This post is sponsored by SchoolAI
As teachers, we’re outnumbered.
In a traditional classroom, there’s only one of us. But there are dozens of them.
It can make you wonder: “How can I really, truly interact personally when I have so many students? Every breakthrough I get to have with one student means the rest of them aren’t getting my attention.”
Artificial intelligence is making true personalization more and more of a reality every day.
The most recent iteration: student-facing chatbots.
The best ones don’t take over the teaching. Instead, teachers prompt them by inputting a task and details (much like you would with an AI assistant like ChatGPT), and they interact with students in a way that supports what you’re trying to do in the classroom. It's pretty easy.
In this post, we’ll share several ways you can get started with custom student-facing chatbots, including pre-written plug-and-play experiences you can use right away.
What is a student-facing custom chatbot?
Definition: A custom student-facing chatbot is a specialized software application designed to interact with users through natural language. Unlike generic chatbots, which follow predefined scripts, custom chatbots are tailored to specific purposes or contexts.
What can a custom chatbot do?
- Personalization: Custom chatbots can be fine-tuned to address unique student needs. Teachers can add in even more details about their students, including preferences, learning styles, grade or skill level, and the chatbot will adapt the responses based on individual interactions.
- Context-Awareness: They adapt to previous replies and specific details within the conversation, allowing for more meaningful interactions. Teachers can add in specific details about their content to make them even more personalized.
- Domain-Specific Knowledge: Custom chatbots can be set up so that students interact with the topic you choose or grade-level-appropriate content you provide.
- Measured Against Learning Outcomes: The ones worth your time will help you set goals for what students should accomplish, and then show you, student-by-student, who got there and how.
Where can I find custom student-facing chatbots?
Several companies are developing custom student-facing chatbots. Others have already launched them. I’ve tried several, and there’s only one that I’ve actually used in my own classroom with my students.
SchoolAI is an AI learning platform for K-12 schools where students work with AI in teacher-designed and monitored activities.
SchoolAI puts the teacher in the driver's seat to create and customize a learning experience for their students. It’s FERPA and COPPA compliant. Your school or district can set how it behaves across classrooms, and each teacher sets the goals, learning experiences, and outcomes for their classroom.
It has also been studied. An outside two-year review of nearly 14,000 student conversations found that students who used SchoolAI showed 28% stronger critical thinking.
And the best part? There are many customized chatbots ready for you to use with your students right away! This makes them a powerful asset in the classroom. SchoolAI’s library has more than 200,000 pre-made experiences and resources ready to use with your students, and with free trials for teachers, you can try it in your classroom right away.
10 ways to get started with SchoolAI Spaces
The possibilities for using custom chatbots in the classroom are endless. SchoolAI calls them “Spaces,” and we have collected 10 of our favorite that you can use in your classroom.
We’ve organized them into three levels – beginner, intermediate, and advanced. (And the good news: the advanced isn’t very advanced.)
BEGINNER: These are pre-made Spaces you can share immediately with students
1. Chat with famous figures
The Historic Figure Space allows students to chat with historic figures, explore topics like the American Revolution, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Greece, and learn about the lives and achievements of influential individuals such as Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Graham Bell, Amelia Earhart, and more. You choose the historic figure you want them to engage with during setup.
2. Discuss a book with the author
In this interactive Book Explorer Space, students will dive into the world of the book of your choosing. They will use AI to discuss themes of the book, learn about the author, and engage in knowledgeable discussions.
3. Chat with your own personal History tutor
Meet August, an insightful AI History tutor for grades 6–12. August helps students analyze events, recognize cause and effect, and think critically about historical sources. Lessons adapt to each learner’s level and curiosity.
4. Explore any Topic
Simply enter the topic you want your students to explore in this topic explorer space. The chatbot will proactively share interesting facts about the topic, while also inviting students to ask their own questions. You have access to all chat sessions, allowing you to monitor student activity.
INTERMEDIATE: These Spaces are pre-made but can be customized to what you want to teach.
5. Take the class pulse with AI
Welcome students to class by inviting them to share how they are feeling and what they know about a topic with a Bellringer. You can instruct the AI to ask a specific question if desired. Student sentiment will be captured and displayed to you so you can check in with students afterward.
6. Get a quick formative assessment with an AI powered exit ticket
Invite students to show what they learned today and how they’re feeling about it in an Exit Ticket Space. You can instruct the AI to review specific learning outcomes. Student mastery, sentiment, and confidence will be displayed to you.
7. Create a choose your own adventure activity
Give your students an exciting topic-based adventure Space. Provide a topic, setting, and objective to generate a fun and informative chat experience for your students. They’ll be presented with fun ways to show their knowledge of the chosen topic. Afterward, you can see where each student got stuck and where they surprised you.
8. Video Explorer
In this interactive activity, students will dive into a video of your choosing. The chat will pause the video periodically to review key information presented in the video. To get started, paste a link to any video you want students to explore.
9. Provide primary language support
One of the most valuable features of SchoolAI spaces is that it seamlessly translates feedback into a student’s native language. This ensures that language barriers do not impede understanding or participation, and students can interact with the content at their own pace and in their own language. Watch the video below to learn how to change the language in a Space.
ADVANCED: These Spaces are created by you. You customize them completely to fit your needs start to finish.
10. Create your own custom Space
Create a custom Space to meet your specific classroom needs
If you can’t find a pre-made Space that’s just right, you can always just write one of your own. It’s pretty easy to do. If you’ve ever used an AI assistant like ChatGPT, it’s a lot like that. Just describe how you want your Space to interact with students in Space Designer. Then preview it to make sure it’s doing what you want.
You can attach learning outcomes to the Space, and SchoolAI measures each student against them as they work. Add PowerUps to change how students interact, like having them build something, argue a position, or work through a problem. While students work, the teacher dashboard (called “Mission Control”) shows you every conversation and sorts your class into Smart Groups so you can see where each student landed, from needing support to excelling.
That last part is what sold me. A general-purpose chatbot can’t tell you which students get it and which need help.
So, based on this article, I’ve started using SchoolAI to do a chatbot that goes through the engineering process. It looks like it’s work, but now I’m trying to figure out how to get the students to approach and interact with the AI. It looks like the AI gives a bit too much information and does it very quickly.
Any thoughts from random people on this?
Yes, this is one of the easiest things for AI to do–it can generate prompts for you based on numerous topics. I don’t understand how teachers, individuals who are supposed to promote learning and growth, can be so averse to the use and existence of AI, which is clearly something we need to be preparing our students for. How are you relevantly teaching students born in the new millennium?
Using AI does not make me comfortable. Not sure why, except I know nothing about computers, let alone AI. I’d like to do a class starter (bell ringer) where they tell me how they are feeling, and then answer a different question every day (not sure what that would be yet). Is this something AI could do?