SchoolAI's New Chrome Extension

I've talked plenty about SchoolAI and all their great new features, but this latest one is really a game changer. They recently released their Google Chrome extension that brings "Dot" into any website, video, or document! If you've used Brisk, it works very similarly to that - a little "S" floats around on your screen and you can click it to activate the extension and ask for things like lessons or project ideas or quizzes or you can ask it to level or translate the text. Just like Brisk, if you have it open in a Google Document or Slides, it can also provide feedback on writing and even give a playback of the writing process to help determine whether there were large copy/paste elements or how much time was spent creating it.

There are some great videos produced by SchoolAI demonstrating all of these features, but I'd like to share some specific ideas and hidden little features that make this Chrome extension worth the download.

Creating Resources

Resources can be created from any website or video, including things like short stories found on websites like CommonLit. For example, we recently had a class in the library that had just read The Most Dangerous Game. I was able to open that story up in CommonLit and open the SchoolAI Chrome extension. From there, I chose "Create a Resource" and selected "Performance Task".

Then I gave it some information about the class and told Dot that I wanted a task that involved a creative artifact at the end, but I wanted students to be able to choose different types of artifacts. For the record, this was the entirety of my prompt: "9th grade English. I want a task that involves a creative artifact at the end, but I want students to be able to choose between things like video, audio, poster, infographic, etc." Here's what I got (this is scrollable - click here to see and make a copy of the document):

Note that I didn't ask for accommodations or UDL suggestions. I didn't ask for a rubric or standards alignment. I just got it. If you wanted to ask for more specific content, you certainly could. If there were specific standards you wanted to meet or accommodations you wanted to include, you could ask for those in your prompt. But SchoolAI is designed as an educational AI tool, so it will always provide you with best-practice content!

Providing Feedback

I can't take full credit for this idea - I learned about this during a SchoolAI webinar with Blasia - the same person who made the videos linked above. But if any moment could be described as "🤯", it was when she showed us the SchoolAI Chrome extension's "Take Screenshot" option.

With the Brisk extension, you can provide feedback directly to student work in Google Classroom. This works on Google Documents and Slides. SchoolAI can of course do this too. But what happens if you assign something like an infographic or a poster or some other image or pdf file? You can open these in Google Classroom, but you can't use Brisk to help generate feedback. That's where SchoolAI stands out.

All you have to do is open the assignment in Google Classroom, open the extension, remove the attached website (it will try to upload your GC page otherwise, which will prompt an error), and say something like..."Help me provide feedback on this poster/infographic/project". It will then ask you to upload it. From there, click the "+" button and choose "Take Screenshot" then drag a box around the file. You can also opt to add a rubric or provide any details on the assignment if you want:

As you can see, I gave almost no detail, but still got a ton of great feedback on the image. The extension was able to read the text and see the images and provide pretty solid feedback! It even gave details on how to improve the grade to an A. This can work on literally anything that can be screenshot and it isn't limited to providing feedback.

A lot of times there are articles or websites that are behind paywalls - New York Times articles, database articles, etc. The extension may not be able to read the actual webpage, but you can always use a screenshot instead to get lesson plan ideas, quizzes, performance tasks, etc. One little tip - if the thing you are trying to screenshot is too large, zoom out in your browser using the "View" menu or Ctrl minus (-) until the whole thing is visible on your screen. You could also use the screenshot option to ask questions about or create resources from a graph or chart or a section of a pdf file. The possibilities are endless with this amazing little button!