According to the company’s website, Edthena’s new AI Coach has resources to help teachers with a range of tasks including managing student behavior, facilitating group discussions, providing feedback for students and culturally responsive teaching. A news release said AI Coach runs on any web browser and includes a virtual assistant called Edie, which asks teachers pointed questions about their goals. From the initial interaction, through text communication, Edie helps teachers develop personalized, short-term goals for improvements in a predetermined amount of time. When it’s time for the teacher to develop a strategy for making progress, the platform offers curated content to help achieve their goal. The four cycles involved in this process — Analyze, Reflect, Enact and Impact — each run about two weeks.
After the teacher implements the change within their classroom and collects new data, that data goes to Edie, according to the company’s website.
The news release said this process gives teachers many of the same benefits as in-person instructional coaching, which the company’s CEO Adam Geller noted is not always readily available.
“Ensuring that a coach is available for every teacher on a regular basis to support ongoing reflection was a near-impossible task until now,” he said.
Professional learning for teachers isn’t a new frontier in the ed tech space, with companies such as Discovery Education, KQED Education and Frontline Education offering digital classroom content and online options for professional development, but Edthena says its new tool is the first to use A.I. to design personalized programs for teachers.
Geller, who founded Edthena in 2011, stressed that while the software was developed with input from experienced instructional coaches, it’s not meant to replace them — just to help school districts when coaches are not immediately accessible.
“The platform is meant to help every school and district provide more coaching and feedback than they can deliver today,” he said.
The news release said AI Coach is in development and testing with teachers now, likely to become available to all teachers in the fall.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a more specific description of AI Coach's similarity and difference to other professional development tools for teachers.
