AI-Enhanced Assistive Technologies for Neurodivergent Learners AAAD 2023

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(Adero) Hi everyone, welcome to the session  AI Enhanced Technologies for Neurodivergent   Learners. If you're just joining us  please note that remote attendees can   put questions in the Q&A pane, not in the  chat please, because the chat's not being   monitored. We'll try to get to as many  of your questions at the end as we can. Dr. Angel Morgan is an Assistant Instructional  Professional with ASU's Learning Design and   Technology program at the Mary Lou Fulton  Teachers College. Her research centers on  

inclusive learning design and assistive  technology. She's here to talk with us   about artificial intelligence tools that are  tailored for neurodivergent learners and how   AI powered solutions can address the challenges  faced by students with conditions such as ADHD,   dyslexia, and autism. Please  welcome welcome Dr Morgan. (Dr. Morgan) Hi everyone. I am a new faculty  member at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College   and I teach in the learning design  and technology master's program. I   teach courses in accessible learning  design and I am also a mother of two   neurodivergent teens. I know you all learned  all about neurodivergence in the last session   so I'm not going to spend a whole lot of  time going over that but what I am going   to do is I'm going to talk to you about  a few different tools and ways that you   can help your students leverage generative AI  as well as other AI tools that use generative   AI plugins to help facilitate learning for  neurodivergent learners. So, next slide please.

Okay, so they kind of went over neurodiversity  in the last session but essentially we're talking   about individuals who are commonly diagnosed with  ADHD, autism, dyslexia or other neurodevelopmental   differences. I do want to say that neurodiversity  is a concept that recognizes and respects   neurological differences. Neurodiversity  in and of itself does not necessarily say   someone has a disability. neurodivergence is about  understanding and accepting of who we are and our   natural state - the way that we are as a human.  So it's respecting the way people learn and how  

people learn and empowering people to do things  their way and still accomplish the same goal,   expecting different approaches and flexibility  within learning. Next slide please. Some   neurodiversity statistics in higher education:  about just a little less than 2% of post-secondary   students in the US are autistic. 5% report that  they have attention deficit disorder, ADD or ADHD,   and neurodiverse students account for anywhere  between 11 and 30% of the entire undergraduate   population. So this is a lot self-identified and  so this is the prevalence of the students that   we're talking about and even students who are not  officially diagnosed or identify as neurodiverse.   There are times when we all have challenges that  we just can't focus or we didn't have enough sleep   or we didn't have you know we're we're really  confused. We just have those moments where we  

feel so anxious or overwhelmed that we just can't  you know function to that optimal level that we're   expected to sometimes as as learners, or even  as faculty members. And so I think we just need   to you know step back and say it is okay if we  have help whether that be from our professors,   from our advisors, or even from technology. That  is okay and so by being accepting of help I think   that having that courage is something that we  need to admire and acknowledge in our students   so that they can foster a sense of confidence and  be successful. Next slide please. Okay some of   the barriers that neurodiverse learners often face  are reading comprehension and fluency challenges,   spelling and writing skills, low working  memory, social communication challenges,   planning and organization, and attention control.  So we have often learners with dyslexia who   have spelling and writing errors making it  challenging for them to express themselves   effectively in written form. With dysgraphia  also affects organization and consistency of  

writing making it difficult for individuals  to convey their thoughts clearly. With ADHD,   students often trouble with working memory,  which honestly is crucial for holding and   manipulating information over short periods  of time. This really affects their ability   to follow multiple step directions and will  impact their academic performance. So it's   important that we provide tools to support  these students, or to allow students to use   the tools that work for them in order to  help them be successful. Next slide please

All right so that's where we're going  to get into now um some tools that are,   newer tools that are out there, that are  based on generative AI to help reduce or   mitigate some of these barriers to learning  that I was just talking about. Next Slide. All right, so the first tool - okay thank you.  The first tool I wanted to talk about is simply   our standard generative AI tools like chat GPT  and Bard. And several other folks have created   similar tools that are out there that you can  put in something called a prompt and the AI bot   will respond back to you with information.  The information has to be obviously used   with discretion, it's been trained. It  may not necessarily always be accurate,  

however it often provides a good starting point  or an information to plant an idea to help a   student expand further in order to get their full  - what they are fully potential of getting out.   So tools like open AI chat GPT and Google's Bard  offer a range of features that are particularly   beneficial for neurodiverse students. These  tools can assist in researching and summarizing   complex topics making it easier for students to  grasp and retain information. They also exel it   breaking down intricate tasks into more manageable  steps, aiding in task completion, and focus. For   communication needs AI platforms can help draft  emails, create talking points for presentations   or meetings, there by actually enhancing effective  communication. They can also guide students in   making more informed decisions by offering pros  and cons or outlining potential outcomes. So not  

necessarily making a decision for students, that's  not always, wise but helping them brainstorm   ideas, or pros and cons and evaluate choices.  Additionally these tools can provide a low   stakes environment for practicing social skills  allowing students to engage without the pressure   of real world consequences. Timely prompts from  the platforms can actually help students refocus   their attention on tasks at hand and they can also  assist in setting smart goals, which are specific,   measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.  So overall these generative AI tools can serve   as a comprehensive support tool tailored  to different needs of diverse learners. All right, so I'm going to get into some, a few  tools that actually make use of uh generative   AI on the background, in the background to  help students that are sort of more focused   for a specific task that supports neurodiverse  learners. The first one would be a literacy tool   or writing tool and two examples of these are  Quillbot and Grammarly. Both of these tools and  

the features that are on this specific page are  free so these tools have higher or more advanced   features than are on this slide, however what  I've actually written here is these pieces are,   these elements are free, so. Using  AI technology Quillbot and Grammarly   enable quick and comprehensive checks of entire  documents. The tools offer a range of features   that help students in improving their writing.  They can include suggestions for spelling,   sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar.  Each accompanied by explanatory popups that  

can help students understand the underlying  writing rules. So this is something that is   sort of more improved and better than sort of  a spell check in in Word or in Google Docs,   right. So these are tools that actually help  students to foster and improve their writing   skills over time, so they actually help them  practice and become more proficient along the   way. Additionally the tools incorporate a citation  generator, for accurate citation formatting,   paraphrasing features help in rephrasing complex  sentences, thereby reducing the cognitive load   associated with translating thoughts into written  words. Summarizing feature is particularly   useful for condensing lengthy passages into  shorter passages that make more manageable,   easier versions for students to grasp the  main ideas and key details. Furthermore,  

Quillbot has a feature called a co-writer  that provides academic templates for various   formatting Styles like APA and MLA, as well as  for literature reviews and research proposals,   so there are features out there that will help  students sort of structure and learn how to   write in specific formats with informed feedback  as they're writing. Lastly, AI co-creators are   embedded generative AI tools that support students  to compose or to rewrite text in their own style   so you can you can actually ask them to sort of  help you with the tone of what you're writing,   and you can start writing and then it can  make sure that you're continually writing in a   consistent tone along the way. And it also helps  you level formality so help students who may,   who may have difficulty with social communication  and wording and phrasing that may be expected   in different situations. It can help them tailor  their tone and level of formality so if they don't   necessarily typically speak in a more formal tone  it can help them have a more scholarly voice and   learn how to rephrase things in a more scholarly  expected way as well as professional formatting. The next tool I want to go over is a memory  and communication tool this is Otter.ai it  

was mentioned a little earlier today when we were  talking about sound. So using Otter.AI realtime   captions and notes can work for both in-person and  virtual settings to enable students to concentrate   on the content of the discussion rather than  the the task of note taking so this is kind of   an important feature to think about as far as  why some people benefit from captions more so,   more than they have a hearing impairment. So  this helps neurodiverse learners as well so   they don't have to multitask. They can actually  benefit from participating in a group discussion,  

for example, or in a live session for a class and  then tools like Otter.AI can actually, you know,   it takes notes in real time and that really  helps students along the way after the fact   go back and review what they wanted - what  was said. It's particularly advantageous   for students who struggle with multitasking.  These are also pretty accurate transcriptions,  

which automatically punctuate and differentiate  different speakers adding another layer of clarity   for students. So Otter.AI is a little bit more  sophisticated than zoom in that respect. The   platform also allows for interactive note taking  where students can sort of highlight text,   insert comments, add images, offering sort of a  more personalized learning experience. And they   have a unique takeaways panel that summarizes  key points from the transcript that helps in   memory and comprehension. So you can also tag  features along the way to enhance engagement to   allow students to ask questions sort of, and  contribute and come back to that question in   discussions directly within the transcript. So  um so basically for seamless organization and  

scheduling Otter.AI integrates with popular tools  like Google and Microsoft calendars as well as   video conferencing tools like Zoom Google meet and  teams. So this is another tool that you can use to   sort of do enhanced more collaborative note taking  as well as post transcription. You can go in and   do some tagging and help organize the content  for more efficient post uh meeting digestion. All right. The third tool I wanted to share with  you all is um something called reclaim.ai um so  

by intelligently identifying optimal time slots  for various activities such as studying exercise   meeting and relaxation breaks. This is an app  that can help students manage their time more   effectively. It has a goal tracking feature that  allows students to sit and monitor academic and   personal objectives so this is supporting that  executive functioning, providing a structured   approach that can aid and focus in task  completion. So helping students know,   you know typically when they need to take a mental  break, or scheduling those breaks intentionally,   supporting their own mental health and the way  they work. It has a prioritization function  

that enables students to sort task by  importance or by deadline helping to   combat the procrastination issues and improve  time management. Additionally the app does   integrate with Google Calendar and Slack to  simplify scheduling and communication. This   reduces the cognitive load and makes it easier  for students to stay organized and connected.   So those are just a few tools that are out there.  There are many other tools that can help support  

organization. There are also paid level features.  For example, Chat GPT with its new plug-in betas,   actually has tools that enable students to  put in information and it will automatically   generate a visual organizer, mind maps, concept  maps, diagrams. In addition helping students,   the paid version of chat GPT now, I  believe, also has the dolly feature,   which is an image generation so that, you know,  can help students who think more visually. You   know it can generate something more visual to  help represent an idea and help them explain or   express themselves in a different way. So that  is my sort of short and sweet version of you  

know AI can be used to support neurodivergence  and it's not just a tool for students to cheat. (moderator) All right so we'll go  ahead and open it up for questions.   I don't see anything online in  the Q&A are there any questions. (moderator)All right so from Nanette  Schuster online - How do you recommend   that we best introduce AI tools into our  classes and introduce them to students? (Dr. Morgan) The way I do it is I lead by example.  So what I do is in my - even for my asynchronous   classes - in live lectures I'll demonstrate use of  the tool. I will show how to use it to summarize   an article or something that one of the readings  for the week. I've often also incorporated a  

task. I have a like a task where I ask students  to, for example, teaching... teaching students   how to write alternative text effectively. So  this is sort of a combined example here... so   thinking about ... Sorry, little background...  I do teach accessible, inclusive design within   the learning design program. So what we can do is  we can say to either Adobe Firefly, which we also   have access to within the Creative Cloud, we can  give it a text description and ask it to generate   an image so when we do that what we do is we see  how clear we're actually describing it. So to help  

become more proficient in writing alt text this is  a great concept and way to kind of do that is how   clear are you when you're telling the computer.  How well is it generating what you're or is it   is it actually showing your concept? So I think  the best way is not to make an entire assignment   into a generative AI activity perhaps but what  you can do is you can embed it in Step one. Read   the following text or summarize the following  steps. Step two, create a concept map based on  

that text. Step three organize your ideas into a,  into a presentation of some sort. And that's where   you can go into multiple modalities and say, all  right now share back the synthesis. Put your own   experience into this and share back so you've  helped students. You've basically scaffolded it   and you've helped them use it as a scaffolding  tool and that actually helps. And you know,   you can also put, you know, tips on your - within  your - Canvas pages as well. Tip: this would be a  

great tool. Could help with this task. Or just  putting a link to something that actually help   them. Just modeling essentially is what it  is and being flexible to really help students   learn what's out there, and how to use them  effectively, and for purposes that are meaningful,   right? So the more we tell people we can't do it  you can't do it it's not allowed the more people   are kind of curious and want to go behind and  break the rules and do it. So my policy, in my,   in my, syllabuses I use the policy that you may  use generative AI as directed within the course.  

So I don't allow free whatever willy-nilly use of  generative AI to create assignments, but what I   do is I put it in so it's intentional and students  know and have a meaningful way to use it. I also,   you know, in the first few weeks of class as I'm  doing live lectures, I will, you know, model that,   you know, modeling generative AI as a tool for  doing something that you may need to do to help   you along the way to be a more efficient expert  learner. As in the UDL framework. So helping   students to be learners and going back to an  earlier presentation if it's not actually in   your objectives it's not going to really hurt  here. So helping students get what they need to   be done and meet their learning objectives, just  with some support. And all of us at some point,   you know,... I had a long day, I came home from  work, I really don't feel like getting this   done but it's due tomorrow, or I need to get it  done. Even for us, as you know, as instructors,  

you know, we have those times as well. So it  doesn't hurt to have that, you know, sanity check   by putting a question or putting something into AI  and saying hey can summarize this just to confirm   that what you read was actually what you were  kind of trying to get out of it in that sense. (moderator) So all right if there's no  questions in the room we've got a couple   of comments that came from the Q&A. Sasha says  thank you for curating these resources. And   then we' also got not a question, but  another example of using AI in one of   Andrew Maynard's YouTube sessions a student  gave an example of using chat GPT to put a   formula into terms he could understand/relate  to a concept that he was not already learning   in another engineering course and it did.  And he said he now understands the concept  

perfectly fine because AI was able to put  it into context and directly applied it to   a concept that he was already familiar with. I  thought that was a great way to use it and... (Dr. Morgan) for diversity and inclusion as  well. So especially sometimes for many of our   International students who may not necessarily  come from backgrounds or understand the examples   that uh American textbooks or American  printed journals may use as examples,   they can't they have nothing to relate  to to understand the concept and so so   what you can do is you can put in the  example provided as an American example,   or as from one culture and actually you know  say give me, and then say give me a, tell me   a similar situation or scenario relate with the  main point in XYZ context. So you can ask the,   you can ask the bot to actually change the context  of the main points. You can kind of, you know,   formulate another example, you know, and even  for us, you know, if the example's engineering   and it has to deal with cars, for example, you  know, you don't understand cars if you're not a,   you know, you're not a car enthusiast or engines  or or whatever, you can actually you know find   something else, you know, to kind of reframe the  concept to say, hey I'm interested in soccer,   I'm interested in you know, tell me how this may  be explained relevant to this other type, or this   other situation, or this other context, which  I understand more about and kind of relate to. (moderator) All right thank you so much Dr.  Morgan. Would you all help me thank... So  

I've picked up some good tips. I met a student at  a a fair yesterday, a college fair, and she asked   about taking a note taker, but her difficulty with  notes is that she's learning English still, she's   only been in the country a couple of years, and  student accessibility can't help with that, but   otter AI can I know because I turned it on while  she was talking and I watched it. It's amazing.   All right, we'll begin the next session Webspark:  to the unity design system and ET web platforms   commitment to accessibility in approximately four  minutes. Please join us here in the Gold Room or   in Zoom at same place we've been all day and thank  you everyone we'll begin in just four minutes.

2023-11-12

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