When the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT was released to the public less than a year and a half ago, educators were one of the most concerned demographic groups.
Query-driven platforms trained on vast amounts of data culled from the internet appeared to have taken a quantum leap forward in emulating human-like responses to questions and prompts. . And it grew its fan base in record time, attracting an estimated 100 million users just two months after its launch, making it the fastest-growing Internet app in history at the time.
But the same ability to recall the information it captures (accurate or not) and its incredible ability to parrot it also makes this new tool a veritable homework machine, churning out student research papers. I was able to do things, solve math problems, and energetically write college admission essays.
Just weeks after ChatGPT’s creator, OpenAI, kicked down the door to public access in November 2022, Wharton Business School associate professor Ethan Mollick said, “AI basically ruined your homework.” he tweeted, but qualified his declaration by saying, “But there are good points, too.”
Is AI education a friend or foe?
Anthony Godfrey, superintendent of the Jordan School District, said at the time that schools did not have enough information to evaluate the potential harms of ChatGPT and other emerging AI platforms. He was one of the education professionals who had a duty to restrict access.
“Artificial intelligence was a hot topic,” Godfrey said. “But our district had to shut it down and didn’t allow access to ChatGPT because we didn’t know what kind of problems it would cause for our students and our digital infrastructure.”
School AI Founder Caleb Hicks and School AI CTO Cahlan Sharp work at School AI headquarters in Lehi on Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Christine Murphy, Deseret News
But Godfrey is keeping an eye on advances in AI-driven tools, and believes the technology will eventually lead to applications aimed at “taking advantage of what artificial intelligence can do for students and teachers.” I knew I was deaf.
Then, at an education conference, he met veteran Utah teacher Caleb Hicks and heard about Hicks’ startup, SchoolAI.
Godfrey was intrigued by what he heard from Hicks, particularly about SchoolAI’s robust safety protocols and the platform’s powerful tools for both students and teachers. And he said the platform’s capabilities reflect that it was built by real educators, not just the product of random software engineering.
That’s the kind of response Hicks and his team have been aiming for since launching SchoolAI last summer.
teacher helping teacher
“We like to say we were created by teachers, for teachers,” Hicks said. “Many members of our team are former teachers, and we regularly meet with a community of current teachers who are using our products in new and interesting ways. There’s a big difference between someone trying to design an educational tool that has never been done before.”
SchoolAI touts its offerings of over 1,000 activities led by AI tutors, interactive games, simulations, health check-ins, a library of grade- and subject-specific activities, and more. According to the company, teachers who use the platform will also benefit from a dashboard with real-time feedback and moderation, so they can easily track student progress and customize it to the student’s current situation. You can create a customized study plan.
School AI founder Caleb Hicks works at School AI headquarters in Lehi on Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Christine Murphy, Deseret News
Mr. Hicks is well aware of the challenges that teachers face on a daily basis, some of whom are tasked with teaching a new lesson each day to groups of 30 or more students who rotate through classrooms every hour or hour and a half. Some teachers are.
“We all imagine teachers working with 20 to 25 students at a time, which is already a high bar, but in reality most teachers are working with many more students. ,” Hicks said. “We built Her SchoolAI because we saw an important opportunity to bring AI into the classroom in a safe way that benefits teachers and students in a way that parents approve of.”
Hicks said the decision Godfrey and many other school administrators made to restrict access to new AI-powered tools was the right one at the time. But his SchoolAI, powered by ChatGPT and other AI-based engines, harnesses the power of artificial intelligence while building in important safeguards and developing tools that meet the evolving needs of students and teachers.
“Many school districts have banned ChatGPT, but seeing an AI-driven interface that allows teachers and students to engage in daily check-ins, customized tutoring, simulations, and games has encouraged them to bring SchoolAI into their classrooms. We found them to be passionate about adapting to the interests and skill levels of all students,” Hicks said.
SchoolAI in the trenches
Sam McGrath, an English teacher at Payson High School, said the arrival of ChatGPT was shocking, and he wondered what the tool could bring to teacher-centered learning and how it could be used as a crutch for students who might be transitioning. said it caused a level of panic among teachers and parents. Visit it for easy solutions to complete your homework.
But McGrath saw positive potential early on.
“While exploring ChatGPT, the most important thing for me was thinking about how we could put AI into the hands of students in a way that included appropriate boundaries and safety measures,” McGrath said. said.
That opportunity came when his district acquired a limited number of SchoolAI licenses to allow teachers interested in trying out the platform.
School AI founder Caleb Hicks works at School AI headquarters in Lehi on Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Christine Murphy, Deseret News
McGrath said he introduced SchoolAI as a tool that allows him to customize exercises to suit students’ different interests and abilities, while targeting specific lessons and concepts.
He also added the tool as a portal for students to get input on their writing in a way that guides them through the process without doing the work for them.
“This is a place where they can get immediate feedback and I can monitor the process and provide additional guidance,” McGrath said.
He also used SchoolAI’s capabilities to develop new curriculum exercises, such as creating a mock exam plan for one of his classes to review a reading assignment for Reginald Rose’s novel “The Twelve Angry Men.” Added.
McGrath also appreciates the opportunity to incorporate SchoolAI usage as a way to familiarize students with AI tools, which he sees as an important knowledge set for the future workplace.
“We feel we have an obligation to teach our students how to use these tools before they enter the professional world,” McGrath said. “The key is safety and how to best use these tools.”
AI in the workplace and classroom
Godfrey also believes that AI will reshape the world of work and sees this technology as a tool that has the potential to be a powerful enhancement for both teachers and learners.
To that end, the Jordan School District announced Wednesday that it will make SchoolAI available to 67 schools with 3,350 educators and more than 57,800 students.
According to the company, 1,500 school districts across the country have adopted SchoolAI’s platform, serving more than 20,000 teachers and 100,000 students in Utah, New York, Ohio, and Connecticut. That’s what it means.
“The education of our future generations is extremely important. And to say our teachers work hard in the classroom to meet the needs of each student is an understatement,” Godfrey said. he said in a press statement. “Our partnership with SchoolAI allows us to bring tools into the classroom that allow teachers to gain valuable insight into their students’ level of readiness for each subject, making it easier to support students in individualized ways that were previously not possible. All of this is done in a scalable format, so teachers can do better work without becoming overloaded or burnt out.”
Godfrey said teachers in the Jordan district had the opportunity to test SchoolAI, and the decision to offer the platform district-wide was the result of a competitive process that established the company as a “clear front runner.” said.
He also cited overwhelmingly positive reviews from teachers who have used the platform and “enthusiastic” support from members of the district’s local school council.
Godfrey said artificial intelligence tools like SchoolAI are not on the path to replacing teachers, but rather provide teachers with “opportunities to save time on the work they are already doing and enable them to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.” He emphasized his belief that “we can create new things.” they are skilled. ”
“Teachers can never be replaced,” Godfrey said. “The teacher-student relationship is extremely important. SchoolAI enhances it by being an effective teacher aid and student tutor.”
