Ep 483: Creativity, Code, and Compassion: AI Lessons from Middle School and Beyond

In this special 20th-anniversary episode of Moving at the Speed of Creativity, Wes Fryer reflects on a dynamic year of teaching and explores how artificial intelligence—especially through the Flint AI platform—has reshaped his middle and high school classrooms. From supporting refugee advocacy with student-created “InfoPics,” to guiding AP Computer Science students through AI-assisted writing practice, Wes shares rich examples of AI’s educational potential. He dives into how students used AI to imagine mythical creatures, develop backstories, and bring them to life in Scratch and Minecraft, and he also introduces the idea of “vibe coding,” where web design students prompt AI to generate functional code. Along the way, Wes discusses tools like Descript, Canva, and Google Vids, and offers updates on his projects like Heal Our Culture and Conspiracies & Culture Wars. It’s a wide-ranging episode that celebrates creative pedagogy, ethical reflection, and the evolving role of AI in education.

This episode is available as both a mp3 audio file and audio-only video file on YouTube. (Due to issues with my WordPress podcasting plugin, this episode is not showing up in my podcast feed YET.)

Show Notes:

1. Wes Fryer’s Main Site (wesfryer.com)
2. Wes Fryer’s Shared Lessons Website (lessons.wesfryer.com)
3. Media Literacy Hub for Wes Fryer (medialiteracy.wesfryer.com)
4. Conspiracies and Culture Wars Project (medialiteracy.wesfryer.com/concw)
5. Heal Our Culture (healourculture.org)
6. Resist and Heal (resistandheal.com)
7. EdTech Situation Room (edtechsr.com)
8. Media Literacy with Wes (Substack) (wfryer.substack.com)
9. EdTechSR Substack (edtechsr.substack.com)
10. Heal Our Culture Substack (healourculture.substack.com)
11. Resist and Heal Substack (resistandheal.substack.com)
12. Refugee Support Services of Charlotte (refugeesupportservices.org)
13. Photos for Class (storyboardthat.com/photos)
14. Canva (canva.com)
15. Auphonic (auphonic.com)
16. Descript (descript.com)
17. Flint AI (flintk12.com)
18. ChatGPT (OpenAI) (chatgpt.com)
19. Claude (Anthropic) (claude.ai)
20. Code.org App Lab (code.org/tools/applab)
21. Scratch (scratch.mit.edu)
22. Minecraft Education (education.minecraft.net)
23. MakeCode (microsoft.com/en-us/makecode)
24. Google Vids (via Google Workspace)
25. StreamYard (streamyard.com)
26. Teachers for an Informed Public (tipteachers.org)
27. Kevin Roose NYT Article on Vibe Coding
28. Wes’ GitHub for shared AI / vibecode (github.com/wfryer)
29. AI Project Hub for Wes Fryer (ai.wesfryer.com)
30. Room 208 Podcast (Bob Sprankle – bobtaughtme.com)

All podcast bumpers created by Wes Fryer in Garageband years ago… The last musical bumper is:

Summertime by LiQWYD | https://soundcloud.com/liqwyd/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/