Extended Resources

Hubs, Platforms, and Schools Exploring Student-Centered AI

elementary student smile

Resources for thinking about how you can pursue the use of AI to further new designs of teaching, learning, and schooling.

Acknowledgements

The strategies and example prompts provided throughout this toolkit were created by Chris Unger. His work was greatly informed by communication and collaboration with numerous educators, including: Carol Eastman, Ian Zhu, Nerel Winter, Adam Haigler, and Tom Klapp.

AI Resource Databases

  • Getting Smart AI hub. A very good, comprehensive guide and resource hub for educators, policymakers, and stakeholders seeking to understand the current landscape, potential impacts, and best practices for integrating AI technologies into K-12 education effectively and ethically put out by Getting Smart.
  • ISTE AI resources. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), offers a plethora of resources and opportunities related to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, including resources, professional development opportunities, and guidance on the responsible and effective use of AI in education.
  • AI Guidance and Examples of use. Chris Unger created this Google doc for educators attending the Future Pathways meeting hosted by the New Hampshire Learning Initiative.

AI-Powered Learner-Centered Platforms

Interesting tools being developed to support educators and students in the creative use of AI in support of interest-driven learning.

  • Project Leo. Project Leo is an AI-enhanced learning platform designed by Da Vinci Schools to bring personalized project-based learning into classrooms. It provides tools for students to build projects that inspire them while getting feedback from teachers, professionals, and peers throughout the process, leveraging AI tools in a safe way for a more engaging learning experience. The platform aims to empower teachers and engage students through personalized, project-based learning facilitated by AI technology.
  • Playlab.ai. Playlab.ai is a platform that enables educators, students, and impact organizations to create and use AI-powered tools and experiences for education. It provides a user-friendly interface where users can access pre-built AI applications from a global community, adapt them to their specific needs, or build entirely new AI tools from scratch. The platform is designed to facilitate safe and school-wide adoption of AI technology in educational settings.
  • SchoolJoy. SchoolJoy is an AI-powered personalized learning platform designed for K-12 educational institutions. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of each student by integrating academic data with information about their interests, skills, and aspirations both inside and outside the classroom.
  • Roborubrics. A good google doc extension to provide students with feedback on their writing against criteria (including Common Core standards) developed by Sam Anderson-Moxley, a 7th grade educator at West Hawaii Explorations Academy).

Watch teacher and Roborubrics developer SamAnderson-Moxley shows Chris Unger how to use this google doc extension.

Shift

Coming soon from NGLC and seven expert learner-centered organizations, Shift is prototype-testing a comprehensive, easy-to-use AI-powered suite of tools and services to help districts, schools, and teachers transform how teaching and learning work. School communities that have developed a graduate portrait and others committed to transforming learning can use this tools-and-services suite to shift learner experience to improve real-world learner outcomes. The suite will include:

  • Systems redesign tools + services
  • Grad portrait activator tools + services
  • Competency-based student progressions
  • Project-based learning tools (including customizable project builders)
  • Locally designed and informed AI-driven coaching
  • And more . . .

Watch for updates and opportunities to pilot the use of these offerings from all of the project partners: NGLC, Building21, Incubate Learning, Inkwire, Learner-Centered Collaborative, National Equity Project, Playlab, and reDesign, through initial dedicated funding from LearnerStudio.

Districts and Schools Exploring Student-Centered AI

Some schools and systems exploring a variety of ways to put AI in the hands of their students to accelerate their learning (this list was generated using perplexity.ai)

New York City Public Schools. New York City Public Schools initially banned ChatGPT but later reversed course and collaborated with Microsoft to create a custom AI-powered teaching assistant built on Azure OpenAI Service. This assistant can offer real-time feedback and answer questions for students. The district piloted it in high school computer science courses, with nearly 100 students asking over 2,000 questions in just two weeks. The goal is to enable personalized learning and equitable access to AI tools for all students.

Urban Assembly Schools (NYC). This network of 21 small public high schools in NYC is exploring using AI to provide feedback to teachers on their instruction. They are working with the American Institutes of Research to develop an AI tool that can analyze videos of teachers and offer coaching feedback. This aims to improve teacher development and indirectly support student learning.

Santa Ana Unified School District (California). Santa Ana is launching an "AI policy shop" to research best practices for responsible AI use in education. Their work can help inform other districts on issues like plagiarism, data privacy, and ethical AI usage by students and educators.

North Carolina Public Schools. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released a guidebook for using generative AI responsibly in schools. Educators are finding innovative ways to use AI, such as helping write IEP goals, summarizing information for parents, generating creative writing prompts, and practicing difficult conversations.

Los Angeles Unified School District. LAUSD, the second largest public school district in the U.S., is exploring the use of AI tutors and writing assistants like ChatGPT to provide personalized support to students. However, they are proceeding cautiously by first piloting the tools with a small group of teachers to assess benefits and risks before wider implementation.

Fairfax County Public Schools (Virginia). This large district near Washington, D.C. has created an "AI Ambassadors" program where selected students are trained on the ethical use of AI tools like ChatGPT. These student ambassadors then help educate their peers and teachers on leveraging AI responsibly for assignments and projects.

Denver Public Schools. DPS partnered with Anthropic to pilot their AI assistant Claude in certain high school classes. Students can ask Claude questions during lessons, get feedback on writing, and use it as a supplemental tutoring resource. DPS is studying the impact on learning outcomes.

Polk County Public Schools (Florida). This district is piloting the use of an AI teaching assistant called Merlyn to help students with writing assignments. Merlyn can provide feedback, suggestions, and even generate draft passages to help students improve their writing skills. Teachers monitor the AI's outputs to ensure academic integrity.

Baltimore County Public Schools (Maryland). BCPS partnered with Anthropic to give select high school students access to the AI assistant Claude. Students can use Claude as a supplemental tutoring resource across subjects like math, science, and English. The district is studying how conversational AI can enhance learning experiences.

Clark County School District (Nevada). The fifth-largest U.S. school district launched an "AI Student Ambassador" program where students learn about AI ethics and applications. These ambassadors then teach other students and staff about responsibly using AI tools for assignments, projects, and tutoring support.

Highline Public Schools (Washington). This diverse district near Seattle is exploring AI writing tools to support multilingual learners. Teachers are investigating how AI can help translate materials, provide writing feedback, and offer tutoring assistance in a student's native language.

Oakridge School (Arlington, Texas). This K-12 public charter school has implemented an "AI Accelerator" program where students learn to use AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion across the curriculum. For example, in English classes, students use AI to generate creative writing prompts, get feedback on essays, and study literary analysis. In STEM courses, they leverage AI for coding assistance, math tutorials, and generating data visualizations.

Westside High School (Omaha, Nebraska). This high school has an "AI Scholars" program where students learn about AI ethics, applications, and how to use tools like ChatGPT responsibly. The AI Scholars then mentor their peers on leveraging AI for assignments across subjects like the following:

  • Getting tutoring support for math and science problems
  • Generating outlines and drafts for essays
  • Creating data visualizations for research projects
  • Providing coding assistance for computer science classes

Teachers oversee the AI usage to prevent academic dishonesty while allowing students to explore AI's potential.

Benjamin Banneker Academic High School (Washington, D.C.). Students at this STEM magnet school use AI language models like Claude to engage in "AI-assisted learning." For example, in biology class, students can ask Claude to explain complex cellular processes in easy-to-understand terms. For history projects, they use AI to generate potential thesis statements and outlines based on their research. The school emphasizes AI literacy—teaching students about AI's inner workings, strengths, limitations, and ethical implications. This allows them to be informed users leveraging AI as a supportive tool.

This toolkit was developed in partnership with Chris Unger, who retains the copyright to the intellectual content provided here.

Photo at top courtesy of Northern Cass School District.