Parlay Ideas
The future of student-driven class discussion.
In the spirit of our discussion this week on AI/ChatGPT, I went searching for an AI tool that I could use with my middle school students this fall, and I found a really cool one--Parlay Ideas! Named one of American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning for 2024, Parlay Ideas is an AI-powered instructional platform that helps teachers facilitate meaningful, measurable, and inclusive class discussions for grades 3-12 (AASL, 2024).
I signed up for a basic account to explore. Parlay has a few different discussion features, but I decided to try the Parlay Genie. This feature reads articles, videos, and past Parlay discussions to generate discussion prompts and follow-up questions. I entered, "Donald Trump assassination attempt," and selected the grade level (7th & 8th), and the Parlay Genie came up with a class discussion titled, 'The Impact and Implications of Assassination Attempts on Political Leaders'. Impressive! The three discussion questions were equally awesome:
How could an assassination attempt on a leader like Donald Trump influence the political landscape within the United States and globally?
Can you make connections between this assassination attempt and other similar historical events? How can those events help us understand potential outcomes?
What possible measures could be put in place to prevent such events in the future, and how might they impact personal freedoms and security?
A few additional thoughts...
Cost
Parlay's basic account that includes discussion activities, content library, and core functionality is free for teachers. Of course, Parlay provides premium individual accounts and school/district-level accounts. From my experience, the free account is sufficient for classroom/library use.
Ease of Use
Parlay Ideas is easy and fun to use. It can easily be integrated with Google Classroom also! While I have not had the opportunity to use it with students yet, I'm excited to try it with my middle school students in the fall.
Alright colleagues, Parlay is a fun one! I encourage you to consider trying it this fall with your students! Let me know what you think!
You can find Parlay Ideas at parlayideas.com.