Episode 206: JSD Partners with Local Company to Support Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a way to enhance the student learning experience and to help support teachers in their work. We're talking about using artificial intelligence in the classroom.

On this episode of the Supercast, learn about a pilot program which has Jordan School District partnering with a local company to support the responsible use of artificial intelligence in our schools. And hear from teachers who say AI will help them become better at their craft and more connected with students in the classroom.

We're here with Jared Covili from our Teaching and Learning department. He's an administrator that works with digital learning. Jared, thanks for joining us.

Jared Covili:
It's great to be here, thanks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us a little bit about School AI. I've been really excited about this.

Jared Covili:
School AI is a program that we piloted over the summer to help our students and teachers use artificial intelligence in a way that works for us, kind of in a guarded system so that they don't get out on the internet with everything. It helps the kids and the teachers prepare lessons, it helps them prepare, potentially, assignments for kids to work on with a peer tutor that's kind of a chatbot.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the chatbot is an interactive way to help coach students through learning activities and actually offer learning activities that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Jared Covili:
Right, the way I like to describe it is for a teacher, it's like having a teaching assistant. So it'll give you ideas about things you can do with lesson plans or activities. For a student, it's kind of like a peer tutor. So it can give you ideas of how to write something or how to think about maybe something that's going on in class. It can give you some, just some guidance as you move through that process.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what school AI has been able to do is first of all, kind of create a fenced-in area, a safe playground within which we're able to work and learn and experiment and be creative without worrying about being out on the broader web and using maybe versions of AI that aren't exactly tailored to teachers. And the other thing is these prompts that teachers can use to really get the most out of artificial intelligence, getting accurate information, and getting helpful information.

Jared Covili:
That's been a big deal with our pilot this summer because a lot of times our pilot group was really instrumental in helping School AI to think about what prompts, what things do teachers need to do most often, most regularly, so they don't have to hunt and peck or learn how to prompt engineer those things. They provide a lot of those on their website now - like the, "If I only have three minutes and I need to do something, what's one of those prompts?"Our group provided a lot of that information to the company and it kind of customized the interface to help us get more out of it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So in a lot of ways, school AI is customized to Jordan School District because the hundred teachers that were so eager to be part of things over the summer have really helped shape the way that it operates.

Jared Covili:
There's no question about that and I would say, you know, whenever you're an engineer you think you know the way a teacher wants to use it or you poll the parents or teachers that you know and ask them. But when you get a group of practicing teachers who are in the trenches, they'll give you the real information about what would be most beneficial to them and to their classrooms.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell us a little bit more about the pilot this summer. We had 100 teachers that were involved, very eager teachers that I think surprised School AI with their level of enthusiasm.

Jared Covili:
Well, you can imagine that when we pitched the idea of this pilot we were telling people this is going to be during your summer we don't have stipends for you. We're looking for people who are interested in really developing this kind of technology and using it as a classroom teacher. So the group that came were pretty invested, right? And not only invested for– they like the technology but invested in what it could do for their classrooms. And so they just took it and ran with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And we have a couple of those teachers here with us. Introduce yourselves and then let's talk a little bit about what this experience has been for you.

Jill Firkins:
I'm Jill Firkins. I teach at Jordan Hills Elementary in sixth grade.

Andrew Holmes:
I'm Andrew Holmes. I'm a ninth-grade science teacher at West Jordan Middle School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what has this done for you and what have you been surprised that it's able to do, maybe better than you thought it would be able to.

Jill Firkins:
I've really liked the lesson plan aspect of it, just in the amount of time that it saves me. I was pretty new to AI when this started and excited to kind of see, so it's really exceeded my expectations.

Andrew Holmes:
I've been able to enhance a lot of my pre-existing lessons. I had it the other day- I teach a lot of different organisms for one of my high school science classes, like about 80 of them, and they're all based on different categories, and I have trouble eliminating my own bias on which organisms I prefer to teach versus the ones that I probably should teach, but forget about. And I had it help me completely balance out all of the different topics that I have to teach and create a timetable for me to be able to teach those topics.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that it's saving you time and that it's also maybe expanding the options that you're considering for students to learn, because I remember as a teacher I kind of went to my favorites as well, and maybe it helps you break out a little bit of the things that you're used to presenting to students. What would you say to teachers who are considering trying this out but maybe aren't sure about whether this is a direction they want to go?

Jill Firkins:
I really like that it's a good rough draft of things and so to recognize that you can pick and choose what you want to take from it. That it's just giving you ideas and that it's not, well I have to do it like it says or you know. You can work with it instead of just having it replace what you were doing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Having a starting point I would think is very helpful whenever I'm writing an email or writing a letter many times I like to read what someone else has started and worked from there instead of stare at a blank screen for a long time.

Jill Firkins:
Exactly. Yeah, that's what I've done with it a lot.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about for you?

Andrew Holmes:
I started treating it like I'm talking to a person. I have my conversations, I write my sentences to it as if I'm talking and having a conversation, and I found that I can bounce ideas off of it. I'll tell it I don't like this idea and this is why maybe we can try something else and so I'm able to have instant feedback with myself about topics that I can use to enhance in my classroom.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is this something that you're eager to use with your students as well? Not just for preparing for class but also giving them an opportunity to be part of it?

Jill Firkins:
Yeah, we didn't get a lot of chance to do it with students since it was all in the summer. But the stuff that they have is like that the students can talk to AI and it can give the teachers an idea of where a student sits with a particular subject. You know, these are students that understand. These are students that are still struggling and kind of do some of that groundwork as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it gives you the chance or it will give you the chance to really do a quick assessment of where students are with their learning, how they're feeling about their learning, and I think that's the exciting part of it.  It really multiplies what a teacher is able to do and I can't wait to come to your classrooms and see how this is working. Tell us, Andrew, about how you plan to use it with students.

Andrew Holmes:
One of the big things I'm looking forward to is using it with student feedback. I mean, I've got, my class sizes are average. Some are larger than others, it's just what happens. But giving meaningful feedback to those students in a timely manner, that can be really challenging. Especially as I'm trying to find ways to make sure the students have met a standard. And what do they truly know? Sometimes the best and highest quality assessments make more time for the teachers. It takes more time to gauge the true quality. And using AI is starting to, I've been able to kind of test around with it over the summer and give it prompts and say, "Hey, if I've got these students responding to this prompt or doing this type of skill that they're testing, can you help me grade that?" And so students are able in my class, theoretically with this new program, to be able to drop in their work and get real-time feedback based off of the parameters I've set. So that when I go and do my true grading, they've already had feedback before I get to them. And so I'm really looking forward to how this can expand the students' skill sets and their knowledge because by the time I've graded, I'm not the first set of eyes that have laid eyes on their work.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's really exciting and I love how you've both described that I think what students will be able to do is have a better sense for their own learning, have some interactive experiences that prepare them to get the most out of their interactions with you. You know, we've talked about what School AI can do and I'm really excited at the idea that it can be a coach for students, not a replacement for learning because there's this worry, well, they just say, "Hey, write an essay for me," and now they aren't writing the essay anymore. But it can be a coach alongside a student who's trying to get past their own writer's block or not knowing where to start or not knowing what to do next. So I just commend both of you for diving in over your summer no less to make the most of this opportunity for your students and I know they're going to benefit and your colleagues will benefit from your examples. So thank you very much for being willing to do this.

Jill Firkins:
Thank you for letting us be a part of it.

Andrew Holmes:
Of course, we'll love to continue the pilot.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Jared, where do we go from here? Tell everyone what's going to be happening next.

Jared Covili:
So the next process is we're going to start the RFP process where we're going to let School AI and other companies who do similar things bid on being an artificial intelligence solution for our district. During that time, more teachers who want to get involved with School AI will have that opportunity. We're going to extend the pilot so teachers can apply to be part of that extension. And then hopefully within the next few weeks, we'll have a solution that will be more of a permanent solution for us throughout the year.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're really excited to continue that trial because I know teachers are eager to make the most of this. No one's required to do it, and we'll be sending home parent permission slips for students to be involved. But we want to do this in a way that provides a safe environment within which to experiment and with a lot of support. School AI is going to be providing that support to teachers along the way and I just appreciate your leadership in moving us forward in this area.

Jared Covili:
We're excited to give as many teachers as would like the opportunity to use this in their classroom. I think, like we heard from our teachers today, once you get using it, it really sparks ideas of how else you can use it and how else it can benefit you. The biggest thing teachers need is time and we hope this will give them back some time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks again for all your hard work. Thanks to both of you for your example and I can't wait to see where this takes us.

Stay with us. When we come back we'll hear more from the local company partnering with Jordan School District, School AI.

Break:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking with Kevin from School AI. Kevin, tell us a little bit about how School AI got started. This is a local company in Utah and about the passion that drives your interest in AI.

Kevin:
Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. School AI, we're based here in American Fork and the majority of our team is made up of all former educators, either teachers, principals, or student success or school leaders. With the exception of a few areas, for example, our CTO was the founder of DevMountain here in Utah. And the CEO of our company worked at Apple on the Everyone Can Code project and worked in a lot of the education in areas of Apple. And my background has been largely in supporting the student experience and student success for adult learners in boot camps.

And so where we got started was, you know, as education and technology nerds, when the latest advancements in AI came out last year, we saw this huge opportunity to adapt that technology into some of the most challenging areas of education to truly free up teachers and administrators to be able to do more in their capacities.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're excited to be part of it and to be partners with you in all of this. Talk us through some of the capabilities that have been added to school AI based on the pilot project that you've done with Jordan School District this last summer. Kind of describe that for folks who aren't familiar with it, and then talk about some of the features that have been added as a result of the input you've received from teachers.

Kevin:
You bet. So early on working with Jordan, it ended up being one of the best opportunities that we could have ever had as a newer company, because the teachers and the administrators that we've been paired up with to work on this pilot with, they don't pull any punches. They give great feedback. They've been engaged. I mean, just over the summer for teachers to tune in and be present and involved.

So, in that process, as we would highlight, here's how you do X, Y, and Z inside of our platform. For example, using generative AI chat, you know, Chat GPT Alternative, we would have a lot of inputs on, “Hey, can it do this? Can it do that?” So we ended up adapting a lot of the pre-built prompts based on specific inputs that the teachers on those calls gave.

And then one of the areas of our product is this formative assessment check that teachers can quickly use to get a pulse on where students are at. And it was, I forget the name of the pilot user, but they planted a big seed in our head. They asked a question around, “Hey, this is such a fun experience to use for a formative assessment check. What would this look like, you know, for maybe a bell ringer or an exit ticket or something like that?” Or that it's this conversational interaction between the student and this chatbot. And then that eventually evolved into what we now call Spaces, which is this kind of adaptable environment that a student can go into to explore a subject or to do, you know, answer a few questions about how they're feeling. I won't get into all the details for the sake of time, but just a lot of the specific UI, the usability, where to go, where to click, where to do things. We had just so much input and feedback from the pilot users that it made the entire product more usable.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are some really exciting things that I know are happening. The bell ringer and the exit ticket are particularly exciting to me because this is not just answering a question, it's an interactive conversation that you have with the bot to really kind of process your own learning at the end of class or to prepare to learn at the start of class. What it essentially does is it multiplies the teacher, but it also gives the teacher input that they can use to inform their instruction and inform their engagement with students. And what I like about the way that you've described artificial intelligence of using school AI is that it really kind of clears the deck for teachers to have more meaningful interactions with students. There's no way this comes even close to replacing a teacher. It enhances what the teacher is able to do.

Kevin:
Exactly. I mean, one of the things that I'm always inspired by in working with teachers is when I see examples of a teacher meeting a student where they are. When they find out where that student's at and then they do whatever they can to support that scenario, that individual. And one of the huge upsides of using AI is that it helps you meet a student where they are. And it may be that a student in a bell ringer is just having a friendly conversational interaction, whereas the alternative is typically a multiple-choice question, or a slip. And when you have a student that is, you know, engaged and enjoying the process of something like a bell ringer, and there's the novelty of, you know, AI being involved in that, you end up getting really rich information out of that individual on how they are actually feeling and they're going to type things and do things that they wouldn't do if it was just a multiple-choice question in that scenario. So yeah, it's really exciting on how that actually can help a teacher get more teed up to know where a student's at and be able to support that scenario.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what would you say to a teacher who is maybe hesitant to delve into AI and to to start using School AI. We're gonna be expanding the trial to teachers. We've had a ton of teachers who've been really excited about it. And then teachers who know those teachers are now asking, how do I get involved? So if someone's maybe a little bit hesitant, saying, “I'm not sure how this can help me” or exactly whether this is gonna be worth investing the time and trying this out, what would you say to a teacher who's thinking about it, but not sure?

Kevin:
Great question. I think it's just absolutely fair that a teacher in, you know, it's such an involved capacity being a teacher, and you know that. And so a teacher when it comes to taking on a new technology and having some apprehension or concern, or maybe just, you know, having the time to do it, I think that's just fair. I mean, it makes sense that that happens. So one, I hear you. I hear you that that's a thing and I empathize with that.

Two, I would urge you to keep an open mind because teachers are often one of the biggest examples for students and a teacher that has an open mind towards new technology, especially a profound technology that's gonna be a big part of everyday life, an open-mindedness and a willingness to use and explore and adapt, I think sets an incredible example for students.

And third, I would say, pick one thing. I often tell teachers this, but pick one thing in your day-to-day life. You know, a question I ask is, if you could, you know, wave a magic wand right now and change one aspect of your job, what would that thing be? Is it administrative? Is it outreach to family, you know, guardians? Is it dummy questions on a quiz? Whatever it might be, pick that one thing and then see how AI can help alleviate certain aspects or that complete thing and then go from there. But just start with one thing and see where you can get with that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I could talk with you about this for hours, but I want to thank you for your time and thank you for getting things kick-started for us in the world of AI. School AI has been a great partner and we're excited to be working together to help move each other forward.

Kevin:
Yeah, and I just wanna commend you all for being incredible folks to work with and for being proactive in this area of utilizing AI. That's an excellent opportunity for us to partner with folks like you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.

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