It is the topic of, I think everywhere I look, almost every conversation I'm having with parents lately or any news article, any business updates, any.
[00:04:18] I mean I can't even tell you how many business workshops are on AI AI. And I'm like, huh, didn't even know that one existed. But apparently there's. Apparently here we are. And just.
[00:04:35] They're embedded. The AI tools are just so embedded in our daily life now. I mean, just. Correct. You can't even write an email without the suggestion coming up. Coming up.
[00:04:47] So it's just everywhere and completely in our face, you know, and whether you like it or you don't like it, too bad it's here.
[00:05:00] And yeah, we can have our opinions, but really we have to be able to one, be literate ourselves.
[00:05:12] And two, how do we guide our kids?
[00:05:16] Exactly.
[00:05:18] So good AI literacy, Rebecca Winthrop Said, the director of center for Universal Education at the Bookings Institute, she says includes when to know, when not to use it, which I think is also something that is not being discussed lot either. Correct.
[00:05:41] Studies show majority of teenagers and teachers are using AI for schoolwork, but they don't have the knowledge or the technical understanding or they haven't received any formal training on how it works.
[00:05:57] Absolutely.
[00:05:59] So which maybe they should have those type of classes because. Yeah, well. And I think it's like dog banging the tail. Right? Because like, okay, so we've, we've gone all, we've gone all and done it right. Right now everybody's so fast that there's no infrastructure for the, for the how. Like. Correct. How does this actually work and the implications, like if you're using it, what is all going into that too?
[00:06:35] So we thought we would talk about when you should use AI the dos. So do's like when it is a good idea to use AI when you're kind of brainstorming and like you're at a block. Right. So when you don't know where to start being able to generate like lists or ideas or topics to start a project, like if you really just trying to get over the hump, then it's then it's good. Then it's a great. It can generate some good lists of ideas.
[00:07:16] You can use it as a place to start.
[00:07:21] Another good use of AI, something that I will use it for.
[00:07:29] If you're researching and you just need like a quick summary of something. Right. Gathering initial facts, summarize a really long document that you have intentions to read later.
[00:07:43] Right. Because remember, AI is not always 100% true. Right.
[00:07:49] Or organize notes quickly. Right?
[00:07:53] That is a good use of AI I use this one. Editing and proofreading, you know, highlighting grammar errors, check for clarity, suggest alternative phrasing.
[00:08:06] Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But see, we've already written it down.
[00:08:12] Yes, exactly.
[00:08:15] Yeah. If you are running through, does this make sense?
[00:08:20] You know, checking for inconsistencies within your own writing too. Right?
[00:08:26] I will use it for that sometimes. Okay, well, if I've used this phrase in my first and second paragraph and I use a slightly different phrase in my third paragraph, AI will be able to tell me like, this might not make sense to me, your readers, and that I can choose whether I take that or not. Right, right. Keeping the human being a very part of this process is really critical here.
[00:08:55] You know, language, right. Learning to practice translations, quick vocabulary, quick conversational things.
[00:09:05] If you're interacting with somebody in a foreign language and you need a quick translation, they are saying that both ChatGPT and Claude are far better at, oh my gosh, help me with the word translating than like Google Translate. So if you need a quick idea or if you are a person who is interacting with people who speak different languages and you need a quick translation, it is much better at that than Google Translate. And it can give you again, a starting point. Correct. Should we believe it for everything? Of course not.
[00:09:51] Exactly.
[00:09:54] So when should you not use AI? The don'ts. Do not, do not do.
[00:10:01] So when you're formalizing your own opinions, your opinion is worth developing without AI. Right. The process of formulating, like reading things, tolerating uncertainty, changing your mind, that is where the opinion becomes yours and not somebody else's. Yeah. And if you're just reading somebody else's, it's really not your opinion.
[00:10:26] Exactly. And think about what AI is drawing upon. Right. It has access to sources that are based in facts.
[00:10:38] It has access to sources that are based in very wild opinions all over the map. And it's going to take all of that and put it together, shoot on one thing.
[00:10:54] And so if you haven't made up your own mind yet, AI is not the tool for you.
[00:11:00] It is not the tool for you being able to read multiple articles on a subject and recognize the tone of this author seems like it is an opinion and not me be complacent.
[00:11:19] I mean that's a skill that I really worry about going away with AI. Yeah, that's true. Because actually it's it, it's quite easy to put things together with skewed data and make it look like it's completely effect.
[00:11:38] And it can do that. It does do that. That and people can use it for that purpose.
[00:11:45] So being very critical and having your own opinions, AI is not your tool for thinking for you. Right.
[00:11:59] Replacing professional judgment.
[00:12:02] Don't use AI for high stakes tests like medical diagnoses, clinical treatment, legal advice, official evaluations.
[00:12:15] Because again it's getting real data, but it's also getting not real data. So it's.
[00:12:24] Anybody who wrote an article on some rare disease is in its algorithms or whatever those are called and so they can pull any of that.
[00:12:37] It's the same reasons that we don't. I mean my. We always say don't Google. Right. Don't google this diagnosis. That's a terrible. If you are not a medical professional and even if you are. But it's your diagnosis. Yes. Still don't do it. Don't, don't do that. Don't do that. It's not a good idea. You will go down multiple rabbit holes that you probably don't need to. You are introducing more uncertainty and more anxiety to the party.
[00:13:07] We don't need more of those things. Exactly.
[00:13:11] And it doesn't have your lab work. It doesn't have your background. It doesn't have.
[00:13:16] And don't give it looks at. Right, right. And don't give it to it either. That's a very bad idea. Yeah. You don't want to share that. You don't want to share. That goes into for everybody. Very. It's very scary what it can do.
[00:13:30] You know And I think the other thing to add to this piece of the professional judgment, what we have experience doing assessments is there are assessments with built in AI tools that score, score an assessment for you and figure out where the student sits with their standards for and their percentile rank and all of that is great. Yay.
[00:13:56] But then it will generate like a narrative and often that narrative is very generic and sometimes not correct. And it's sometimes not correct and it will only base it on one or two scores. So we find ourselves often looking at those write ups and saying well while I totally agree with all this data and while this and this, in my professional opinion, fit this student. What I have seen from this student in front of me is not quite in line with what this is saying. And so still being able to make a professional judgment.
[00:14:40] Yeah, fine. AI sage me an hour of time.
[00:14:45] Sure.
[00:14:46] But it did not replace my professional judgment. Correct.
[00:14:54] Submitting original authorship.
[00:14:57] If you used AI to generate text code solutions as your own work and you're not using proper permissions or, you know, sightings, that can get you into a lot of trouble. Yeah, absolutely right. Plagiarism is still plagiarism. Correct.
[00:15:17] And AI does not always cite its sources. Correct. So it may be pulling literal direct quotes from a paper it has read and not giving credit to that original author. Correct. Which if you're submitting something with your name on, guess what? You can absolutely get in trouble. That is plagiarism. The end of the story. It doesn't really matter. Like, oh, I didn't know.
[00:15:45] Too bad.
[00:15:47] Yes. Yeah, it.
[00:15:49] It's.
[00:15:50] It's all pretty hairy.
[00:15:54] And I, I think this will only get more her as more data becomes available to AI.
[00:16:05] I mean, it's all over right now that. I mean, what is happening with these AI companies? They are purchasing old textbooks and just journals, everything.
[00:16:18] Uploading it so that it's part of what it knows, and then they're shredding the originals. So. So being able to go back and backtrack, where did you actually find this information?
[00:16:28] It's becoming more and more difficult.
[00:16:32] So, yeah, submitting things with your own original work. If you've used AI, that's a problem.
[00:16:40] Handling highly confidential data like private personal details, passwords, client information into a public AI tool.
[00:16:50] Tool. AI Tool breaks pretty much every ball and it can be shared with anybody. So knowing that, it's kind of scary. It's very scary, right?
[00:17:07] It's very scary what can be uploaded and just freely accessible. Have you ever tried to find out information about yourself from AI?
[00:17:20] No, I actually haven't. It is very scary.
[00:17:23] I don't think I'm going to. No, it's really scary.
[00:17:28] I don't recommend it as a practice because it scared me a lot. I was like, why does it know all of this stuff about me? That's terrifying.
[00:17:37] Yeah.
[00:17:38] Yeah. I can find out your high school gpa.
[00:17:42] Really? It's not insane because it's not our public record.
[00:17:46] Yeah, it's nuts. I mean, it's. It's absolutely crazy.
[00:17:52] I think there's a lot of like, okay, this is scary. It's a change.
[00:17:59] I'm not Anti AI, But I am definitely team. Let's please be careful.
[00:18:06] And let's. Let's figure out some ways that parents can help children navigate AI use. Because let's be real, they're going to use it. Right. And if you think your kids aren't using it, I really hate to be the bubble popper here, but they are, they are using it.
[00:18:26] So setting boundaries and limits. Right.
[00:18:30] Establish screen free times. Right.
[00:18:33] You know, during meals, for family time, overnight. Right. Because you wanted to also have the connections that you build with real people in real environments and real things. And it's just not all, you know, and also, especially with our population very clearly telling, like this AI is not a person. Correct.
[00:18:58] This is not actually advice from a human. Human.
[00:19:02] Because I think it's actually kind of scary too. Like a lot of these chatbots, like they have names.
[00:19:07] Exactly. And so it's like you.
[00:19:10] It tricks you into thinking you're talking to a real person and you're not. It's not a relationship. Correct.
[00:19:17] Define AI as a tool. Right. You clarified that AI assists with learning or brainstorming, but it can't replace your own independent work or thinking.
[00:19:27] Yeah. So if you see it's just like a tool. I don't know how I'm aging. Like a dictionary. I know. Encyclopedia. I know. They're like, what's that? What is that?
[00:19:39] Trying to think. I mean, I guess like Google. Right. But Google has AI built in now. So now I'm like, well, how do you explain that?
[00:19:49] I will say like the index at the back of the book or.
[00:19:52] Right. You know, something a calculator, a tool. I mean, a tool that they will know. Right. Hey, a fork or a knife, that's a tool. Right.
[00:20:02] You know, eating without it would be not that good.
[00:20:09] Co create rules. Right.
[00:20:12] You and your child make your tech bounties together so that they have something input into it.
[00:20:21] Obviously, as a parent, you overrule.
[00:20:23] Absolutely. I mean, my company line with my kids is you get a say, but you do not get a vote.
[00:20:30] You are not old enough to vote in this house or any other legal. You can assign your name to something. I am the final say.
[00:20:41] But you do get to have input here.
[00:20:45] Right.
[00:20:46] And then we're going to have to teach critical thinking and verification. Right.
[00:20:51] So checking the facts.
[00:20:53] You got to remind children that AI can. I think it's interesting that they call it hallucinating. Yeah, that's kind of an interesting word for them. It is a very interesting word. Yeah.
[00:21:03] Or present incorrect information and encourage double checking. Of the answers and using trusted sources to check those facts. Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:15] You know, ask for explanations. So having kids explain concepts, summaries in their own words rather than copy and pasting AI generated text.
[00:21:27] I mean, they could, they could do that, but even reading the AI generated text often like they can't even really do that.
[00:21:34] And that's worrisome.
[00:21:37] Right, Right. Explore it together. Try AI platforms together and discuss how the technology works and point out what's biased or misleading in it when you're using it together.
[00:21:53] You know, I mean, it's fine to explore these tools, you know, and I have used them at home to create like recipes or patterns. I knit and I crochet and I like to bake and to cook and my kids share that baking and cooking look.
[00:22:11] And like, I don't know, we've used it to kind of generate like a recipe and I think that's fine, you know, and we have found a few where it's like, I don't think that's probably the right measurement for that, that. But I think it's a. Make it a little less academic and I think that takes some of the pressure out of it.
[00:22:37] Right.
[00:22:39] I think another main thing is to protect your privacy and emotional well being.
[00:22:44] Right.
[00:22:45] You teach students to guard their personal data. Never enter their passwords, home addresses, or sensitive personal details into AI prompts.
[00:22:55] Yeah.
[00:22:56] Because once it's there, it's there. Right?
[00:22:59] Yeah.
[00:23:02] You know, understanding the relationship part too. Remind kids that AI chatbots, they are just, they provide programmed responses. They cannot offer genuine friendship, empathy, or therapy.
[00:23:16] That's probably one of the scariest things I keep reading about is, you know, it's not a secret that one. Teens have always struggled with mental health. That's not new.
[00:23:31] And it's not a secret.
[00:23:33] And the turning towards AI and saying that it's a friend or therapy.
[00:23:46] Yeah. It is not. It is not those things. That is code. That is not real human relationship. And your brain will never interpret those two things the same way. Your brain knows the difference on a real electrical level.
[00:24:04] Right.
[00:24:06] And watch for red flags. Right. Monitor for behavioral changes or if the child is withdrawing from friends, hobbies. For sleep is being interrupted to spend time with a chatbot.
[00:24:20] Yeah. I think what's hard and sad is this seems like an extreme, but it's, it's becoming very common.
[00:24:34] And I mean I, I see it in my own neighborhood. I would say say like two years ago, our neighborhood was always like kids were outside.
[00:24:44] And this summer it was like a noticeable difference in kids Being outside or kids bringing literal, like, things to the park and sitting. I don't know. It's just. It's wild to me. Like, instead of interaction, it's wild.
[00:25:08] Well, Maggie, what's happening outside of. I know I'm not very. I'm not very lovely now.
[00:25:15] Yeah. I.
[00:25:17] What is going on beyond dyslexia right now?
[00:25:21] You know, we really just are in a very transitional phrase, like, phase.
[00:25:28] I have been thinking a lot about how, okay, new school year, new, new responsibilities for kids.
[00:25:39] I am having a weird mom moment. And I think it is just because the way our school district is set up, my kids are at two different elementary schools right now. Even though it's the same school district. I did not opt in for this. Okay.
[00:25:57] I did not sign up for the. Let's go to two different schools planned.
[00:26:02] I don't. Forced.
[00:26:05] But just.
[00:26:06] I'm learning, like, man, even though these are two schools in the same district, like, they do not really function in the same capacity. And so I'm really having to actually learn two different school systems, like, and I am. I'm really struggling with that and how to.
[00:26:29] How to figure that all out.
[00:26:33] But I will say I'm happy to report that even a man who was not excited to go back to school, not one bit, has reported good days. Good for probably only two days. But still, I'm happy about. I'm happy about the way things are starting, and I just hope there's more good things to come.
[00:26:59] What about you, Nicole?
[00:27:01] Oh, well, I think it's kind of fun that both my son and your son are reading the same series of books. Yes, they are. They're both really enjoying it. They're actually listening and reading it at the same time. Yes. But it's pretty cool that they're talking about them and not as cool, acting them out. Because, you know, the ADHD impulsiveness thing is. Yeah. Because the series we're talking about is Percy Jackson.
[00:27:36] I know. And they have swords. They do have swords and monsters. And they fight them.
[00:27:43] And.
[00:27:44] And you can guess what happens next.
[00:27:47] Women sticks.
[00:27:49] Yes.
[00:27:51] Yes. But I am.
[00:27:54] I mean, I.
[00:27:56] I personally have found it just so fun to watch, like, the relationship grow between those two boys over the last year. Yes. Like, just how close they've become. And it's.
[00:28:09] I love that they're. I mean, obviously I love that they're reading, but I love that they're reading the same stuff and they're.
[00:28:16] They're both enjoying it. Enjoying it. Like, that's a win. That's a Win asking to listen or read it. Yes. Even in times when you're not expecting. So it's kind of cool. Very much. Yeah. I, I am. I've been really pleased with how much listening to stories Aiden's been doing lately.
[00:28:36] Like, it's really been a chosen activity over other things that usually would be a more go to for him. Right.
[00:28:44] Starting to see some like, oh, you really are going to be nine soon.
[00:28:48] Just some things that I'm like, oh, yeah. He got a couple new like school shirts and some of them were from family that don't know him as well or understand that he is going into third grade. And they had some just cartoon characters that usually he would be into, you know. But he was like, I cannot wear that to school.
[00:29:16] Yep. That I was like, oh, okay, here we are. That's okay. But he'll wear it to bed.
[00:29:22] It's those little things that are like, okay. In the house is one thing. Outside of the house is different. Different.
[00:29:30] I don't have that problem.
[00:29:33] He wears it anywhere. Yeah. I think it's very interesting. He's really starting to become like, oh, okay. We're seeing little hints of oh, okay. You're. You're transitioning to like a slightly older kid.
[00:29:48] I won't use the merge. Mature, but hence the sticks. Hence the sticks, yeah.
[00:29:56] Love the boy, but that's not a strength.
[00:30:00] Well, everybody, thank you so much.
[00:30:02] Please follow us on social media and reach out if you have questions or you would like us to discuss a topic. If you do like our show, be sure to follow and rate our show on your favorite podcast players. This is how we reach more listeners and then we get to help more families. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
