TAMPA, Fla. — Artificial intelligence in schools could be normal in the not so distant future. A new law now in effect allows school districts to receive grants to implement AI to help support teachers and students.
Pepin Academies, a public charter school for students with learning disabilities, is now piloting an AI technology from Scholar Education, and teachers there say it’s having a positive impact on students.
“You can ask Baxter bot for help. It’ll really help you guys with those open-ended questions,” said David Bern as he instructed students in his high school financial literacy class at Pepin Academies.
Baxter bot is an AI dog who has been helping Bern’s students recently.
“AI is the perfect kind of thing because if they ask the questions the correct way, and as long as they’re learning how to ask the right questions, they will get the right answers in the way they want them,” Bern said about the new technology.
Scholar Education’s AI technology uses Baxter bot, a Bernedoodle dog who assists students, and Bruce, who helps teachers with things like creating lesson plans.
“If they want a real life application, they could say, ‘I would like a lesson on this standard about the Olympics,’ and then AI will generate a lesson plan that could be not just one day, we can generate multi-day lesson plans in honestly a couple of minutes,” said Marlee Strawn with Scholar Education.
While the technology is new, it’s being piloted in charter schools in Pasco and Hillsborough counties. It’s especially helpful at Pepin Academies, because 100% of students are considered special education.
“We want to use AI to support students with their individual education plan, so what we were able to do is build out custom AI features to customize the experience for the student based on their needs,” said Strawn.
Bern says Baxter knows the lesson plan each day, and keeps students on task, but he wants to be clear: AI is a teaching assistant, not a replacement.
“I can see what they’re asking, so if they’re asking or saying inappropriate things that the parents or families should know about, I can see all of that stuff, so that’s good it brings that extra level of safety to their child, but it’s also another resource getting them ready for the real world,” he said.
The AI developed by Scholar Education is just one example of AI technology that could be used in schools.
The Florida Education Association provided a statement in reference to the change:
“Like the advent of all new technologies, we must always be mindful of any challenges and benefits. In the case of AI in Florida’s public school system, we should first and foremost pay attention to what parents and educators are saying about its impact in the classroom. Advanced technology can help students understand topics better and can help teachers navigate their classrooms in more efficient ways- but we must also be aware of the possible pitfalls. Have we worked out privacy concerns? Have we discussed how equitable AI in classrooms is- will all students have access and how will we address inherent biases in AI programming? In Florida specifically, AI can currently be used at the state level to grade essays, but we need more data to determine how that may translate into the individual classroom- and whether it should. At the end of the day, we know that no technology can replace qualified teachers and staff in a classroom, and we must continue to foster creativity and individuality in our students.”