Learning in the Zone: Vygotsky, Scaffolding, and AI
A hands-on activity exploring how learners grow with the right support, and whether AI can provide it.
Overview
In this session, you’ll explore Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and the research on scaffolding, then put AI to the test as a learning partner.
Rate your vocabulary. Start by completing the Vocabulary Rating Sheet (opens in new tab). Rate how well you know each term from 1 to 4, and type what you think it means. You’ll rate the terms again at the end to see your own growth.
AIxRound 1: Your group builds each Frayer model without AI.
AI+Round 2: You ask AI to build the same model from the handout, compare its work to yours, verify its claims, and revise in a different font color.
AI!Round 3: Your group will ask AI to generate a visual representation of your concept and paste it on the blank slide below your concept.
A!xRound 4: Designate a person at the table to speak about your concepts. You may use the Frayer Model or your AI-generated graphic.
By the end, you’ll have seen firsthand when AI works as a helpful guide and when it needs a human checking its work, which is the same judgment we want our students to learn.
A hands-on activity where you design, test, and refine an AI prompt built to guide students, not do the work for them.
Overview
In this activity, you’ll apply Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development directly to how AI can support your students, then build something you can actually use in your course.
Learn it your way. On your own, download and use AI to explain the “AI as a More Knowledgeable Other (opens in new tab)” handout through a hobby or interest of yours, the same way you’d want a student to connect new material to something they already care about.
Design a prompt with a colleague. Draft a prompt together, score it honestly against a reflection tool, then revise it using guided hints, the same scaffolding moves you’re designing for your students.
Try The Flipped Prompt. For a bit of fun, flip the interaction and let AI interview you before it builds something, an old arcade-style review game based on today’s material.
Turn your prompt into a shareable assistant. If you like what you built, learn how to save it as a Gem or Copilot Agent so students can use it with a single link instead of copying and pasting.
Gemini Notebook (opens in new tab) is a free AI tool from Google that answers questions using only the sources you give it. We’ll use it to dig into the AI vocabulary terms from today’s session.
Download the handout. Grab the AI Vocabulary for K-12 Educators PDF using the link above and save it to your device.
Open NotebookLM. Click the NotebookLM link, sign in with your Google account, and click Create new (or New notebook).
Upload the handout. Choose Add source, upload the PDF you just saved, and give NotebookLM a moment to read it.
Put it to work. Try each of these in your notebook:
Flashcards. Ask NotebookLM to create a set of flashcards for the vocabulary terms so you can quiz yourself.
Infographic. Ask it to generate an infographic that visually summarizes the terms.
A brief podcast. Open Audio Overview, and before you generate it, use the customize option to give the hosts directions: “Keep it brief, and have the hosts talk in Gen Z language.” Listen to how the tone shifts.
Make it yours. Ask: “Explain what a Token is so a 5th grader would understand, using ______ as an example.” Fill the blank with a hobby or interest you love — Star Wars, basketball, gardening, cooking, anything.
That last one is the whole point in miniature. Watch how the same concept gets re-explained through your interest — then imagine a student doing exactly this to make any lesson click. This is how AI reframes content to match a learner, and it’s something your students can do on their own.
Why this matters: NotebookLM is a real-world example of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) — one of the terms in your handout. Instead of answering from everything it learned in training, it retrieves information from the source you uploaded and builds its answers from that. That’s why its responses stay tied to the handout and cite it directly. As you use it, you’re experiencing the very concept you’re reading about.
In this guided walkthrough, you’ll use Gemini’s Canvas Mode to draft a complete IEP for a fictitious 5th-grade student with dyslexia and ADHD. The activity follows the federal OSEP Model IEP Form and covers all eight IDEA-required components, including PLAAFP, measurable goals, service delivery, and accommodations. Along the way, you’ll model the student data privacy habits every educator should be using when AI enters their workflow.
