Helpful Tools: Practical Applications of A.I. Tools for Informal STEM Education Evaluation
Woman scrolls on phone while typing on a laptop.
In February we shared a collection of A.I. resources for informal educators and evaluators. Because the A.I. and emerging technologies fields evolve daily, if not hourly, we thought it would be a good time to revisit this resource and highlight the capabilities of a couple of tools we’ve found useful in our daily workflows. We hope that this resource helps you explore the quickly developing world of A.I. tools, and that you might find them useful in your work!
Let’s next explore two of our favorite AI tools: Litmaps and Fireflies.ai
Screenshot of Litmap produced by searching an article.
Litmaps is an advanced literature navigator that utilizes citation networks to map related articles and research topics. This capability allows researchers to conduct literature reviews more efficiently and can even help uncover articles and authors that typical research methods might miss. The interconnections created by Litmaps mean that at a glance, a researcher can identify the papers most relevant to their topic, visualize the most up-to-date information, and even see what gaps exist in current research.
The image above is a representation of a Litmap that we created by searching for the article title, Equity and Evaluation in Informal STEM Education (Garibay & Teasdale, 2019). You can see many recommended articles that appear in varying degrees of relevance and relationship to the original search.
Screenshot of Fireflies.ai meeting summary
Another tool that we’ve experimented with and many of our colleagues now utilize is Fireflies.ai. This is one of many meeting management A.I. tools currently on the market, but there are a few features that we have found very useful. The transcription tool in particular has been a major time saver - as any researcher or evaluator will attest, transcribing an interview often takes much longer than conducting the interview itself! There are some interesting data analytics indicators that Fireflies utilizes, like the sentiment analysis in the screenshot above that provides a breakdown of the overall tone of the meeting. While not perfect, we’ve found that Fireflies has been a great complementary tool to regular note-taking and transcription and serves as a useful double-check to ensure that meeting details are adequately captured.
We are continually adding to this list of resources and want to invite you to contribute. Is there an AI tool that has revolutionized your work day? Submit it to us here!
References:
Garibay, C., & Teasdale, R. M. (2019). Equity and Evaluation in Informal STEM Education. New Directions for Evaluation, 2019(161), 87-106. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.20352
If you enjoyed this post, follow along with Improved Insights by signing up for our monthly newsletter. Subscribers get first access to our blog posts, as well as Improved Insights updates and our 60-Second Suggestions. Join us!