SchoolAI as an Entry Point to AI in Schools

To access the student AI assistant, you simply click on the Sidekick icon and follow the prompts to create your own customized student assistant. Here is an example of what that experience is like.

The introduction to Sidekick reads, “Students can take advantage of AI’s powerful capabilities to explore various topics, answer questions, quiz themselves, and more. You have full access to all chat sessions, allowing you to monitor student activity.”

The screen contains form fields to complete, including fields for describing what you want Sidekick to do with your students, a description of your class, suggestions for how the chatbot should interact with your students (including the tone of voice), and even rules or restrictions for the sessions (like how much help to provide).

Once created, you can preview the activity to try it out before launching it with your students. Once it meets your expectations, you can click the Launch button, which gives you both a URL and QR code to share with students. When they access the link or code, they are added to your teacher dashboard, so you can follow their progress and monitor how they are interacting with the AI.

There is also a button that allows you to get a link to share with your colleagues, providing a convenient way to save time.

The following is a transcript of a sample conversation with Sidekick that’s designed to help analyze literature for literary elements and theme:

• Sidekick: “Hey there! Let’s dive into analyzing a piece of literature together. What literary elements do you notice in the text we’re looking at?”
• Student: “Symbolism”
• Sidekick: “Symbolism in literature is when an object, person, or situation represents a deeper meaning beyond its literal interpretation. For example, a dove often symbolizes peace. Can you identify any symbols in the text you’re analyzing?”
• Student: “I think the car is a symbol in The Great Gatsby.”
• Sidekick: “That’s a great observation! How do you think the car symbolizes different themes or character traits in The Great Gatsby? Can you provide specific examples from the text to support your analysis?”
• Student: “I think it might symbolize his wealth. He shows it off and is a bit reckless with it. He even hits a person.”
• Sidekick: “That’s a solid interpretation! How do you think Gatsby’s car symbolizing wealth and recklessness connects to broader themes like materialism, social class, and the American Dream in The Great Gatsby? How do these symbols impact the characters and the plot of the novel?”

Overall, Sidekick was polite, inviting, and on-target with its references to the book. Sidekick also prompted for more ideas without giving all the answers, promoting growth throughout the interaction.

Spaces is how SchoolAI refers to an AI learning experience, or custom learning space. Under the Spaces tab at the top, you’ll find three options:

• Discover: Here, you can “Find a Space” that lets you pick a space that is already made. For a busy teacher, this can be very helpful. Four premade options are currently offered: Sidekick, Bellringer, Exit Ticket, and Video Explorer. There is also a collection of subject-specific tutors and a collection of teacher-created spaces that you can use and remix to meet your needs.
• Create: The “Create a Space” option is more open than the premade spaces, and it gives you greater freedom to shape what will meet your needs. There are form fields to enter a title, your AI prompt (or description of the activity with instructions), alignment to academic standards, a teacher and student description, and your own cover image.
• Sessions: This is where you can view and manage student session information.

The format for each of these experiences is quite consistent, which can help reduce the learning curve when moving from feature to feature within the program.

Another option available on the top navigation menu is Tools, which will take you to a menu of teacher tools. Some of the options include:

• Lesson planner
• Multiple-choice quiz generator
• Rubric creator
• Worksheet generator
• Text leveler
• IEP goals and IEP generator
• Behavior intervention plan
• Syllabus
• PLC agenda

To use each tool, you would complete available form fields as with the other spaces and bots on the site. Results can be modified with follow-up questions, and content can be copied and pasted to your own document for further fine-tuning.

The final option on the top menu is the Assistants tab. This is essentially a collection of teacher assistants, with options including:

• Co-teacher
• AI in education coach
• Common Core expert
• Curriculum coach
• Digital literacy coach
• Essay grading assistant
• Field trip coordinator
• Project-based activity expert
• Research assistant

The initial assistant screen looks very much like ChatGPT, with a single text field at the bottom. It’s there where you can enter your questions and have a conversation with the assistant. Like with ChatGPT, it feels conversational, as you ask follow-up questions and offer additional information to fine-tune your results.