The siren song of Generative AI (GenAI) beckons, promising to transform your classroom with its potential to create personalised learning experiences and ignite student creativity. But where do you begin? Fear not! This guide equips you with the essential tools to become a GenAI Prompt design master, crafting experiences that both challenge and engage your students.

1. Know Your Tools: Before wielding the mighty GenAI, take some time to explore its capabilities and limitations. Familiarisation with different platforms and their unique features is crucial. Experiment with different interfaces to discover which best suits your teaching style and students' needs.

2. Start with the End in Mind: Like any effective lesson plan, begin with clear learning objectives. What do you want your students to achieve by using GenAI? Is it analysis of historical documents, creative writing in a specific style, or scientific report generation? Aligning your prompt with these goals ensures focused and productive student engagement.

3. Craft Clear and Concise Prompts: Imagine explaining a complex concept to a year 9 class. Clarity is king. Avoid vague instructions like "write a creative essay". Instead, provide context, define the task, and outline the desired format and tone. Is it a persuasive essay arguing for stricter social media regulations? A news report on a future scientific discovery? Specificity is your secret weapon.

4. Scaffolding Success: For students new to GenAI, provide scaffolding to ease them into prompt design. Offer starters or templates that they can adapt. As their confidence grows, gradually reduce the support, encouraging independent exploration.

5. Prime the AI Pump: GenAI learns from the data it's fed. Prime your prompts with relevant information and examples to steer the AI in the right direction. Need a persuasive email in the voice of a teenager? Provide a sample email dripping with teenage angst (we've all got them somewhere!).

6. Embrace the Power of Feedback: After each GenAI interaction, encourage students to analyse the output. What worked well? What could be improved? Use this feedback loop to refine future prompts, fostering critical thinking and a deeper understanding of AI capabilities.

7. The Iterative Dance: GenAI mastery is an ongoing journey, not a one-time feat. Embrace the inevitable hiccups and unexpected outputs. Use them as springboards for discussions about AI's strengths and limitations.

By following these tips and tricks, you'll transform your classroom into a launchpad for creative GenAI exploration. So, channel your inner Obi-Wan Kenobi, guide your students through the intricacies of prompt design, and together, unlock the true potential of Generative AI in your NZ High classroom.

1. Task Definition: Clearly articulate the desired outcome using an action verb at the beginning of the prompt (refer to the provided list of action verbs for guidance).

2. Contextualisation: Utilise three key questions to establish a relevant and comprehensive context for the GAI model.

3. Leveraging Exemplars: Significantly enhance the quality of your GAI outputs by providing specific examples that the model can reference during generation.

4. Persona Development: Define the ideal characteristics you envision for the GAI to embody when completing the task.

5. Format Specification: Visualise your desired output format to ensure the GAI generates content that aligns with your expectations.

6. Tonal Control: Employ the provided list of tone examples to guide the overall sentiment and style of the GAI's output.

By following these principles, you can craft prompts that empower your GAI models to deliver exceptional results tailored to your needs. In the image below, the principles are shown in hierarchical order on the left and in formula order on the right. You should use the formula order to create your prompt.