By Cindy Gibson, Chief Learning Officer
–Abraham Maslow
Our educational technology company, 806 Technologies, has been on a journey from its founding (a district improvement plan on a disc), to a robust, cloud-based school software solution leveraging AI to ease the burdens of educators across the country.
In the Beginning, there was…
Our CEO and founder Ross Laughter was working as a software developer when he created Plan4Learning in 2008 for his mom, an assistant superintendent working in a school district where the continuous improvement plans were laboriously documented on a floppy disk, and then passed from leader to leader for reading and revising. Motivated by his mother’s burden (as well as the burden of her district), he believed he could make the process more efficient, meaningful, and easily accessible.
Fast-forward sixteen years, and our company’s software solutions, designed by educators, are in 33 states and serving one fifth of the schools in the country. But despite our growth, Ross always takes the time to remind us to treat every educator like we would treat our own mothers, because it once was his mom. He also models a relentless commitment to our core values. Two of which are #beadaptable and #becurious.
Being Curious: A Peek at the Path Ahead
In January of 2023, Ross displayed a generative AI chatbot on the screen at our annual leadership meeting and said, “This is the future.”
We watched as he showed us what it could do – write code, craft marketing strategy and answer questions about developing school plans, all in seconds.
Then he challenged the team, “How can we use this to serve educators even better and lift their burdens even more?” A question
in direct alignment with our company’s vision and mission.
As I grappled with a response to this new challenge, I was inspired by the words of a former mentor, who told me that for the benefit of kids, we will keep moving forward and when we experience failures, we will fail forward.
That evening, I got a chatbot account and started experimenting. I quickly realized the need for teaching on the potential risks and responsible use. After several months of testing and research, I wondered what educators might have to sacrifice to find time to learn this themselves. The United States Department of Education’s Office of EdTech cites a sense of urgency around AI in EdTech due to the scale of possible unintended or unexpected consequences. I felt an urgent tug of responsibility to share what I had learned.
Getting the AI Ball Rolling
A month later, in April 2023, at a state-wide conference, I presented on leveraging generative AI in the school needs assessment process. Educators spend many hours disaggregating and discussing data. Using AI could significantly accelerate this process, giving them more time for students. First -time participants were as pleasantly shocked as I had been initially, while those who were more familiar responded positively, expressing gratitude for even the smallest piece of clear guidance on using generative AI.
Our 806 team began collaborating on the development and integration of a secure AI tool into our products. We focused on the most challenging aspect of the planning process for education leaders, both historically and today: the comprehensive needs assessment. This area, where our Professional Learning Team excels, was a natural fit for an AI solution that could streamline the process, supporting education priorities more effectively at scale, while saving time and resources.
In the months following the presentation, misconceptions and anxiety about AI replacing humans was a top news story. District leaders were reaching out to me asking for guidance or resources on how to leverage AI to advance learning while protecting human agency.
I thought about the guidance of another mentor, Lesli Laughter. In her book of strategies for school leaders, Continuous Improvement Without Continuous Stress, she said, “Every great achievement begins with a vision.” I thought about how our company got started on its AI journey with our vision. The AI pedagogy would be born out of the vision. Policy for innovative and acceptable use would follow. From there, leaders and teachers would have autonomy to work within the policy guidelines to create a world of innovative schools, ultimately preparing students for a future as wonderful and yet uncertain as we’ve ever faced.
Taking the Next Steps
By June 2023, I was facilitating a presentation on generative AI in EdTech at a nationwide education leadership conference. This time, the topic focus was on the risks, cautions, and opportunities of using AI, as well as taking steps toward developing AI pedagogy and policy at the district level. I needed to go back to my central office administrator and principal days for this one, to consider what compelling reasons I would have needed to take this perceived risk with my own district and schools. And more importantly, how would it move the district toward its vision? The session was full. District leaders, overwhelmed by AI “experts” sharing their must-have solutions, were looking for ways to cut through the noise. Around that time, The Office of Ed Tech released a policy report called Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations.
Back at 806 Technologies, our development team was meticulously creating our own AI system—a process that takes time, not only for coding but also for upholding our company’s commitments, including reducing risks related to data privacy and security, avoiding ineffective systems, managing misinformation, and making sure the users are well-prepared. A responsible EdTech vendor will be able to provide evidence of securely developing, training, and beta testing their AI system, as well as gathering feedback from groups of educators in the field throughout the process.
Beta Testing and Trust Building
In the fall of 2023, our AI model was being trained by our internal team of school planning experts, as well as being fed anonymized information from our 16 years of improvement planning data, gathered from schools across the US. Following security and privacy protocols, we used only non-identifiable information, keeping all private and district-specific data secure. We tested the program internally to see what it could do. The early results were promising. Right away, we knew this tool could save hours of time and lead to more effective improvement planning.
In February 2024, I participated in training facilitated by the USDOE Office of EdTech on their seven recommendations and insights for AI in education. The recommendations were thoughtfully developed based on listening sessions with hundreds of stakeholders across the nation, and revealed a common mistrust for AI in general, and more specifically, an anxiety about teachers being replaced.
We were already checking the boxes addressing the seven recommendations, especially those related to security and those involving educators in all stages of the process. However, two of the recommendations resonated with me as areas where we could go above and beyond:
Recommendation: Emphasize Humans in the Loop. Our internal team of educators sought to take this to the next level by defining what it looked like to keep humans in control as they engaged with generative AI in our Plan4Learning program.
Educators, burdened with responsibilities, might be tempted by the idea of generative AI automating the needs assessment and planning processes. However, this approach didn’t align with our vision or USDE guidance. It reinforced our commitment to integrating generative AI that acts as a thinking partner, ensuring that educators remain the decision-makers at every step.
Recommendation: Prioritize Strengthening Trust. The USDE states that technology can only be helpful in achieving educational objectives when we trust it. Trust typically develops as people meet and relate to each other. The policy report calls for a focus on establishing criteria for trustworthiness of emerging educational technologies.
So, we pulled together a focus group of 60 district stakeholders from across the country to answer a single question, “What criteria would you look for in a vendor or program as evidence of trustworthiness in the AI space?”
Initially, they identified 28 criteria. Over time, similar items were combined, and those relevant to the roles of our software users were prioritized. All criteria remained on the list, including those related to student use.
Our leadership team then decided to hold a series of company-wide training sessions focused on the seven recommendations so we might cultivate a culture attuned to the needs of our nationwide stakeholders and the districts we serve.
This was particularly important for our sales team, who would be in the field listening to educators. They would be in a unique position to share our belief that human educators are irreplaceable. Developing a product that creates the plan for them without their input would contradict that belief.
Finally, the AI feature was integrated into Plan4Learning production and ready for beta-testing by a cohort of current users who were proficient in the software. The feedback was excellent, with testers saying the new AI tool helped them parse down the amount of information they entered and drove them to be more thoughtful and intentional about what to include. They also said the plan felt more polished after using this tool and that it gave their principals a jump start, allowing them to more quickly deepen conversations. Staff retention is a nationwide problem so we were excited to hear the AI tool also provided new leaders with necessary context on how needs assessment and planning processes should flow, acting as a thinking partner along the way and saving valuable training time.
Additional feedback also sparked new ideas for future generative AI enhancements, further validating we were on track to answer the initial question Ross had posed at the leadership meeting 18 months earlier, “How can we use this to serve educators even better and lift their burdens even more?
In July 2024, the USDOE released Designing for Education with Artificial Intelligence: An Essential Guide for Developers. This additional layer of guidance will inform the work of our CIO and his team as they continue to enhance our generative AI features.
Empowering Educational Leaders
Salman Khan, the visionary behind Khan Academy and Author of Brave New Words, a book about how AI will revolutionize education, had this to say about education technology: “AI is not here to steal the show from teachers; it’s here to help teachers steal the show.”
At 806 Technologies, we feel the same way about helping districts and school administrators with their continuous improvement processes. To put it simply, our AI is not here to steal the show from administrators; it’s here to help administrators steal the show.
We will always be inspired by the work of education leaders, and we are grateful for the opportunity to provide technology solutions that can help make their jobs easier. As we continue to improve our products, we will ensure that AI does not replace them. Rather, we will strive to bring them a valuable tool they can use to improve districts, schools, and student performance.
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