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School Wide AI platforms

  • 1.  School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-11-2024 09:13 AM

    Hi All:

    I have been researching products like FlintK12, MagicSchool, and SchoolAI that offer school wide AI tools specifically designed for schools. As a K-8 school we are mostly interested in AI literacy tools as well as AI tools designed to improve staff and faculty workflow. Does anybody have experience with this type of product. Looking for testimonials, recommendations, and/or cautionary tales. Thanks in advance.

    -Mike


    #General
    #TeachingandLearning

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    Michael Jones
    St. Michael's Episcopal School
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  • 2.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-11-2024 01:45 PM

    I am also interested in this topic. We also end at 8th grade.

    We are getting ready to pilot some software for our faculty to use and I'm interested in other people's experiences.

    Thank you,

    Sarah



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    Sarah Rolle
    Rodeph Sholom School
    New York NY
    srolle@rssnyc.org
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  • 3.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-12-2024 09:10 AM

    We are in your same position. We are looking at the three you mentioned and Toddle. While Toddle isn't quite there yet with the student facing AI, they mentioned they will be launching some new tools in the near future. We will likely start piloting with a few teachers and classes two to three of the platforms in January.



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    Justin Whitford
    St. Mark's Episcopal School (Dallas, TX)
    Houston TX
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  • 4.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-12-2024 10:47 AM

    Hi Michael,

    This year we rolled out Chat for Schools by Skill Struck and we have really liked it. It is a tool that we launched for faculty, staff, and our middle school students. We piloted the other tools that you mentioned and we thought that Chat for Schools was the best fit for our school. It integrates ChatGPT on the employee side, and integrates Claude on the student side. You can enroll students in different sections with a Google Classroom integration, it allows for teacher monitoring tools, and you can turn ON or OFF the tool for students at any time, as well as viewing their entire chat history log. It also has built-in Interactive PD Lessons for both students and teachers. 

    https://chatforschools.com/

    Happy to connect if you have other questions.

    Brad



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    Bradley Lands
    The Langley School
    McLean VA
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  • 5.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-12-2024 10:55 AM

    Thank you Bradley! This is super helpful! I appreciate you taking the time to respond.



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    Michael Jones
    St. Michael's Episcopal School
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  • 6.  RE: School Wide AI platforms
    Best Answer

    Posted 11-13-2024 12:21 AM

    We conducted a couple of research trials with GAI platforms.  The first was during summer school in our Academy (9-12).  It included faculty and students and utilized Perplexity and MagicSchool.  The second was for the first two months of the school year.  We provided K-12 faculty only with access to Perplexity and MagicSchool.  The results and feedback led us to continue to provide access to MagicSchool for K-12 faculty.  While faculty who used both of these platforms reported positive experiences, the lower barrier to entry coupled with the ability to use it with their students made MagicSchool the faculty's top choice.  Additionally, we are setting up 'team' accounts for faculty who request access to any of the following: ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity.  As for AI literacy, we have a few scattered course offerings for students and provide faculty with PD as well as classroom support via our Emerging Technology Specialists.  While not yet officially adopted by the school, the UNESCO AI Competency Frameworks (Teachers: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104) and (Students: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391105) are valuable guides - if a bit aspirational.  We plan to continue to monitor advancements in this rapidly evolving space to ensure that we provide access to the most appropriate GAI tools for teaching and learning.



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    Craig Roble
    Punahou School
    Honolulu HI
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  • 7.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-13-2024 09:50 AM

    We are in the process of both using the UNESCO framework for teachers to establish our professional development needs in AI and selecting our tools as well. We currently use Toddle but have yet to adopt the AI portions of it schoolwide. We have an in-service devoted to AI and Toddle in early December as the AI elements were presented to us as work savings. I will try to report back from it.

    We are a Microsoft365 school so we are looking at the capabilities of Copilot and Copilot studio but have received input that teachers get better results from ChatGPT and other tools.

    Simon Keating

    Duchesne Academy of Sacred Heart



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    Simon Keating
    Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart
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  • 8.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-13-2024 12:10 PM

    Hey all,

    ATLIS has a resource that can be helpful:

    AI Tool Evaluation Instrument and Case Studies

    Is your school seeking the most effective methods to evaluate AI tools? Are you interested in learning from the experiences of other schools? The ATLIS AI Tool Evaluation Instrument and accompanying case studies offer valuable insights and practical examples to guide you.



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    Dr. Ashley Cross
    Senior Director of Education and Content
    www.theatlis.org
    888-502-8547
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  • 9.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-13-2024 01:58 PM

    Great resource, Ashley! Thank you for sharing.

    I created a survey regarding student-facing AI and would be grateful to anyone who can provide insight into what platforms they're using for their various grade levels and subjects. Pilot program information is welcome and I'm happy to share the results. 



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    Liz Beck
    Laurence School (CA)
    Valley Glen CA
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  • 10.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-14-2024 08:52 AM

    For those who are paid Google schools, Gemini has now been released for K-12 students in a protected sandbox that will not send data to the LLM. Mine was turned on this week. THis will be our preferred platform for faculty and students going forward. 



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    Alex Podchaski
    Trinity Preparatory School
    Winter Park FL
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  • 11.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-14-2024 11:33 AM

    To clarify, we pay for Education Plus membership and are using the free level of access that is protected and has recently been enabled. It was announced at ISTE last year and is now being rolled out for schools. I am not paying for the add-on service. The only caveat is that users are limited to 1000 "uses" a month. That is, a prompt is entered, a document is modified, etc. But not a bad way to regulate and encourage moderation in use. 

    Found a useful guide here

    https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F13623623%3Fhl%3Den&assistant_id=generic-unu&product_context=13623623&product_name=UnuFlow&trigger_context=a



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    Alex Podchaski
    Trinity Preparatory School
    Winter Park FL
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  • 12.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-14-2024 03:33 PM

    Alex, I saw that notice about Gemini (with added security) being included as a core service for the paid Google subscriptions, but I thought it was still flagged as being for students 13+. Have you seen anything indicating that it can be enabled for younger students?

    https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2024/10/gemini-app-access-for-teen-students-workspace-education.html



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    Margaret Ann Minihan
    The Independence School (Newark)
    Newark DE
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  • 13.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-14-2024 04:03 PM

    I have been testing today and have gotten down to my 7th grade we stop at 6th so I have one more grade to go. But it is working after a login reset. 



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    Alex Podchaski
    Trinity Preparatory School
    Winter Park FL
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  • 14.  RE: School Wide AI platforms

    Posted 11-15-2024 11:38 AM

    A few of our teachers have tried Brisk, a Google Chrome extension. It works pretty well, and they seem to like its flexibility. 

    -Jonathan



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    Jonathan Delgado
    University Prep
    Seattle WA
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