AI Advocates

S4 E4: Discover Free AI Training at No Cost

• Lisa Dieker • Season 4 • Episode 4

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0:00 | 8:59

Lisa Dieker and Maggie Mosher highlight free resources and training opportunities where educators and professionals can learn more about artificial intelligence. They share a wide range of accessible resources, from micro-credentials and LinkedIn learning pathways to courses like Elements of AI and AI for Everyone. The conversation features platforms such as Google AI, Microsoft AI for Beginners, Coursera, and tool-specific training, emphasizing the importance of building knowledge in areas like prompting, generative AI, large language models, and responsible AI use. Throughout the episode, Lisa and Maggie encourage listeners to take advantage of free learning opportunities by starting with skills that immediately impact their work and approaching AI with curiosity and a commitment to continuous growth. 

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Reclaim your time. Time.

Maggie Mosher:

Welcome to AI Advocates. I'm Maggie Mosher.

Lisa Dieker:

Hello, and I'm Lisa Dieker.

Maggie Mosher:

And we are doing today, where can I go to learn for free more about AI? So Lisa, what's your favorite place to go to to learn more about AI? I've got so many.

Lisa Dieker:

Well, so I yeah, this is gonna be one. You're gonna take the lead. I'm just gonna tell our listeners right up front. But you did say my favorite word. For those of you don't know me, I am the biggest coupon clipper. My mother and I go to a coupon store for $5 off every Saturday, and so free is the magic word. But I think that's really important for educators. But I'm actually going to take it a little different level and give some things I think Maggie, that maybe you want to be trying to learn for free. So I know you're going to share places I love, like Coursera. I like to Google, use the AI mode of googling or web search to ask me what I should learn, but I would just tell you, if you have not learned effective prompting, that's the first course I would go learn. So I don't know where should I go learn that, Maggie, I'll let you tell them.

Maggie Mosher:

Well, I would say the first thing I would look at is where you work. Because some places like universities, have free access to the Digital Education Council, and they have like, free mini micro credentials, so you actually get for learning something that you can take to your job, since schools are doing that through LinkedIn. So you can have on your LinkedIn profile that you took this course, and it says, you know about AI in this area, and it comes up on your LinkedIn profile. So I'd start there first, because you've got the immediate school or work kind of fame for doing it. Somebody knows you did it. But then if you're just looking for you and not to have any recognition for it, I really love a few different places, one being Elements of AI. It's a great place for beginners and non technical learners. It's actually the University of Helsinki that does it, and they make AI super easy. They make it in very, very basic terms. And then AI for Everyone, it's another one that's super easy and in basic terms. And then there are those that are more University driven, driven not by companies or organizations. But then there are the ones that are just all of the tools that are creating. So Magic School AI has free AI school AI has free AI trainings. Brisk AI has free AI trainings, but Google AI learning has a learning path that's really cool, because it has courses on free generative AI, large language models responsible AI, use in each of those courses. You can see what you are learning in each of the classes, which is nice because you can skip it if you already know it, then you can just keep going until you don't know something. In Microsoft, AI for beginners does the same thing. I can see what I'm going to learn. So I just skipped to the class that I really like. And of course, like you said, Coursera, I think that it does a good job. There's a five day AI agent intensive that Microsoft and LinkedIn did together that I think is amazing. It's like a crash course for AI, and it's super easy and fast. And then I would recommend also those are all videos, but also podcasts, because I'm pretty frequently running or doing something.

Lisa Dieker:

Like ours, right?

Maggie Mosher:

Yeah, exactly. Come listen to our podcast, you can learn a lot, and there are a lot of podcasts that do a really great job as well that you should consider kind of tuning into. And one is DeepLearning.AI. It's Andrew Ng podcast, and it's really high quality lectures, and it has short courses as well. One that I think nobody really considers much about is NVIDIA. I mean, honestly, they have the AI podcast that spotlights every new cutting-edge research in AI. So it's where I go to find out what's coming up next. And then there's a beginner's guide to AI. That's a podcast as well, that's just for novices. And then if you're not a novice, Google DeepMind. They have a really good one if you're looking last one. So if you're looking to kind of look at interviews with leaders in AI, Leading The Shift is a really fun podcast for that, and then AI in action. It's more about the business of AI and how business leaders are using AI to solve really complicated problems. And I think that that's one of the cool ones. So those were the ones that I really think are out. They're all free, and they're not going to go anywhere. They're staying free. They all have platform money, so they're not going to have to pay. I do think Coursera, at some point in time, is going to have us pay, and LinkedIn already does in digital does in Digital Education Council already do for the upper courses, and they give us other ones for free. But places like Magic School AI, School AI, they're free, and they want you to kind of purchase their products.

Lisa Dieker:

And get it there, yeah, well, and you know another one that I think will be free forever, because they tend to be as commonsense.org has some really good digital platforms, but all of the big companies that that have software they want schools to buy, you'll find some free courses. And then, you know, I think my other favorite free is use a tool for free and get to know it really well. I'm kind of an anti. I'm the cheap skate in this group. You know, you think I was kidding, but I do not pay for most of my AI. There's only one tool I pay for. I won't publicly tell you here, but might have something to do with making me a better writer. But again, it's it wasn't the first thing I needed to do. And then sometimes I think we think free is only outside. But as you said very well, many universities have free courses they're offering, or many community colleges, or even libraries, like my mother was a librarian, so go check your public library. Many of them are having guest speakers on AI, so you don't even just have to go online. You can actually have a human talk to you about AI. And I think those are the things. And then if you're a little bit older, ask a high school kid to come over. If you've got grandchildren, how are you using it? Show grandma. How are you you know, I think sometimes we we think free means or free means bad. Free means there's so much out there. It's not, in my opinion, there's not a lot to pay for yet.

Maggie Mosher:

No, I actually don't. I don't pay for any AI. Yeah, I've never paid for an AI, and I still don't plan to. And I do think that what I loved about what you said, and I'll add one last comment to it, is, I think what you said is the human aspect. Kids love to tell you what they know about AI. They love to show you things. I love to train teachers. So I love going in and getting them excited about a new tool that changes their lives. So sometimes it's just conversations with other people. What have you seen? What have you found? What do you like? And I will say, because it can be overwhelming, all of the new ways and places to go. I listed off a bunch because people like different things. But I will say where I would start as an educator is what is the task that I want to get done, and what is the assessment? And ask AI, so if I'm giving an assessment that I want to learn what students know, or if I have a task that I need to teach them, put that in AI and say, what is the best tool to teach me for free how to do this? And it comes up with great suggestions.

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, and I'm going to give you my other nine things I would be using it for if I were wanting to learn something for free. And so again, remember, the best PD you can get is the teacher next door that's using it. It's much better than having somebody come from the outside that isn't living with that cute little munchkins in your building or in your school. But here's where I'd be like, hey, anybody know how to use it well for lesson planning? Teach me. I'll teach you how to use it for engineering. Like, what? How can we trade? As Maggie already mentioned, assessment, differentiation. I really think if you are using it and you haven't done a little bit of work on ethics and data privacy, I think, of course, on that, it should be required of all of us. I know I keep reading and listening to podcasts on that because I think I understand it. And then sometimes, like, wait a minute, there's that little caveat in there that I didn't read in that fine print. Feedback and grading, it's a great tool to, you know, give really personalized feedback. And, you know, it's not cheating. If you have 14 things and you choose this one goes to that kid's paper, versus me saying I really liked the beginning of your paper, and you know now that's me as a robot typing mindlessly. Now I'm actually choosing some really good prompts, and my last three would be understanding being a digital citizen, like, what does it mean to be on this planet? And to say I'm an AI Advocate, then I better be a good citizen when I use it. Personalization, I think we've mentioned that in the past when and then I really think that ability for it to help you reflect, curate and modify for any learner, and I'm as big on using and understanding how to use it for gifted enrichment as I am for reading remediation, or just that average kid that just you have kind of ignored that personalization. I really feel like it can be the best reflective tool as a second brain to rich, but those are the things I would be looking for free suggestions on.

Maggie Mosher:

And I love that, because it does save you time and money. And we thank you for listening.