Stanford University is conducting, collecting and presenting research on the use of generative artificial intelligence for K-12 schools in a new Generative AI for Education Hub online.
As part of a broader university initiative called SCALE — Systems Change Advancing Learning and Equity — the hub includes a research repository for studies on AI for education, where district leaders can search for evidence to inform school investment decisions, with filters such as study design, intended users and AI tool purpose, according to a recent news release. Bite-sized “takeaways” sum up the results, followed by links to each study.
In a field that is too new to offer deep efficacy research, the goal of the research hub is to give educators easy access to the evidence that does exist, fill the gaps with new studies and offer balanced guidance for school systems, according to Generative AI for Education Hub Director Chris Agnew.
In a video about the hub, Agnew said it aims to serve as a trusted source for K-12 leaders, who need to know which AI tools are “actually having a real impact” and which ones are not as effective, so they can get a better sense of where to spend their time and money.
“As ed tech has offered more and more products to K-12, some data says that teachers are using 49 different ed-tech products, and so their life has just gotten more complicated,” he said in the video. “And most importantly, too, we have not seen meaningful progress in the big challenges and goals of education in our time, whether that’s closing the achievement gap, goals around equity, goals around improving student learning.”
Agnew added that his staff will work with districts and ed-tech innovators to gather and conduct studies on current AI adoption and impact in schools, as well as the ways in which AI might fundamentally change and improve education in the future.
“We don’t want to just use this technology to optimize our current flawed system. If we do that, what a missed opportunity,” Agnew said in the video. “We need to hold this more aspirational vision for how this technology can help us reimagine and rethink what learning can look like for our kids, for our students and for schools.”
