Tech Tips for Kids’ Activity Leaders: Using AI to Make Life Easier

For activity leaders, from teachers to caregivers and animators, there’s often a never-ending to-do list. From planning lessons to coordinating with parents and handling sign-ups, there’s a lot of turning cogs to keep on top of. That’s why it’s important to optimize your processes however possible. Technology like AI is one of those ways in which it is streamlined.

The use of AI is growing within all industries, including those that teach or offer care to others. In fact, teachers using AI for administrative tasks save up to 44% of their time on research, lesson planning, and material creation.

AI is a helpful assistant that helps lighten the load and reduce the administrative burden that leads to teacher workload and burnout. It’s also incredibly beneficial for institutes that might be dealing with widespread shortages as a result.

In this guide, we’ll look at how kids’ activity leaders are utilising AI and tech in general to make life easier. The time savings gained allow educators to focus more on direct instruction and interactions with students that hold more value as a result.

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Simplify Your Planning Routine with AI Tools

AI assistants and planning tools are really helpful for those who create schedules or need to get creative with designing themed sessions. These caregivers may also have a responsibility for adapting activities that are relevant to different age groups and needs.

Thankfully, there are a lot of new AI tools that teachers and activity leaders utilise to make their planning routine a lot easier.

For example, for accessibility, some media that is used within the classroom or learning environment might need to be adapted for those who are hard of hearing or have access needs. 

Tip: Check out Happy Scribe’s guide on how to add subtitles to a video so you’re equipped to create a more inclusive learning environment.

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ChatGPT is an effective tool to help brainstorm weekly plans, and Canva’s AI is a great one for creating visual resources, even if you have very few design talents to offer.

As an activity leader, these AI tools and tech are a great helping hand that provide some structure, while also leaving a bit of room for creative freedom and flexibility.

Generate Creative Activity Ideas in Minutes

As an activity leader, whether you’re teaching a classroom of first graders or adults dipping their toes back into education for the first time in decades, AI serves as a brainstorm buddy. 

You might often feel as though you need to have a never-ending stream of ideas available. It is very common, of course, to run out of ideas, which is why AI is helpful for inspiration.

Using prompts is helpful when using platforms like ChatGPT to find ideas for activities. For example, suggesting ‘five outdoor activities to do on a sunny day’ or  ‘create a training video outline for X study topic’.

Tech nowadays, within the field of AI, is so good that you are able to create training videos in mere minutes. For example, Synthesia’s AI training video software helps to boost efficiency in training materials and resources that would otherwise take you hours or days to get done.

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Of course, it’s important that when you’re using AI, you’re allowing for customization. Whether that’s tweaking AI outputs that reflect the group’s skill levels or interests, to using the outputs simply as a guideline for your own activity ideas.

Streamline Communication with Parents and Teams

It’s incredibly important to have clear communication with parents and teams involved in assisting with your activities.

Parents especially want to be given updates on how their little ones are getting on, whether it’s in a nursery setting or at school and after-school clubs. 

Of the research that has been done when it comes to achieving high-quality communication between parents and teachers, 31% of messages sent by educators and parents of secondary schools met the quality standards expected. Improvement is certainly required amongst activity leaders to improve their quality of correspondence with parents.

Artificial intelligence has plenty of uses, which include drafting up communications for parents. While the human touch will always be required to ensure it is tailored and personable to the parents in question, AI’s smart technology helps draft outlines for activity leaders to help streamline their efforts.

Translation and tone adjustment are also possible with AI, making it easier to communicate with families from all backgrounds. Zipchat’s WhatsApp AI chatbot for businesses helps connect with parents in real-time, providing them with much-needed updates about their children. It’s also a familiar app that is likely used by most parents anyway in their personal, day-to-day lives.

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Internally, AI has its uses when it comes to summarizing any meeting notes, creating team updates, and providing reminders for those who need them. Artificial intelligence is helpful for those who are struggling with their workloads but still need to maintain communications both within their teams and with the parents or guardians of the children.

Bring Ideas to Life with 3D Visualization

If you wish to stand out from the crowd and show kids or parents what an activity or project will look like, 3D imaging tools can be a huge help and draw attention to your establishment. Tools like Digital Twins with Omi make it easy to create realistic 3D product visuals in minutes, no design background required.

You can use them to build quick examples of classroom projects, visualize materials, or make digital mockups that spark curiosity before the activity even begins. It’s a great way to make your planning more visual and engaging while saving time on complicated design work.

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Keep Kids Engaged Without Losing the Human Touch

For kids nowadays, it’s hard to keep them engaged, especially with the influence of tech and digital screens being so prominent both in the home and outside of it.

It’s therefore essential as an activity leader to balance between the screen-free experiences and the tech-supported activities.

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According to The Stanford Report, there are some concerns with educators when it comes to AI, with students potentially using the chatbot to cheat their way through writing assignments.

While schools and educational environments should adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, there should be some encouragement to use AI effectively to aid students in their homework and project efforts.

For example, AI helps enhance offline creativity in their efforts to write or be creative with their work. It’s also helpful for activity leaders who need to create offline activities and require inspiration.

The use of story prompts, scripts, and printable materials is a great way of using AI to your advantage as an activity leader. As a leader, it’s crucial to influence creativity in the classroom while also offering a genuine connection between student and teacher. Artificial intelligence is there as an assistant, rather than replacing humans. 

Activity leaders need to provide that playfulness and fun, even when the lesson plan might not be the most engaging for the kids to follow.

Practical Tips for Getting Started with AI

So what are some of the practical tips that are helpful when getting started with AI? Let’s break it down into some manageable tasks so that you can implement AI successfully within your classroom this year.

1. Choose low-stakes tasks to automate

Start low-stakes with tasks that you automate. It’ll help you to understand the tools’ capabilities and to see what’s possible and what might not be doable with AI as an activity leader.

2. Try before you teach

If you’re planning to use AI as a tool or for students to use AI themselves, make sure to test the functionalities and outputs first. Stress the importance of AI being used as an assist, rather than it doing the work for them.

3. Model good AI usage

As an activity leader, you should be modeling good AI usage so that it’s being used correctly by your students, too.

4. Review the school’s or educational institute’s policy

It’s worth reviewing the school’s or educational institute’s policy before moving forward with AI in the classroom. This includes rules around academic integrity and protecting data.

Here are some useful ideas on how to use AI within the classroom and for help with lesson planning in the future.

Use it for brainstorming

Activity leaders and students are able to use the AI chatbot for brainstorming to help generate contrasting viewpoints or different artistic approaches, depending on the subject topic.

Implementation for writing

For writing, it’s beneficial to remind your students to use the AI writing assistant as a revision buddy. It’s also important as an activity leader to be able to spot evidence of AI in assignments in writing, where it’s entirely written by the technology and not by the student.

Make use of it for problem-solving

AI is useful for problem-solving, and students use this technology to analyze the steps to discover potential flaws or alternative methods available.

For science experiments 

AI is also used in science experiments to help suggest modifications or possible outcomes. It helps students to understand certain variables available to encourage them to think outside the box and to continue experimentation.

It’s also useful to make the usage of AI a collaborative process. Whether that’s between the teacher and the student, the activity leader and the parents, or those working within the business or institution specifically. Sharing successful workflows amongst staff is essential for making AI work effectively.

Make Life as an Activity Leader a Little Easier with AI

Life is made a little easier with the use of technology, and while some are adverse to using AI in general, it’s essential to acknowledge that this tech isn’t going anywhere soon. In fact, it’s still in its infancy and likely to become more influential in learning environments. 

AI isn’t about replacing activity leaders but giving them more time to focus on what matters, creating joyful and meaningful interactions with the kids or students specifically. 

Allow AI to burden some of the workload and pressure that comes with the responsibilities of being an activity leader in this modern day.

Author Bio: Natalie Griffiths (LinkedIn)

Natalie is a freelance writer with five years of experience in copywriting for businesses, spanning many industries.