Early Education in the Age of AI

By: Jodie Clarke - The Empowered Educator
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  • Summary

  • Welcome to the 'Early Education in the Age of AI' podcast. Join me (Jodie from The Empowered Educator Website) each week, as I break down early education topics and strategies into simple steps that empower educators, teachers and leaders to confidently embrace, adapt and master the use of ethical AI strategies to support early learning.

    In every show you'll get new prompts, tips and realistic examples to try from a certified AI ChatGPT expert AND early childhood professional with over 30 years experience, that you can use to make your planning, documentation and day to day practice easier with AI as an educational assistant by your side. I can't wait to inspire you with the possibilities!
    © 2025 The Empowered Educator All Rights Reserved.
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Episodes
  • EP 19| Use AI To Create Social Stories, Visual Schedules and Communication Boards

    EP 19| Use AI To Create Social Stories, Visual Schedules and Communication Boards
    Feb 28 2025
    🟣🟢 What’s This Episode About?In this episode of "Early Education in the Age of AI," Jodie explores how educators can use AI tools to speed up and simplify the creation of essential visual support resources including communication boards, visual schedules, and social stories. Hear practical ways to use AI as your personal special needs and inclusion assistant while maintaining your educator voice and knowledge of children's individual needs and learning goals.🟣🟢 What You'll Find OutHow AI can help you create professional visual supports in a fraction of the timeStep-by-step processes for creating communication boards, visual schedules, and social storiesEffective AI prompts you can copy and use immediatelyHow to maintain your professional judgment while using AI as a collaborative partnerWays to connect your visual supports to educational frameworksDesign tips for turning AI-generated content into engaging visual resourcesEthical considerations when using AI to create resources for children🟣🟢 Visual Supports DiscussedCommunication Boards: Visual tools that help children express their needs, wants, and ideasVisual Schedules: Sequential representations of activities or routines that help children understand their daySocial Stories: Personalised narratives that help children understand and prepare for social situations🟣🟢 AI Assistant Tools MentionedClaude by Anthropic: Great for detailed descriptions and developmentally appropriate languageChatGPT: Useful for structured formats like visual schedules or communication boardsSpecialised early childhood AI assistants (for Empowered Educator members): Penny Planning, Dottie Documentation, and Ellie EYLF🟣🟢 Try These Prompts With Your AI Assistant💬 Communication Board Prompt: "I'm an early childhood educator creating a communication board for three to four year olds to use during meal times. Please suggest 20 to 25 words or phrases that would be most useful, organized into logical categories. The children in my group have diverse cultural backgrounds, so please ensure the vocabulary is inclusive of different food preferences."Why it's excellent: Includes specific age group, context, number of items needed, and consideration for diversity💬 Visual Schedule Prompt: "I need to create a personalised visual schedule for a three year old who struggles with waiting for preferred activities. They particularly enjoy art experiences, but become upset when art isn't immediately available. Please help me create a schedule format that emphasises when art opportunities will occur throughout the day and include strategies for managing waiting times."Why it's excellent: Highly personalised, addresses a specific challenge, requests concrete strategies, and focuses on a common early childhood transition issue💬 Social Story Prompt: "I need to create a social story for a four year old who becomes upset when [situation]. Please help me draft a simple social story using first person language that explains why we have [activity], what happens during this transition, and strategies the child can use to manage their feelings about ending their play."Why it's excellent: Specifies the format (first person language), asks for explanations and strategies, and is structured to help children understand both the "why" and "how" of managing emotions during transitions📍🟢 Canva Designs & Templates For EducatorsReclaim Your Time & Simplify Your Planning Cycle Documentation with Done-for-You Editable Templates💬 Let’s Connect!🌟 If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a fellow educator!🎧 Subscribe & leave a review so we can reach more educators looking to save time with AI📲 Follow me HERE on LinkedIn for more AI tips & timesavers and leadership strategies!📍Follow me on HERE on Pinterest for play ideas and environment inspiration💻 Discover What’s Possible with AI in Early Learning... HERE on the FREE AI Resource Page 🟣 Get the simple steps to follow and friendly AI tools you need HERE to cut your planning time in half and ditch the paperwork overwhelm in 2025! 🔔 New episodes drop every Friday! See you next time as we continue learning about creative ways to use AI in early childhood education - ethically, practically, and with confidence. 🚀#AIforEducators #SustainabilityInECE #EarlyLearning #PlayBasedLearning #AIinEducation #Aiempowerededucators
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    58 mins
  • EP 18| - Embedding Sustainability into Play-Based Learning with AI

    EP 18| - Embedding Sustainability into Play-Based Learning with AI
    Feb 21 2025
    🟢🟣 In this episode of Early Education in the Age of AI, we’re exploring how you can effectively integrate sustainability into your play-based learning environment - without adding more work to your already full plate! Whether you work in family daycare, early learning centers, preschools, OSHC, or even at home with young children, this episode is packed with realistic, engaging, and developmentally appropriate sustainability ideas.But that’s not all - I’m also sharing AI-powered strategies to help you brainstorm creative activity ideas, create sustainability plans, document eco-friendly practices, and even communicate with families in less time. AI chat assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and my own trained Academy AI Assistants can be helpful tools to reduce your workload while embedding sustainable habits into your program.If you’re ready to make sustainability a natural, meaningful, and exciting part of early learning…without the overwhelm - this episode is for you!🟢🟣What You’ll Find Out in This Episode:✅ Why sustainability in early childhood matters (and how it connects to the EYLF & NQS)✅ Beyond the recycling bin! How to truly embed sustainability into children’s daily play and routines✅ Setting up an eco-friendly learning environment (no matter your space!)✅ Fun & easy play-based sustainability activities using loose parts, nature, and upcycled materials✅ How to empower children as active participants in sustainable practices (so they take ownership!)✅ Simple AI prompts you can copy and use today to get instant sustainability inspiration from an AI Assistant✅ AI-powered strategies for:Generating eco-friendly activity ideas instantlyWriting learning stories that document sustainabilityCreating parent communication templates (newsletters, updates, event invites)Finding grants & funding for sustainability projects🟢🟣 AI Prompts You Can Try from This Episode:💡 "Give me 5 simple ways to introduce sustainability into a small family daycare setting."💡 "Suggest nature-based, play-based outdoor activities for 3-5-year-olds using only recycled materials."💡 "Write a learning story about children engaging in a nature-based art experience using loose parts, linked to EYLF outcomes."💡 "Draft a friendly parent newsletter explaining our new sustainability initiatives and how families can get involved."Why Listen?🎙️ If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed about embedding sustainability in your setting, this episode is here to simplify the process for you. AI isn’t about replacing your expertise - it’s here to support and boost your creativity while saving you time.So, grab a cuppa ☕, take a breath, and let’s explore how to make sustainability an easier, more engaging part of your program and learning environments!📌 Resources Mentioned in This Episode:📖 Read more play-based sustainability ideas on my blog: The Empowered Educator🛠️ Join the AI Empowered Educators Membership & access my trained AI assistants💬 Let’s Connect!🌟 If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a fellow educator!🎧 Subscribe & leave a review so we can reach more educators looking to save time with AI📲 Follow me HERE on LinkedIn for more AI tips & timesavers and leadership strategies!📍Follow me on HERE on Pinterest for play ideas and environment inspiration💻 Discover What’s Possible with AI in Early Learning... HERE on the FREE AI Resource Page 🟣 Get the simple steps to follow and friendly AI tools you need HERE to cut your planning time in half and ditch the paperwork overwhelm in 2025! 🔔 New episodes drop every Friday! See you next time as we continue learning about creative ways to use AI in early childhood education - ethically, practically, and with confidence. 🚀#AIforEducators #SustainabilityInECE #EarlyLearning #PlayBasedLearning #AIinEducation #Aiempowerededucators
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    51 mins
  • EP 17| Using AI to Plan, Document, and Extend Learning Through Invitations & Provocations

    EP 17| Using AI to Plan, Document, and Extend Learning Through Invitations & Provocations
    Feb 14 2025
    🎙 Episode 17 Show Notes:Using AI to Plan, Document, and Extend Learning Through Invitations & Provocations🟢 Struggling to come up with engaging play invitations? 🟢 Wondering how to set up provocations that actually spark curiosity? 🟢 Not sure what the difference between these 2 approaches are or how to use them effectively to support play based learning? There’s often confusion around these terms, even among experienced educators. They tend to get used interchangeably, but they’re actually quite different approaches, and when you understand that difference, you can start setting up play experiences more intentionally.In this episode, I’m sharing with you how AI chat assistants (like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and my exclusive Empowered Ed AI Assistants) can help early childhood professionals and parents:✅ Understand the difference between Invitations to Play & Provocations (and why it matters!)✅ Use AI to generate play ideas based on available materials & children’s interests✅ Simplify and organise learning journey documentation while keeping your authentic educator voice & expertise front and centre✅ Extend children’s learning by using AI to suggest more personalised follow-up activities & reflective prompts🎧 Listen in to learn:🔹 Why children sometimes ignore our carefully set-up play invitations (and how to reframe it!)🔹 The main difference between Invitations to Play & Provocations (so you can plan more effectively)🔹 Simple AI prompts to copy and use with an AI Assistant to give you engaging, open-ended play ideas tailored to your setting🔹 How AI can support your learning documentation & analysis - without taking over your voice 🔹 The one AI-powered forward planning strategy that will save you hours each week💡 If you've ever wished you had more time to create meaningful play-based experiences while keeping up with documentation - this episode is for you!🔎 Ready to Take the Next Step & See What Else You Can Do With AI?Join the AI-Empowered Educators Membership and get:✅ Access to Exclusive AI assistants trained for ECE professionals, ready to help 24/7✅ Step-by-step video training with lots of examples on using AI for planning, documentation & play-based learning✅ A supportive community of educators also learning about and experimenting with AI in early education across a wide variety of roles👉 CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT ELSE IS INSIDE 🚩 Please subscribe so you never miss an episode full of practical AI strategies and timesaver tips for educators!#EarlyEducation #PlayBasedLearning #AIforEducators #AIEmpoweredEducator #ChildLedLearning💬 Let’s Connect!🌟 If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a fellow educator!🎧 Subscribe & leave a review so we can reach more educators looking to save time with AI📲 Follow me HERE on LinkedIn for more AI tips & timesavers and leadership strategies!📍Follow me on HERE on Pinterest for play ideas and environment inspiration💻 Discover What’s Possible with AI in Early Learning... HERE on the FREE AI Resource Page 🟣 Get the simple steps to follow and friendly AI tools you need HERE to cut your planning time in half and ditch the paperwork overwhelm in 2025! 🔔 New episodes drop every Friday! See you next time as we continue learning about creative ways to use AI in early childhood education - ethically, practically, and with confidence. 🚀#AIforEducators #SustainabilityInECE #EarlyLearning #PlayBasedLearning #AIinEducation #Aiempowerededucators
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    1 hr and 4 mins

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