As the world of education advances, it becomes increasingly necessary to cater to different learning styles in order to give students the best possible learning experience. While teachers still provide the best way to reach students, a unique and catered learning environment can be created through the use of a dedicated chatbot.
Here we speak with Travis True, Curriculum Technology Specialist for USD 501 Topeka Public Schools, about the benefits of implementing chatbots in the classroom, how teachers can set up chatbots, and why education should lean further into its innovative phase when it comes to technology.
Creating A Chatbot To Support Education
One of the main issues for teachers is the lack of time they have to dedicate to actual teaching. Most free time is often derailed by administrative busywork. However, a classroom chatbot can help to enhance the learning experience for students while also giving teachers an extra set of eyes, ears, and hands during the day.
“Chatbots, in the educational realm, give teachers an opportunity to create a personal learning environment for the student,” says True. “They get to manage what information is provided. They can upload their own information on what the chatbot is going to feed information from.”
And how can a chatbot work in education but outside of the classroom?
“At a school or district level it can allow building principals and district leaders to set up tools that parents or even staff can use to help find information quickly,” says True.
An example of this is True’s implementation of a high school handbook into a chatbot.
“One thing I’ve been testing and building is a chatbot that has one of our high school’s student handbooks uploaded to it,” says True. “The thought is that we put it on this website and make it available [for that high school]. Then it becomes a 24/7 tool that students and parents can use to ask questions about what’s in the handbook.”
Having the ability to easily access any specific information that you’re looking for can help save time while also allowing for better overall use of the resource.
Chatbots Inside the Classroom
Being able to pare down complex information is useful, but what about how chatbots can help students make strides with their education?
“Teachers can personalize those chatbots to kids who struggle with learning a concept,” says True. “They can also set up a chatbot for those kids who need a more advanced learning tool.”
Students who need a more specialized touch with their education can receive that attention with a chatbot. And, as True points out, creating one isn’t a difficult task for educators who have access to AI-enabled platforms such as SchoolAI or MagicSchool.
“The tools that the teachers have access to are pretty straightforward,” he says. “They enter instructions, standards, and how the chatbot is going to interact with the students. On the student side, there is a learning curve, because you have to ask good questions to get good information out of the chatbot. That’s a good skill for students, knowing how to ask good questions to get good answers.”
And in the event there needs to be a change in the information a chatbot provides (or what it responds to), it isn’t hard to keep up with changes.
“There’s always going to be some maintenance and some tweaking that needs to happen,” says True. “The tools that the teachers have access to (such as SchoolAI and MagicSchool) keep logs of every interaction. Teachers can go in and see how the students are interacting with those [tools].”
From there, a teacher can make the proper adjustments to have the chatbot serve students more effectively.
Embracing Game-Changing Edtech
The use of technology in education is not new, but adding AI has opened up so many doors to how we cater education for our students and teachers.
“This is a game-changer technology,” says True. “It’s moving a lot faster than Google did [when it came out]. We need to embrace it as educators and leaders. We need to embrace it because it is not going away. But we also need to teach kids how to use it correctly. It’s another pillar of digital citizenship. AI literacy, right up there with cyber bullying and using the internet correctly.”
Having all of this wonderful education technology is great, but it is important to teach students how to properly use what they have in order to give them the best chance of success going forward. Chatbots can do just that and much more.