I have noticed others in the education community signaling 2024 as the end of the “free era” of Ai tools for teachers. I believe they’re right, but I’m going to soak up the golden era of Ai for Education as long as possible. I’ve been quite fascinated with the direction of these tools and the role they may play moving forward. I recently discovered SchoolAi and I’ve had some amazing experiences with it so far. I was reflecting on one such experience and reminded myself that my compass needs to remain pointed at sound pedagogy and increasing the value of the teacher. I think it’s easy to lose our way in this landscape. The shiny new tool can be alluring, but I fear the time we’re saving can come at a cost. Don’t use a tool for the sake of using a tool. If the tool enhances the value of the teacher and contributes to sound instructional moves, then we should consider its place in our classrooms.

SchoolAi Teacher Dashboard

After a recent experience with SchoolAi, I came to the conclusion that Ai chatbots can provide an incredible opportunity to differentiate, promote deeper thinking, and evaluate learning at levels that previously required an immense amount of time. Perhaps my favorite part of SchoolAi are the live updating insights it provides the teacher. While the chatbot is simultaneously conversing with each student, it is also generating thoughtful insights, shedding light on student strengths and weaknesses, and conclusions it is making based on all the conversations. I was most impressed with the way the chatbot relentlessly probed student thinking with questions that encouraged the student to express their thinking in rich ways. In one experience, students were reviewing chapters 1-4 from The Hunger Games. The chatbot consistently asked students questions that required students to empathize with characters, connect events in the story to specific themes, and uncover additional themes of the story through plot details. These weren’t questions that could be asked in a multiple choice assessment.

I’ve since explored many other chatbots and applications in the classroom. I’ve determined that, when well designed, these experiences can be transformative. I’ll include some guidelines that I’ve come to value in my own experience creating these chatbots.