Starting To Build Our Collective Toolbox
There are a lot of cool AI tools available - which one will be right for your needs?
Today’s post is going to feel a bit like trying to get a sip of water from the firehose.
While it might feel overwhelming, I think when we see a cool toolbox full of toys and gadgets, sometimes you just want to explore what’s inside before going deep into the intricacies of any single tool.
So let’s do a rundown of some of the bigger players in the “AI for Education” market.
KHANMIGO: Any discussion of AI tools for schools has to start with Khanmigo. There are a couple of significant reasons why they are the market leader:
They partnered early with OpenAI, getting access to GPT4 two summers ago before the rest of us had even heard of ChatGPT. In fact, their partnering with OpenAI helped make GPT4 what it is, and better at math than it was previously.
They sit on a huge database of learning, including lessons, videos, and activities - all of which gives them a competitive advantage because they own the data.
Khan Academy is ubiquitously used by schools of all sizes, from big public school districts to small micro-schools and homeschool pods.
At just $4 per user (current discount level), Khanmigo allows anyone to hit the 2 Sigma problem head on, by engaging a Socratic Instructor right alongside the well-known lessons at every grade level, from emerging readers to college-level classes.
When you get stuck (we all get stuck at some point), Khanmigo is right there in the sidebar to ask questions, and help break down the problem set in ways that have proved most helpful for other learners. I’ve heard it doesn’t always maintain its Socratic mode to never answer a question - but I haven’t experienced that directly myself (yet). All LLM’s are designed to satisfy the user so maintaining the Socratic role is a challenge.
Lastly - our main focus for today is looking at tools we can put in the hands of even our youngest learners. Khanmigo does that well, AND there is also a set of tools designed specifically for educators built into the Dashboard.
SUMMARY: Both from a cost and collective platform perspective, Khanmigo should be the starting reference point for all the other AI learning platforms.