Matthew Worwood:
Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Matthew Werwood, and.

Cyndi Burnett:
My name is Dr. Cindy Burnett.

Matthew Worwood:
This is the fueling creativity in Education podcast.

Cyndi Burnett:
On this podcast, we’ll be talking about various creativity topics and how they relate to the fields of education.

Matthew Worwood:
We’ll be talking with scholars, educators, and resident experts about their work, challenges they face, and exploring new perspectives of creativity.

Cyndi Burnett:
All with a goal to help fuel a more rich and informed discussion that provides teachers, administrators, and emerging scholars with the information they need to infuse creativity into teaching and learning.

Matthew Worwood:
So let’s begin. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast. And this is our fourth episode in our winter 2023 Listen and Learn series, which is a series where Cindy and I produce a collection of super duper short episodes to support professional learning.

Cyndi Burnett:
The Listen and Learn series is dedicated to generative AI and its future relationship with creativity in education. And like our summer 2023 listen and Learn series, these episodes will provide one takeaway around a theme that we think is helpful for you, the educator, to consider as we bring creativity into education.

Matthew Worwood:
So let’s begin.

Cyndi Burnett:
So, Matt, what is our theme for this week?

Matthew Worwood:
Cindy, our theme for this week is relationships, which is one of our tips that we shared during our summer listen and learn series in 2023. And, Cindy, you found this sound bite.

Cyndi Burnett:
Yes, I did. And Matt, this quote comes from an episode with Patricia Alvarez Alivera, one of my favorite episodes that we’ve done. And she came to talk on our show about robotics, which has a relationship with AI, because, as Patricia said, robotics is about the physical form and AI is about the brain or the mind. And Patricia made a robot called do.

Matthew Worwood:
You remember yo, yo, Yolo, Yolo.

Cyndi Burnett:
Yes. And investigated how her robot could help students be creative. Are you ready for the clip?

Matthew Worwood:
Yes. Let’s hear the clip.

Patrícia Alves-Oliveira:
They are very complex systems, and they need human help to succeed. And so that collaboration, I’d say, comes from a place of need, but also from a place of, I would dare to say, desire. Do we really want a robot that is like, doing their own thing super alone and we have no influence on it? Maybe not. We would rather be engaged with it, right. To make it a connection, to make it part of our lives in a more direct way. And so I would say the magic formula is really to blend the needs for robots to do things that they cannot do now because humans are better at, but also to make that as a desirable part of a robot. I think when we design a system, a machine, we cannot just look at the need. So I need that right.

Patrícia Alves-Oliveira:
So I design a machine for that, but we should design for our desires. How do I really want to interact with that machine? And I think that sometimes it’s forgotten, but I like to bring it in to the context of my work, for example, with Yolo, where I intentionally created the robot yolu to only be able to give feedback to children if they were also interacting with it. So there is a connection, an interconnection between the two.

Matthew Worwood:
Well, that quote really kind of summarized this concept of relationships. Right. What did you think?

Cyndi Burnett:
I found that whole conversation just riveting because I think as we look toward the future and building relationships, how do we build relationships with robots in particular? So the physical form, how do we build relationships with them based on our desires and what we need them to do? So, of course, my mind immediately goes to Rosie from the Jetsons and how I would love a Rosie to go around my house and clean and pick things up and come over to me and say, it looks like you’re having a rough day today, or something, from, like, big hero six. I love that robot in big hero six. So thinking about our desires, of what we want to do in terms of building relationships with robots, I think is fascinating. And what really, really loved about Patricia, she was talking about the social, emotional learning of students and how they can connect with robots first. At the first level, if they feel like they can’t talk to anyone, they could talk to a robot that would give it advice in terms of how to proceed in dealing with challenging. You know, if you think about a student who is a teenager, and you’ve met my two teenagers, I think they might be having a rough day. They can’t talk to their friends. They have no teacher they could talk to.

Cyndi Burnett:
Let’s just say that’s a scenario, and all of a sudden, they have this robot that they can interact with and have it listened to them and perhaps guide it in terms of giving it direction, positive direction, would be amazing.

Matthew Worwood:
Yeah. And listen, without a doubt that there’s overlap between this discussion and what we shared in the previous listen and learn episode where we spoke a little bit about identifying where we can enhance the creative process. But the emphasis on relationships, I think, is something that’s really important, because as a teacher in the classroom, you’ve got to think about what is the relationship the student’s going to have potentially with a future robot. I think that’s a possibility with a chat bot or with the tool, the generative AI tool that you’re providing to them. And it has to be a relationship. I think one, what’s fascinating is the natural relationship that manifests between the child and the tool. I’m just going to use the word tool, but then also the relationship to which we as educators can influence and facilitate as well. And these relationships are really fascinating.

Matthew Worwood:
So that’s one perspective. The other perspective, I think that is really interesting is the idea of the future and what type of relationships we may have. And of course, our mind can really wander there. And of course, Hollywood’s done a great job of exploring all the different types of relationships, but quite often there’s a lot of movies connected to relationships with kids. And you know what? We’ve got to think about it, and we’ve got to think about it. And I hope that we certainly can take the time to reflect back and look at some of the lessons learned, shall we say, with past tours that we’ve introduced into a classroom environment.

Cyndi Burnett:
Right. And I think being cautious and really thinking about it ethically, and I think that’s something that we don’t talk enough about on the show, Matt, is creativity and ethics and how we use creativity to make ethical and good decisions and under what context, and how do we do that, and especially when we’re dealing with children and bringing in these sorts of tools that might help guide them, how do we do it in the most ethical way, and in a way that gets the students to really reach out to someone after they’ve been listened to, and they don’t feel afraid that they could reach out to someone who could get a real person, who could give them guidance and support as they navigate through that.

Matthew Worwood:
Do you want to bring more creative and critical thinking into your school? Look no further than our podcast sponsor, curiosity to create.

Cyndi Burnett:
Curiosity to create is a nonprofit organization dedicated to engaging professional development for school districts and empowering educators through online courses and personal coaching.

Matthew Worwood:
And if you’re craving a community of creative educators who love new ideas, don’t miss out on their creative thinking network. Get access to monthly webinars, creative lesson plans, and a supportive community all focused on fostering creativity in the classroom.

Cyndi Burnett:
To learn more, check out curiositytocreate.org, or check out the links in the show notes for this episode.

Matthew Worwood:
And our tip for this episode is to think about relationships and also to think about the different types of relationships that may exist with a tool, either today or in the future. And as Cindy just pointed out, that there’ll be positive relationships and there may also be negative relationships, and we should be mindful of those negative relationships or at the very minimum, some unintended consequences as we go about facilitating relationships with generative AI or robotics and chatbots. All right, so Cindy, you are going to share the special code word. It’s not the code word. All right, the letter. The letter. You are sharing the letter for our code word. And we should remind our listeners just in case folks are new to the show.

Matthew Worwood:
And if this is the first listen and learn episode, you do need to go back and listen to the other three that we’ve already produced, because all of these different letters come to a code word. When you’ve got the code word, you email Cindy and I at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com. With that code word and one or two takeaways that you’ve got from a single episode or from the show. So, Cindy, what is the code word for this episode?

Cyndi Burnett:
I’m not going to give you a code word, but I will give you a letter o.

Matthew Worwood:
We’ve already had an o. It is Olivia ostrich. I think I already said olivia in the last one. I’m under pressure right now to come up with different o’s. Why do I have such a small vocabulary? I think I need chat. Gpt orange open okay, let’s end it there. My name is Dr. Matthew Warwood, and.

Cyndi Burnett:
My name is Dr. Cindy Burnett. This episode was produced by Matthew Warwood and Cindy Burnett. Our podcast sponsor is curiosity to create, and our editor is Sam Atkinson.