Vicki Davis
Creator, Cool Cat Teacher Blog and 10 Minute Teacher Podcast; Full-Time Teacher
Apps must integrate to educate. One click. Simple to use.
What are some of education technology’s limitations? Even with roster sharing tools, teachers must reenter the same content in multiple apps. Students often don’t know what to do after logging in. Parents message teachers late at night for help. The lack of response annoys parents. The late-night notifications annoy everyone. Everyone has a device that is always connected, but no one communicates.
Where do humans and electronics efficiently coexist? Manufacturing robotic co-workers (AKA co-bots) that extend high into the air or lift heavy loads that could cause human injuries. In airplanes, autopilots keep the flight on course during long stretches.
Common sense AI in education
In the classroom, instead of adding another person, we need a technology teaching assistant (TTA) to connect every technology and make it available anywhere on any device for anyone involved.
Instead of replacing talented teachers, technology can free them to build relationships and teach. If my textbook content flowed into any edtech tool with a click, results could feed into one simple dashboard that shows me how students are doing.
I could start my teaching day with the TTA briefing me about the results of last night’s homework, yesterday’s tests, how kids are performing, and a reminder that the science project is due next week. Then it would suggest reminding everyone about it.
Students don’t need to work harder; they need a distraction-free, customized, simple platform that partners with teachers to personalize learning and achieve progress. Imagine that review material was everywhere. If the student prefers to review orally, the TTA jumps to the student’s Alexa or Siri for a session. It reads the teacher’s feedback on today’s lesson, reminds the child of next week’s science project, and lets their parents know they need glue sticks.
Parents need support; they don’t need to look at daily grades or nightly homework. They need a tool that tells them how their child is doing, informs them about problems, and reminds them about events. Imagine a parent asking their child’s TTA in the car about homework, upcoming tests, and events, and the TTA mentions next week’s science project and that they need those glue sticks. When the parent asks for a teacher meeting, the TTA takes action. The next morning, it asks the teacher for the appointment, confirms a time, and sends reminders.
Administrators don’t need six-month-old data; they need current reports. Consider an administrator receiving the school-wide TTA’s briefing on the drive to work. They might hear a class is lagging in math or a grade level had too much homework last night. The principal could dictate a message to a teacher or have the TTA schedule a work group meeting to tackle the math issues. The TTA requests the meeting with teachers and attaches data.
Better connected
We don’t need more technology; we need connected technology. Integrate to educate. Stop building islands. Start building a community of learning.
If it was best for kids to write math problems with a stick in the dirt, we’d all happily do that. However, we live in a world of AI, robotics, and data. Rather than focusing on how to powerfully connect edtech, we’ve only increased teachers’ workloads.
We don’t need AI to improve learning. We need plain old common sense. Integrate to educate; that’s the way forward. Then edtech can help us build healthy, positive learning relationships, which our students need now more than ever.