TeachScribe is one of 16 education tech companies to receive a share of £1 million in Government funding to build teacher AI tools for feedback, marking and driving education standards.
The aim of the AI tool, which is currently under development, is to help early years educators and teachers save time recording observations, enabling them to record more.
To use the tool, early years educators and teachers speak an observation into a microphone which is then transcribed onto a connected tablet. The observation is automatically linked to Development Matters and the most relevant Early Learning Goal. Educators and teachers can view all the observations within a child’s dashboard and determine manually if they have met, are working towards or haven’t met a goal.
Multiple early years staff within a setting will be able to wear a microphone with observations being transcribed onto one or a number of devices. The developers of the app are currently looking into ways of users being able to add photos in a ‘streamlined’ way.
Currently TeachScribe is in the development phase with schools and nurseries testing the app. It is expected the AI tool will be available to use widely in a year’s time. A subscription to TeachScribe will be charged on a per child basis.
In an exclusive interview with Nursery World, TeachScribe’s developer Ewan Dobres said, ‘The idea behind the app is to streamline the whole process of observations and assessments for early years educators and teachers.’
Dobres stressed how early years staff and teachers are time poor and often have to upload assessments at the end of the day onto an app they are using, which he said means they can forget things. Through TeachScribe they can record observations in real time, however.
Continuing to explain the advantages of TeachScribe, the developer said, ‘Currently when teachers come to review a child's progress, they are either tapping through an app or wading through sheets of paper. Under TeachScribe, each child has a dashboard with all their observations under the relevant early learning goal, opening up any blind spots teachers might have missed.’
Asked about how the AI tool accounts for error, Dobres explained, ‘We’ve got a number of measures in place to reduce errors.
‘We're able to make sure that the tool has measures in place so observations are tagged against the correct child, even if the audio quality is not great. We also have measures in place to make sure that nothing gets through that isn't an observation where a teacher might have held the button on the microphone by accident, or if someone comes in and shouts in the background.
‘We test all of the AI prompts. All of the instructions were rigorously tested before we put them into the app. We're able to test them on an ongoing basis with settings to make sure that every time the content the app generates is accurate.’
‘When people think of AI, they just think of Chat GPT and other open ended software where you ask a question and the AI provides an answer. With TeachScribe there is no way for the teachers or anyone to input free form questions and it follows very narrowly defined tasks.'
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said, 'Artificial Intelligence presents a truly transformative opportunity to modernise education. I'm determined to seize this opportunity with both hands - our children's education is far too important not to benefit from advances that are already delivering remarkable results across society, from helping police identify criminals to improving cancer screening in our NHS.
'These tools show just how far AI can go in our classrooms - not replacing teachers with robots, but freeing up valuable time for those vital pupil interactions. My ambition is for every teacher in the country to be using AI to deliver a world-class education in the next few years, boosting standards and helping us deliver our Plan for Change.'
- TeachScribe is looking for nurseries and childminders to take part in the continued development phase of the tool to provide feedback. To register your interest email: office@teachscribe.com
