ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Something that cannot be ignored when it comes to education today is artificial intelligence. 

What You Need To Know

  • TeacherServer provides AI tools to assist teachers with planning, assessment, preparation, research and more

  • There are currently more than 65,000 Florida teachers using the site. They are primarily K-12 teachers and college faculty members

  • The website currently provides over 700 tools for teachers, and that number grows every day as teachers share current ideas for new tools to be made by professior Zafer Unal

  • The use of the site is free. All content is created under current national and Florida education standards

Longtime USF St. Petersburg professor Zafer Unal sent out a survey to K-12 teachers in Florida and Georgia asking three questions. 

How do they feel about AI? Do they use it? If so, how do they use it? 

Unal admits, he thought the responses would be negative. He thought he would hear things like students abuse AI, or that teachers would be afraid that AI would replace their jobs. 

Instead, he said the responses were for the most part positive. 

“We actually use AI in our daily lives, but we prefer not to use it in the classroom with the students for the classroom work because of the security and privacy,” said Unal, giving an example of a response. “We have a lack of training. We don’t even know how to use it efficiently.”

After hearing those responses, Unal felt like he had the solution. He decided he would create a website that would provide AI tools that could help teachers in the classroom. 

It is called TeacherServer. 

“I was a teacher. I was a school principal. I know what they are going through. And the whole idea is to get them comfortable with the usage of AI. AI is just a tool, like a calculator,” said Unal. 

He created it for people who are tech-savvy and for those who are not. On the website, teachers can create a variety of content, including lesson plans, do research, and more. 

Currently, there are over 700 different tools for college and K-12 teachers. Already, more than 65,000 teachers in Florida are using the site said Unal. 

The other perk for teachers is this is free. This is a passion project for Unal and just wants this to be something good in the world. 

“We don’t make money,” said Unal. “We are in College of Education. The whole idea is to make sure that you provide. Some people write textbooks, some people write articles, some people, I do all of them. But in addition to that, because of the computer science background, I was able to do this and I will continue doing this, make sure that is provided free and to all the teachers.”

To add to its appeal, the AI data generated on the site is not collected or stored, nor is the user data shared or sold. 

Finally, all the tools created for teacher use are done so under the guidance of national and Florida education standards.

Plans to expand happen daily. 

“We actually have requests from faculty members adding more tools for the college professors, college students asking for college student tools for them to do work, and also high school students as well,” said Unal.