Ever wondered how to gather the thoughts of all your students at the same time?
And then use that information to inform the next steps in your teaching.
Recently I came across an AI website called SchoolAI which I recognised has the potential to help me learn, very quickly, what my students already know about a new topic and consequently to help me shape my teaching by using insights to better engage, connect with and support each of my students.
So what is SchoolAI and how can it help?
Essentially SchoolAI is a website which enables students to interact with AI safely, giving the teacher an insight to individual students’ understanding of a given topic.
There are a number of features on the SchoolAI site, but the one I want to focus on here is called Spaces.
What are Spaces?
Spaces offer personalised 1:1 tutoring, guidance and support through an AI enabled chatbot.
You, the teacher, title the Space and provide information in the AI Prompt window about the topic. You can determine what information is given to the students when they interact with the chatbot and even the style and tone in which the chatbot interacts.
Below is an example of my prompt for “The Golden Triangle”.
“Tell the students about the role of media in sport and how it affects individual performers, the individual sports themselves and the spectators / viewers. Also tell the students about the Golden Triangle. They need to know that it is the interdependence of media, sport and sponsorship – give real time practical examples of TV companies, sports clubs and sponsors of those sports clubs. For example, Sky Sport, Manchester Utd and TeamViewer. Use other examples from British sport.”
After you have entered your content into the prompt window, the site will even create an AI generated cover image, a subtitle and descriptions if you wish.
Preview
The next step, if you wish to, is to preview what the AI interaction will look like for your students. You can do this by activating the Preview button and interacting with the chatbot yourself to make sure that the content is correct and the dialogue flows as you intend it to.
Here’s my example:
You can see how the chatbot always asks a question to keep the conversation flowing.
You can edit the content in the prompt if you are not happy with the dialogue preview, (but remember that the dialogue for each student will be unique).
Next you can either Save the Space for later, or Save and Launch the Space immediately.
Launching Your Space
You launch your Space by clicking on the Launch button. This creates a unique link and QR code which gives your students access to the space.
Students then interact with the chatbot on their devices by responding to its questions and asking their own questions. A “conversation” ensues. The interaction reveals the extent of knowledge and understanding (and engagement) each student has with the topic. The AI chatbot serves as a personal tutor which guides and supports the student through the topic, helping them to understand each concept.
Monitoring Interaction
Unlike ChatGPT or other generative LLMs (large language models) where the teacher can not see every student’s device and thus the quality and quantity of interaction, SchoolAI allows the teacher to see and monitor (in real time) the conversation that each student is having, simply by clicking on their name on the dashboard.
This is brilliant as it means that you can dip into students’ dialogues and see how they are engaging with the topic. And it’s here that you can gain insights into each individual’s level of understanding, their misconceptions and their ability to express themselves and apply their knowledge.
What is also amazing is that all the dialogues are saved on the teacher’s site which means that you can review all of your students’ interaction later on or after the class has finished.
This is gold as it enables you to gather the thoughts of all your students at the same time and use the information to inform future teaching, both at whole class level and individually.
Informing Your Teaching
In the example I have used here, my students interacted with SchoolAI for just short of 10 minutes.
This allowed sufficient time for them to engage with the topic and for misunderstandings and misconceptions to surface and be rectified (mostly). The dialogues generated examples of rich learning and informed my teaching of this topic moving forward.
I’m discerning in my use of AI tools for education, and if you haven’t used SchoolAI yet, I recommend you give it a try!
It’s good!!
I’d love to hear how you are using SchoolAI. Please share your experiences in the comments box below.
