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School is back in session for students in the Tampa Bay area. This year, many classrooms are utilizing artificial intelligence.
A University of South Florida professor is trying to make using A.I. even easier for teachers.
USF St. Petersburg Professor Zafer Unal was curious how teachers use A.I. in the classroom.
So he conducted a study of 140 K through 12 teachers in Florida and Georgia, asking how they use it.
“We were expecting negative feelings about it, but the results that we received from the survey were totally different. They were generally open to use of the AI, and they mentioned that they use it daily for their personal tasks.”
Unal says he was worried teachers would be wary of using AI, but says they’ve embraced it.
“It’s like a calculator that you have in your classroom, nothing more. It’s a tool, nothing more than that. It’s just to make things easier for teachers and students for their daily tasks.”
That’s how he got the idea for TeacherServer. It provides free AI tools to assist teachers with planning, assessment, preparation, research, and more.
“Let’s say your not comfortable about that subject. It will teach you first, and then help you teach your students by designing the student work for tomorrow’s lesson.”
There are currently more than 61,000 users of the site. Approximately 64.8% of their users are from Florida.
Unal is applying for grants for the program. He hopes it can expand with images, video, and audio capabilities in the future. He also wants to expand the site to add resources for college and high school students in the future.
