Like others, I have been increasingly curious about the educational connection between generative AI and physical activity. With the freshness of the new year, healthy resolutions, and the experienced reality of 2024 super spread of Gen AI in my school district, I am excited about the educational possibilities ahead. While there is ample research on the negative impact of technology on healthy human development and declining physical activity rates, how we positively connect these dots matters greatly for educators, students and families. The reality is that the digital world is our children's world. As with all technological and societal advances, there are multiple considerations at play, each deserving of intentional positioning and careful connecting. This post is my attempt to line up some critical constructs as I try to better understand how to position guardrails to embrace the innovative relationship between AI, physical activity and co-regulation in our classrooms.

So what about about the Bots?

I am grateful for this school year's push to explore and integrate generative AI into our teaching and learning practices. Without this intentional and strategic nudge, I suspect I too could be caught up in the perils of the bot invasion. Let's be honest for us humans, it is within our instinctual, protective, primitive DNA to tentatively hold back, wait and see, and play it safe, than to advance and risk take. Unlike other educational entities, considering how to get ahead of AI in education has been an intentional, innovative driver in my school district. As a result of this push, I have found myself exploring AI tools more to consult with, to match research, to wordsmith, to generate ideas for collaborative work, to build lesson springboards and to create other random timesavers. I am learning about its efficient, organizational powers and have been refining my use of micro-prompts to expedite information seeking. I am critical and cautious about sources and sites, trying to model with students and my own children how to be an informed and intelligent consumer of the technosphere. I am also continuing to learn that new guardrails need to be continually considered and implemented as we expand the use of gen AI in our classrooms. Like with all activity on the internet, there is a dark side that we need to be aware of. Check out my generative AI cautions list for recommendations for safe navigation and direct teaching suggestions.

So, what about the bots? Well, bots are just bots, they don't have human sensibilities and cannot replace human to human relationships. International research on student perceptions of chatbots in educational reveals that different demographic groups have diverse experiences and expectations of how their learning can be supported by artificial intelligence. Stohr, Wanyu Ou and Malmstrom (2024) revealed how student backgrounds are determinants of technological adoption. Their findings exposed how different student demographic groups may be more prone to challenges and therefore will require unique, individualized considerations for the successful, safe integration of bots in education. Teaching students to understand and to navigate the swift, sophisticated interactive dimensions of AI is essential. While AI powered chat bots in education can have an important role in providing immediate student support by offering explanations, answering questions, and providing additional resources, current research continues to emphasize the importance of layering these experiences with person to person interaction and direct teaching in K-12 classrooms.

A systematic literature review by Labadze, Grigolia and Machaidze's (2024) elevates the role of AI chatbots in modernizing education by providing much needed time saving assistance and improving of pedagogy. Their research findings illuminate the urgency for educational institutions to develop systems and structures to effectively harness and maximize AI's capabilities to better student learning experiences. While chatbots have been designed to mimic human conversation and interaction, it the ethical responsibility of educators to ensure real time human connections are integrated alongside of the expedient use of AI. Educational organizations therefore have a heightened responsibility to advance the instructional skill sets of educators to ensure that the integration of technology is aligned with the cultivation of students' emotional sensibilities such critical thinking, problem solving, interpersonal relating, and intrapersonal connecting.

Policy and decision makers are now pressed to recreate learning agendas and realign financial priorities to ensure that we keep up with the speed of technological change in education. Data privacy and creating transparent, accurate plans to mitigate potential technological risks are increasingly important dimensions of education planning. Cybersecurity in education has taken on new meaning over the past six months. If we know one thing for certain now, bad actors don't just happen on the silver screen. Modernizing systems and instructional practices are priority points in education to ensure that technological safety and cybersecurity aligns with AI exploration and learning advancements in our classrooms.

So what about Bodies?

This is where I get really excited about the direction we are taking in my school district as we intentionally integrate technological advancements with healthy human development and movement. Many would be surprised to find the coherence between technology and physical activity. Much popular research has influenced our thinking spotlighting the decline of exercise related to gaming and increased online activity. While there is a proven negative relationship between physical inactivity and use of technology, a growing body of current research demonstrates the positive impact of informed, educated parents as a powerful equalizer. In a cross sectional study by Alotaibi et al. (2020), the importance of parental involvement to ensure screen time is monitored and balanced with physical activity is highlighted. Because technology interrupts the daily activity of children, it can result in decreased physical activity. Hence the importance of parental awareness and adult direction to ensure that creative balance points are established between digital use and movement for children and youth.

During the school day, educators serve children in a position of loco parentis. This means that we have a legal obligation to ensure that our students are cared for emotionally, intellectually and physically in our classrooms. Enter the critical importance of physical literacy as part of core daily educational planning. Physical literacy is motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life (International Physical Literacy Association, 2014). Kudos to incredible colleagues such as Diane Nelson, Amber Pascual and Erin Crawford for their impactful work over the past decade making movement matter in Canadian classrooms.

We know that physical activity is critical to healthy human development, protecting individuals from chronic diseases, building strong bones and muscles, and supporting learning through positive mental wellness in our classrooms. Schools are a significant part of students' daily life, making a whole school approach to physical literacy is crucial. With escalating rates of youth stress in Canadian youth promoting physical activity before, during and after school is more important than ever before.

As we modernize classroom experiences, creating an infrastructure of support to align innovations in generative AI with increased physical activity needs to be a strategic educational priority. This innovative focus can enhance student understanding, engagement and personalization of learning. Through the use of a continued physical literacy mentorship model, our classroom teachers receive one-on-one time to learn with experts more about how to embed movement into their classroom daily life. Complimenting this with the use of gen AI platforms such as Magic School, Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot are fun starting points to expand physical literacy experiences.

Here are some ways that this relationship is beginning to unfold in our classrooms;

1. Personalizing learning and movement guidance via AI driven feedback and customized plans. Our physical literacy (PL) mentors guide the in-person hands on communication, implement formative assessment tools, and model specialized instructional delivery. This is the PL start up and spark in our classrooms. Educators can then be encouraged to boost their PL learning by exploring different gen AI tools to find new ways to scaffold and personalize physical literacy into their daily lesson planning.
2. Bridging theory and practice through use of interactive AI resources, visualizations and simulations. Again our physical literacy mentors converse with teachers sparking interest and desire to make movement matter in our classrooms. Our PL mentors share new techniques and classroom teachers are then invited to further link PL concepts about how the body moves during a jump or a throw via interactive AI visualizations and simulations to aid with student learning.
3. Enhancing inclusivity by using gen AI to design activities for students with diverse physical needs. AI generated resources can provide translation and visual prompting to assist with adapting physical literacy lesson material to ensure that students with different learning needs are supported and included. Our physical literacy mentors and district inclusive education team of Occupational Therapists, Board Certified Behaviour Analysts and Speech Language Pathologists are incredible resources to help classroom teachers make movement accessible for every student. Complimenting in-person resources with AI powered tools can open new pathways to learning for students who may not have had easy access to inclusive participation.
4. Promoting engagement through gamification and real time movement challenges in our classrooms. Our physical literacy mentors are experts at gamifying movement skills, creating joyful energy, and modelling physical competence. Once again their role is to spark excitement and the feel good moments that movement brings to classroom life. Classroom teachers can then be encouraged to try to create AI-powered fitness games where the difficulty of the activities can be adjusted in real time to ensure students remain challenges and interested. Begone are the days where movement opportunities happened just in PE classes!

Physical literacy has proven to be a powerful gateway to promoting healthy learning experiences for students and staff alike in my district. From staff engaging in "walk and talk" meetings, to educators regularly taking academic classes outside for nature-based, movement based learning experiences, to continuing to invest in physical literacy mentorship models are examples of impactful innovations bettering our educational system. Now with a little help from gen AI the continued expansion of making movement matter in our schools is becoming even more exciting.

So what about Balance?

I will be honest, I am probably not the best person to write about life balance as it is still a work in progress. While I intentionally try to be mindful of my own personal and professional balance points, the reality is once work starts rolling I admit to getting lost in its depths. My family are helpful co-regulators during these times, establishing no tech times and lovingly reminding me that what I model is what they learn. In my adult years, physical activity has become a critical pillar of balance in my life. I have learned that I can best navigate complex cognitive tasks through the clarity that comes with a good physical workout. Walking also gifts me with solitude and self regulation. The combo of fresh air and movement never fails to soothe my busy mind. I share this as these are critical co-regulatory forces in my life that help me recenter and refocus on how to best prioritize and respond in healthy ways to demands of life. When I consider the acceleration of educational change, the pervasive use of technology alongside of the escalating importance of movement on our physical and mental health, there is a new trio taking shape in my mind.

A wise person once said, "balance is not something you find, it is something you create." As we embrace and harness the possibilities of generative AI in schools, we need to create guardrails where physical activity and co-regulation are intentionally positioned to balance the enticing pulls of too much technology on the developing human mind and soul.

Co-regulation involves the shared ability to regulate emotions and behaviours, to manage stressful internal or external sensory experiences, with the support and guidance of another connecting individual. It is an interactive, dynamic and supportive process between humans. Co-regulation and self-regulation are also important parts of the human developmental process. Co-regulation comes before self-regulation, and is particularly important for infants, toddlers and school-age children. In the early years, co-regulation involves caregivers modelling emotion identification, problem-solving, perspective-taking, and calm-down strategies. It is a repetitive and specific process of assisting the development of emotional literacy and building awareness of one's impact on others. In the preschool years, co-regulation is a complex and critical part of the brain's rapidly developing architecture as children learn that they are part of intra and inter personal relationships. In elementary school years, children gain more control over their attention, emotions, and behaviour. They have a growing ability to manage their impulses and delay gratification, and they become aware of their own thinking processes, emotions, and decision-making.

Co-regulation is a critical element of educational design. When adults model calm through warm, caring and consistent responses to students, youth learn essential emotional skills, like how to manage stress, resist immediate gratification, solve problems and adapt to challenges. Recent research indicates that individuals with better regulatory skills have more positive outcomes in life. Co-regulation doesn't stand alone as a skill. It relies on fostering a warm, responsive relationship with children, providing structure, establishing healthy balance points and setting limits (Salamon, 2024).

While humans are co-regulators, the use of Gen AI as a tool to assist with supporting human awareness of regulatory capacities is beginning to emerge. Calming, mindfulness apps are plentiful and proving to be effective when used thoughtfully. Although like anything when used excessively or in isolation, the tools of Gen AI can be harmful. The developing human brain needs human connections. Applied educational neuroscience researchers promote the importance of co-regulation over coercive regulation (Desautels, 2022). Coaching students to make healthy choices by modelling and creating guardrails where individuals are supported to make safe decisions are ways to help youth navigate technology and humanity. Through co-regulated relationships with trusted adults, youth can develop the attributes necessary to understand what is helpful, what is not and who are real life humans to go to for help when things get tricky.

As we continue to navigate the innovative landscape of AI with thoughtful attention, our focus on making movement matter and co-regulation in our classrooms are proving to be secret ingredients to our growing success in this new educational frontier. The innovations of AI in education can align with the social constructs of physical activity and co-regulation. By positioning gen AI to serve a tool to enhance physical literacy and to attend to the important life goal of self regulation, a dynamic human spin on how to modernize empathetic and engaging learning experiences in today's classroom is emerging.