Structured Growth Pathways - May 2025

We discovered how to use NotebookML during the live training.  This activity puts that AI tool into the hands of your learners -  ‘Chat With The Content’

Works well for face-to-face and virtual training and can even be adapted well for eLearning (or any asynchronous learning).

Activity Flow

• Ask learners to use their laptops as you demonstrate NotebookML (an AI for Google that helps with summarising and interacting with long documents or notes – like a chatbot over your own training content.  It’s free at https://notebooklm.google/ )
• Ask learners to work in pairs and upload the document to NotebookML on their own device.  The document could be new legislation updates, new procedure updates, 2 sales products that you want to compare and contrast, some recent research etc (nb you can have a maximum of 50 different source documents uploaded)
• Set a task like …
• ‘Find out the 3 most important points this document is trying to get across’ or ‘Ask the tool to explain the most confusing section in simpler terms.’
• Allow 20-30 minutes.
• Ask pairs to share one useful insight or question they discovered with another pair or the whole group.

This week's 'Ready To Go' activity, ‘Chat With The Content’ is a fun way to get learners interacting with workshop content.  It’s a method of transferring the content (the Presentation phase of the learning cycle) – the next step would be for learners to start applying this content as they’d use it in their own working practices.

Works well for face-to-face and virtual training and can even be adapted well for eLearning (or any asynchronous learning).

Here's a great way to get learners learning for themselves while using AI.

Did you know that you can now take photos within the mobile version of ChatGPT and have it analyse what’s in the photo, describing what it is, where it can be used, how it should be used etc.

This got me thinking, ‘how can learners use this resource during their training’.  Here are a few ideas that I came up with.

I’ll start with Induction/Orientation and add other ideas below.

Idea

To help new starters become familiar with key areas, safety equipment, and useful locations around the workplace.

Activity Flow

• Ask learners to form pairs.
• Ask them to install ChatGPT on their smartphone (if they don’t already have it).
• Explain how they can take a photo of objects and have ChatGPT explain what it is, what it does, how to use it etc.
  nb – to use it, open ChatGPT on your smartphone, click the ‘plus’ button at the bottom left of the screen, select photos, take your picture, ask your question.
• Say, “I’d like you to explore the building together and photograph items such as fire extinguishers, first aid kits, emergency exit signs etc and ask about them eg ‘What is this and how is it used?’ or ‘What’s the correct type of fire this extinguisher is for?’ etc.”  You could provide a building map or route with things to photograph
• Ask them to read the response together, and briefly discuss if it matches what you already knew or expected - noting any new or surprising information.
• Allow 20-minutes.  Nb - When you’re ready to start the activity, ask each pair to set a 20-minute alarm/timer so that they know when to return to the training room.
• Start the activity.
• When learners return, ask each pair to join another pair forming a team of 4.  Ask them to share a few of the photos they took and what they learned, especially anything unusual or contrary to their original thoughts.

Other Ideas

• Learners take a photo of equipment eg a control panel, switch, tool, or connector. AI explains its purpose, common issues, or how it should be used safely.
• Learners photograph steps in a process eg setting up a meeting room, packaging a product etc They then ask AI to help them write a clear, step-by-step guide based on the photos.
• Learners take photos of flip charts, whiteboards, etc. AI can summarise, highlight action items, or even rewrite content in more accessible formats.

You get the idea.  I’m sure that you can think of many more – or ask ChatGPT!

This is a great alternative to traditional Role-play.

Traditional ‘Role-Play’ in the physical training room gives a sense of dread to your learners – even when we wrap it around the idea of ‘let’s just practice this idea …’.

But Pi AI is a great alternative.  Pi AI is a conversational tool that simulates natural, thoughtful dialogue.  Learners can use it to practise having sensitive, challenging, or strategic conversations with a responsive AI "persona."

The link to Pi AI (free) is:
https://pi.ai

The great thing is, you can start to add ‘role play’ scenarios into eLearning!

Here are a few ideas:

For Face-to-Face Training

Activity Flow

• Introduce the Pi AI tool with a short demonstration, showing how it responds to natural conversation.
• Ask learners to use their laptop or smartphone to access PI (https://pi.ai ).
• Assign a ‘conversation task’ to each learner or pair eg handling a customer complaint, giving developmental feedback, conducting a coaching check-in etc.

Nb – you could offer a specific prompt for learner to copy and paste into Pi if it requires specific instruction eg what a specific model does, how to respond in specific circumstances etc.

• Ask learners to interact with Pi AI taking on the role of the trainer, manager, or support person.
• Allow 7-10 minutes.
• Ask learners to instruct Pi to swap roles.
• Allow 4-7 minutes
• Bring everyone together and ask ‘what surprised them’, ‘what worked’, and ‘what they would do differently next time’ etc.

This works equally well for live virtual training – again, individually or in pairs.

For eLearning Modules

Activity Flow

• Embed a short video showing how to access and use Pi AI.
• Give a task where learners choose a scenario from a dropdown menu and interact with Pi AI for at least 5 minutes.  You may want to provide a ‘copyable’ prompt that they can copy and paste into Pi.

Additional thought for eLearning

• Ask learners to screenshot or summarise part of their exchange and upload it to the LMS or share it in a discussion thread.

This activity, ‘Let's Make Some Music’ is a fun way to close your workshop.

Here we'll ask learners to use AI to create a music track that summarises all their key learning, download it and send it to themselves as a reminder.

Activity Flow

• As part of your close ...
• Ask learners to look through all their notes and select their 3 key takeaways from their training.
• Allow 2-3-minutes.
• Ask learners to write a short paragraph that summarises their training including their 3 key takeaways and some of the people they've shared ideas with.
• Allow 4-5-minutes.
• Introduce them to 'Suno' - a web-based music AI that converts text into short songs in any musical style specified.  It generates 2 sound variations.  Maybe show them how it works (this takes less than 2-minutes to show as it's really easy to use).
• Ask learners to either use their laptops or smartphones, go to Suno and convert their summary into a music track.  Remind them to specify the style of music they want to be generated.
• Allow 5-minutes.
• Then the fun starts.  Ask learners to play their musical creations to either the whole group if it's a small group or form teams of 3 and ask them to share in their small teams if it's a larger group.

nb - this could also be facilitated in small teams.

Suno Details

• Free AI music generation application.  The URL is:
  https://suno.com/
• You will need to create a login, but it's quick and easy.
• It's very simple to use and your generated tracks can be downloaded.