Seesaw’s Commitment to the Responsible Use of AI in Primary Classrooms

Empowering Teachers to Evaluate, Differentiate and Communicate Efficiently

“As a company dedicated to supporting the unique needs of young learners, we are committed to implementing AI in a thoughtful, responsible manner that prioritizes the safety, well-being, and developmental needs of our students. We are working closely with schools and educators to harness the power of this technology to create more inclusive, joyful learning environments that foster growth and a love for learning.”

Matthew Given Chief Executive Officer, Seesaw

Introduction

Seesaw was founded to support the unique needs of early learners with a platform that gives teachers tools to support their diverse classrooms, empower students to showcase their learning in a variety of ways, and engage families in their child’s learning process. Over the past decade, Seesaw has grown into a global Learning Experience Platform that is trusted and loved by 25 million educators, students, and families in over 150 countries. At the heart of our philosophy is the commitment to support joyful and connected learning experiences for our youngest learners.

As artificial intelligence (AI) begins to influence education, we recognise the potential benefits and risks of integrating this emerging technology into primary classrooms. It is essential for edtech companies – especially those serving our youngest learners – to approach the use of AI in primary education with thoughtfulness, transparency, and a commitment to protecting the privacy of students.

Seesaw is committed to the responsible use of AI in our products and services. The purpose of this report is to articulate Seesaw’s approach to AI in primary education, focusing on three essential principles that are fundamental to every aspect of our work:

1

Provide transparency on how AI will be incorporated into the Seesaw platform:

Seesaw will continue to clearly communicate where we integrate AI into our products, emphasising the ways in which AI is used to empower educators and enhance student learning experiences.

2

Ensure the safety and age-appropriateness of AI features for primary students:

In partnership with educators, Seesaw carefully evaluates the risks and benefits of AI for young learners, implementing only those features that are safe, developmentally appropriate, and conducive to student learning. We will continue to maintain the highest standards when it comes to student safety and privacy.

3

Empower educators and keep a human in the loop:

We are building AI to support – rather than replace – the critical role of teachers. We believe adults are key to Seesaw and are committed to keeping an adult in the loop whenever AI is used, ensuring that students’ experiences remain safe, equitable, and guided by human judgement.

Seesaw’s AI Philosophy and Product Principles

Seesaw’s ethos has always been centred around strengthening and expanding the learning loop between administrators, teachers, students, and families. Our AI-powered products align with this philosophy, aiming to make teaching and learning more joyful, inclusive, and connected for the entire school community.

AI is not going to replace human teachers or family members. We believe that AI’s potential lies in giving educators more time to do what they do best – support their students’ diverse learning needs. By empowering educators with AI-enhanced tools and resources, Seesaw supports their efforts in creating engaging and effective learning environments. In practice, this includes the following:

Adult in the Loop:

When AI is used, there is an adult in the loop to ensure students’ experience in Seesaw are safe and equitable. Students do not have access to generative AI features, like Chatbots or text generators.

Human Edit or Override:

Educators have the opportunity to review and edit any content generated by AI (e.g., edit an assessment before it’s shared to students or override a mark generated from a machine voice transcription).

Safety, Privacy and Abuse Prevention:

All AI applications adhere to Seesaw’s industry-leading safety, privacy and abuse prevention policies.

Disclose Use of AI: When AI is used, we disclose it in the product and our Help Center.

Consent:

We will not use your data for training our AI models without your consent.

“I think the most immediate benefit of AI is the time saving it can provide for teachers in their lesson planning. The examples I’ve seen around differentiation, scaffolding, question design, etc. are quite amazing! As far as the use by elementary students, I am more reluctant, but I think we will see some very exciting advancements in adaptive learning personalized to student needs, so I’m enthusiastic about that. Some of the image generators have interesting possibilities within lesson design as well.”

Justin Huntley Curriculum Administrator Technology, Eugene 4J School District

Practical Applications of Seesaw in AI

Seesaw will use AI to support educators and enhance the learning experience for primary students. By integrating AI-powered features into its platform, Seesaw aims to create a more efficient, personalised, and engaging learning environment that caters to the unique needs of young learners. You will see AI show up in our products in several ways:

Translation between 100+ languages:

Seesaw uses machine translation powered by Google Translate to make messages, text comments, text captions, and notes accessible in over 100 languages, promoting inclusivity and communication within the school community.

Question Assistant:

Seesaw’s Question Assistant allows teachers to search for and create formative assessment questions that can be used to gauge student understanding and identify areas for improvement.

Reading Fluency Assessment:

Launching in August 2024, this tool will analyse student reading recordings, providing teachers with valuable data on accuracy, words correct per minute, and specific reading challenges. Teachers will have the ability to override machine-generated accuracy scores to ensure fair evaluations.

Read-with-Me Narrated Passages:

Launching in August 2024, this feature will leverage AI to create narrated passages with word-level highlighting, supporting emerging readers by reinforcing the connection between spoken and written language.

Conclusion

By adhering to these commitments across every aspect of our work, we believe we can establish the gold standard for the safe, equitable and effective use of AI with young students. We understand that the most powerful educational technology is useless if it isn’t safe, and we believe that the best learning experiences take place between students, educators and families. We welcome ongoing feedback and dialogue from educators, families, and the wider educational community as they continue to navigate the evolving landscape of AI in education.

Questions? Please contact us at districthelp@seesaw.me.