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SchoolAI
Pros: Chatbots are a fun way to become curious about specific characters and subjects; many other teacher focused AI tools built-in; data and privacy are top of mind
Cons: Relies on generative AI materials which can be inaccurate; requires substantial teacher involvement to be useful and the chat responses can be somewhat shallow
Bottom Line: Teacher-created “Spaces” are an exciting way for students to engage with classroom material, the rest is on par with other generative AI tools
The purpose of the tool is for teachers to generate materials for themselves, and personalized chat bots and sidekicks for kids. Teachers can create “spaces” themselves, or use pre-made models in the format of AI tutor, Pulse checkers, Bellringers, or Exit tickets, along with a few others. These “Spaces” provide initial idea prompts on various topics and then guide students to think about how they would accomplish various goals (like building a medieval city out of geometric shapes). Featured collections can dive into topics like world history, meet the author, collections for younger students, and more, though all of the collections lead to the same monocolored interface with a chatbot. There are also featured topics, from technology, health and fitness, to math and more.
The free version is available to any teacher who would like one and comes with a lot of tools and resources, a paid version is available on a school or board basis. There is an advanced model of the tool which claims to be able to do more complex tasks, follow instructions better and have more current knowledge of world events.
Teachers can also employ “sidekicks” and get specific about what they want the sidekick to do, like help students with science homework. You can set how you’d like the tutor to interact, like in specific voices for example.
Editor’s note: Never input personal, sensitive, or confidential information into a generative AI model. Any information you put in can become publicly available and used as training data for future iterations of the tool. If there is ever any doubt about whether or not to enter particular information, do not include it. Be aware of privacy settings on your device that might be helpful. Keep in mind that these tools often don’t have their own privacy settings.
SchoolAI is a generative AI tool that teachers can use to generate materials, personalized chatbots, or sidekicks for students to learn more about just about any subject. The tool can be used to generate vocabulary lists, course outlines, and most uniquely, “spaces”. “Spaces” are personalized chat rooms that can be quickly programmed to focus on specific topics and be joined with QR codes. Students can put in their name or a fake name and can join. It can get overloaded with questions and can take a bit to get started, but can provide more thorough answers once it gets started up. Teachers are able to keep tabs on the chat conversations kids are having on a private dashboard behind the scenes.
To properly implement the AI components into a classroom really does require a lot of teacher oversight and planning – it's not a "set it and forget it" tool. Teachers also need to be prepared to have conversations with their students about the limitations of AI, including bias and double checking sources.
As a teacher tool and helper in the classroom SchoolAI does a great job and there are lots of (AI generated) supports to help teachers navigate how the tool could be implemented in their own classrooms. They also take data and privacy seriously and claim not to use any student generated data for AI training purposes.
With a bit of guidance and oversight, SchoolAI could be a useful addition to the classroom and a good introduction to students about how AI can be safely used in education (along with its limitations). It also includes tools for accessibility including translations, simplifying/diversifying text, changing the tone for different audiences, and creating Tl;dr (too long, didn't read) versions of content.