National Day of Learning / Let's Talk Science 2026
SIFT infographic

The Secret?
Critical Doing.

Other methods tended to be "things to think about"
SIFT was a list of things to do, the "doing before the thinking"
When students engaged in critical doing and then started thinking, they turned out to be just fine at critical thinking
Also: it was short — we could hang different techniques on the elements ("just add wikipedia" under "I") but the core was memorable and active
National Day of Learning / Let's Talk Science 2026
SIFT infographic

What does SIFT for AI look like?

What are a few AI habits around information-seeking that are:
• Big enough to be generally applicable
• Concrete enough to be action-driven
• Consistently effective enough to be worth it
03
National Day of Learning / Let's Talk Science 2026

Today,
I want
to
engage
in
critical
doing

I want to show you simple techniques that keep you and your students in the driver's seat.

And I want to move us all from this idea of a "chatbot" to the idea of an "information assistant" — one that you send out to explore and report on an information domain.

Heavy, right? Let's start.