In last week's blog, I hinted at a big upcoming visit. Now I can share about the experience of having CTV come to my school to film a segment on AI in education.
(The photo above shows Michael Dumlow, our head caretaker, Deliah Williams, our office administrator, Pat Darrah and Michelle Dube from CTV, and Troy Sotiroff, our principal.)
Back in January, I participated in two CBC pieces on AI. As I wrote on my blog back then,
If you are interested in reading or listening to the CBC article, called "Are librarians the key for teaching AI literacy?" by Jessica Wong, follow this link - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/librarians-teach-ai-9.7055661
If you are interested in hearing a CBC Radio One piece (which I contributed to briefly) called "A.I. companions pose a risk to kids" by Manjula Selvarajah, follow this link - https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.7049426
My school board saw these clips and decided that I would be a satisfactory contact for a CTV visit on a similar topic.
This is not my first time appearing on TV, or even on CTV. Back in 2011, my school library was featured because of a People for Education press conference about the decline in the reported love of reading among students.
There was a lot of behind-the-scenes preparation for this 2026 visit. It takes a lot of negotiation and permissions from different authorities to arrange such an event. The plan was to see two different classes participating in a lesson related to AI. I was scheduled to be interviewed, as well as a couple of students from each of the featured classes. We organized specialized media permission forms for the students and discussed with the students what to expect. I set up beautiful book displays (thank you Kim and Wendy for the advice) and cleaned the school library for days beforehand (although, truth be told, Matt has been trying to spruce up the library for years 😉).
I'm not going to lie; I was nervous. I wanted to make sure I represented my employer (TDSB), my school (Agnes Macphail P.S.) and the various volunteer organizations I am associated with (AML, CSL, UNESCO-MILA) to the best of my abilities. Before the CBC interviews, I had to review the TDSB policy related to Media Relations (PR555) , and be deliberate about how I phrased certain things, so I did not give any erroneous impressions. It was important to emphasize how TDSB educators respect age restrictions and use only certain TDSB-supported AI tools while logged into our TDSB accounts. I also don't consider myself to be an "AI expert". I know other teachers who use AI more frequently than I do, so I was suffering from a bit of "imposter syndrome".
Pat Darrah and Michelle Dube came to the school. (I didn't realize, until I started composing this blog post about the experience, that Pat was the VERY SAME multimedia journalist that came to my school back in 2011 - thank goodness for old blog posts and scrapbooks that preserve details that my mind forgets!).
As a media educator at heart, I was fascinated by the production process. Pat came first, around 1:00 p.m. to get some "B-roll" footage. Pat has been in the business for 37 years, and I enjoyed chatting with him beforehand about the changes he has seen in his career over the years, from technology shifts to even the way the public interacts with news film crews.
Mrs. Commisso's Grade 2-3 students came to the library at 1:15 p.m. for the lesson we'd showcase. The students were very well behaved. Kerri Commisso was wonderful. We knew that it's best to wear solid colours when on camera, and we ended up both choosing royal blue tops! We used one of the AI-focused lessons I wrote as part of the TDSB writing team and it was a great opportunity to "test drive" it. The students were so responsive to all the active components of the learning experience, from reciting the definition of media, to participating in the modified "4 Corners" discussion task, to using https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/ under teacher supervision to examine how algorithms use data to search for patterns, and how the results can be flawed or biased. (Thank you Moses Velasco, for being the inspiration for this portion of the lesson!) I was so delighted when Chloe noted the differences between types of toilets, chiming in with "I know about that kind of toilet because I saw it in China".
Michelle interviewed four of the primary division students during recess. (I can share their photos here because of those specialized media release forms.) Michelle emailed us beforehand and reassured us that she would not "use anything that makes them look bad". This was comforting because I watched from a distance as students ummmmed and ahhhhhhed and spoke in circles in relation to some of the questions posed to them. Thankfully, their responses will be edited for brevity and clarity. (That first two key concepts of media literacy are true: media construct reality and versions of reality!)
After recess, our Grade 6-7 students, with their teacher, Ms. Daley, came down to the library for their lesson. I didn't have access to the lessons that were part of the TDSB AI writing team project, so I wrote my own lesson. Big thanks should go to Neil Andersen (AML) and Jason Trinh (TDSB) for offering their suggestions and feedback, especially on what would make a "film-worthy" lesson plan.
Even though I felt as if the junior-intermediate students were more articulate and wise in their answers and responses, they were filmed less. For those who aren't teachers, often lessons have three components: a "minds on", which is an active hook to introduce the topic, an "action" section where students get into the topic, and the "consolidation" portion, where they make connections and synthesize the learning that took place. Even though there were some absolutely fantastic observations shared during the final part of the lesson, the camera wasn't recording it. Ms. Daley and I wondered why these great moments weren't being captured, but something Pat said to me earlier about economic filming (a.k.a. not needing to film for lengthy periods of time) explained it afterwards. However, I did promise Amanda that I would share on my blog what she said, because it was so darn insightful.
It was actually during the "action" portion of the Grade 6-7 lesson that Michelle took me aside and asked me to do my solo interview. I must confess, I don't think I answered as well as I could have, because I was deep in "teaching mode" and had to stop paying attention to the students and what they were doing, to shift into "interviewee mode". Thank goodness Ms. Daley was around to monitor the students' activities using Go Guardian. Some of Michelle's questions were challenging to answer in an intelligent sound bite.
The results of the activity that the Grade 6-7 students did mirrored the results of a MIT-study that I heard about at the UNESCO Global MIL Week Conference:
The brain demonstrates the least about of connectivity when using ChatGPT. There is less ownership felt by people when they use ChatGPT to complete tasks, and 80% of participants in the research study that were in the ChatGPT group could not provide a quote from the essay they wrote 60 seconds after completing the essay.
I asked the students why the only group that was able to share some of their results was the group that used neither a search engine, nor an AI tool. Amanda had this great thought of hers to share:
"We remembered because we talked about it together and we had fun doing it. We were able to joke around while working."
In addition to the sense of ownership, an emotional response solidifies memories that can happen when completing a task yourself or with other humans that does not occur with a machine. Amanda described this so well. Technology supports may be faster, and more ideas might be generated, but the most memorable ones are the ideas created with other students in dialogue and community.
The Grade 6-7 students did a phenomenal job of listening, thinking, and collaborating. Thank you, each and every one of you!
We didn't get a chance to touch on all the rich questions that we had hoped to address during the lesson, but I got the sense that both Michelle and Pat were satisfied with the footage they collected. They conducted interviews with two volunteer students (and let me tell you, it was SO DIFFICULT to select which students would have this opportunity - I'm so sorry for all the other students who offered but weren't selected; they couldn't interview all of you!).
I want to thank all the folks who made this visit and exposure possible. We learned from Pat and Michelle that usually, a story will air the same day it is filmed. The original release day for this piece was supposed to be Thursday, March 5, but Michelle told us that the producer requested that they promote the story over the weekend and air it on Monday, March 9. I'll try to update this post with a link to the news article, if/once it appears online.
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