Xavier has implemented Flint-AI, a new resource for teachers and students. This is part two of a three-part story about the migration of technology at an all-girls school.
Flint, a teacher-programmed AI website, has recently been introduced to Xavier. It has been included in some of the classroom curriculum and teachers are starting to prefer it.
Flint-AI can be used by students on their personal devices. It helps students learn through many different features that help them understand what they are learning without giving exact answers to them. It helps students think for themselves and gives them help that some teachers can’t deliver.
Flint allows teachers to add specific parameters so that students can get help but not necessarily get answers.
Compared to ChaptGPT, Flint AI is more compatible with teachers in the classroom. It is easier for teachers to monitor what the students are saying and receiving.
English teacher Shannon Donaldson uses Flint-AI in her AP Socratic Seminar class. She prefers it over ChatGPT or other AI apps and websites that students have used in the past because she can watch what her students are doing and see the suggestions that Flint-AI gives them.
“For AP Seminar, the hardest part about that class is teaching a research question,” Donalsdon said. With Flint-AI she has support and can easily help her students with getting concise research questions.
Gina Iker, theology teacher, also uses Flint-AI. She likes that it has a tutor review complex and it processes information.
“It can be useful for processing information, but not necessarily coming up with a finished product,” Iker said. Flint AI doesn’t give the student an answer but rather helps her come up with one.
Although Flint-AI has good features, it isn’t perfect. “It can be useful, but it can’t be useful for creating assignments or grading those assignments,” Iker said. Students benefit more from Flint AI than the teachers do. Flint-AI can and has been used as an in-class tutor for students.
Flint is unique because, unlike other AI websites and apps, it does not give the student the answer. Instead, it prompts the student to think and figure out the answer for herself.
Flint-AI is still a newer technological feature and the Xavier students and faculty are still learning and getting used to it.
