How to Vet AI Tools for Your School

With the advances in artificial intelligence moving so quickly, it can feel hard to keep up. But in this new exciting landscape, how should you go about vetting AI tools for your school?

Take a look at the steps below to learn how to choose the right edtech tools to bring AI to your school safely.

1. Ask your teachers or co-workers

Step one is simple: ask around! Word of mouth is the best way to find out which AI tools are working. If you’re an admin, check in with your department heads to see which classroom AI tools teachers are excited about.

If you’re a teacher who’s a little intimidated by AI or doesn’t quite know where to start, reach out to your fellow teachers! If you’re not having any luck asking your colleagues at school, you can always check out social media to see what your favorite teacher influencers are recommending.

2. Check for seals of approval

The next step is to check if the AI tool you’re interested in is compliant with student privacy laws. Most websites make this information readily available, so if you can’t find it, that’s probably a red flag.

On Edpuzzle’s website, for example, you can find the FERPA, COPPA, and CSPC seals plus the company’s adherence to the Student Privacy Pledge. It’s also a good idea to check Common Sense Education to make sure the tool you’re investigating has a good student privacy rating.

3. Read the fine print

Next, you should go one step deeper and take a look at the fine print in the AI tool’s terms and conditions. Once you input a query into a large language model (think ChatGPT), that information is used to train the model. The issue is if students enter any personal information, their privacy could be put at risk.

Be suspicious of any terms and conditions using purposefully complex or obscure language that doesn’t clearly state how student data is being treated. A quick look at Edpuzzle’s terms and conditions related to AI shows that, “Edpuzzle will not share your information or permit others to use such information to train machine learning models of third parties.”

4. Ask for a demo

Try before you buy! It’s always a good idea to get a walkthrough of a new edtech tool, especially where AI is concerned. Any edtech company that uses AI should let you request a demo so you can see firsthand how the tool works.

For example, Edpuzzle’s AI tool, Teacher Assist, allows you to generate questions with a single click in your video and grade open-ended questions automatically once you enter your ideal answer.

With a demo, you can ask any questions that come up live and get answers in real time.

Let us know your experience vetting AI tools for your school with us on social media so you can share your knowledge with the Edpuzzle teaching community!