833-294-8583
How can a teacher deal with a disruptive student who is slowly clapping to cause an interruption?
It’s a real situation that happened to an educator at Boys Town in Omaha, and it’s also one of the 16 scenarios used to help create Reality Coach, a new tool that uses artificial intelligence to help teachers practice responding to challenging classroom behaviors, like a student interrupting class.
“There are also pieces of the scenario where the characters will curse at you because they're trying to emulate what happens in reality in real-life classrooms,” said Dalhia Lloyd, director of digital education at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, which collaborated with Boys Town to create the tool.
“What happens when you're using Reality Coach is you're engaging with it and you don't know what the response is going to be, because we wanted to make it as real as possible.”
Maurice Bailey, artificial intelligence engineer at Boys Town, said a teacher can pick a scenario, respond to an AI student in real time and receive coaching afterward for what went well and what could be improved.
“Rather than a role play-based, in-person training, where you're acting it out with a colleague or whoever's leading the training, you're acting it out with the AI student,” Bailey said.
The Boys Town teachers who have used the tool have found it helpful, Bailey said. He added that the tool allows those who are uncomfortable doing role-playing situations with coworkers the chance to practice on their own. Lloyd said it also gives teachers the chance to practice the same scenarios as much as they would like. She said teachers have reported feeling more confident thanks to the tool.
“I used to be an athlete, and the reason that I practice is so that I had muscle memory,” Lloyd said. “I see this as an opportunity for educators to have that type of muscle memory as they're going into the classroom.”
Teachers can use Reality Coach to practice scenarios they may face in the classroom. The tool is available on the computer and phone. (Photo courtesy Maurice Bailey) Currently, Reality Coach is geared toward teachers of older students. Lloyd said she expects an early childhood version will be out by the end of the year. The Buffett Institute has a video library full of different scenarios that developers are using to adapt the AI tool for early childhood educators.
“What we would want to do is to present it as professional learning opportunities for early childhood folks across the country, not just in Nebraska, but our plan is to have this be a national type of opportunity,” Lloyd said.
When new technology comes around, Lloyd said the early childhood field is typically one of the last to try it out. This time, she wanted to be on the forefront. The Buffett Institute is exploring several other ways to utilize AI to support families and teachers, including a tool to help families of kindergartners connect with their school sooner through a chatbot and using AI to identify classroom behaviors.
“I really felt like if we don't get into this space, then someone else will, and it's going to be done in a way that we know is not developmentally appropriate,” Lloyd said. Bailey added that it's important for AI engineers like himself to know where artificial intelligence can help without replacing other important tools and interactions.
“I have a saying, preserve what's human and automate the rest,” Bailey said. “I think as long as we design with the idea of keeping a human connection, especially in a society with social media and all that type of stuff where we've lost that face-to-face connection, we have to be cautious in that way with AI.”
Lloyd said AI can help strengthen education, and Reality Coach is just one example of its benefits.
“Pilots and surgeons practice before they go into their profession,” Lloyd said. “This is one way that we could practice before we go into our profession. Yes, we have courses. Yes, we have professional learning opportunities where you could do role plays, but this gives you a different sense of what the classroom can feel like.”
