Why Flint
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Case Study
How McDonogh School used Flint to embrace AI across subjects and grade levels
Lulu Gao | lulu@flintk12.com
Aisha Bryant | LinkedIn
Ned Courtemanche | LinkedIn
Jul 16, 2024
Case Study Summary
An introduction of Aisha Bryant and Ned Courtemanche
Aisha Bryant:
I am the Director of Educational Technology for Pre-K through 12th grade. My main responsibilities include leveraging different platforms and applications to help enhance the classroom experience for both teachers and students. I act as a liaison for teachers and staff who want to try new things and pilot new ideas and I am constantly thinking about the link between pedagogy and technology and how that interaction and integration should look. I offer teachers the support that they need, either through training or by providing a collaborative space to brainstorm ideas on how to integrate technology in an intentional way.
Ned Courtemanche:
I'm the chair of the history department at McDonogh School. I have a foot in both camps—teaching high school history at different levels and then also working as a kind of middle manager. That means I’m helping to lead our curriculum redesign, taking point on teacher evaluation and hiring, running placements, meeting with members of our community who have questions, concerns, etc. But, again, I still get to teach. It's a nice foot in both camps, especially as we get to explore Flint, I get to think about it from both administrator and teacher perspectives.
McDonogh’s initial impressions of Flint
How did you all come across Flint, and what were you looking for in an AI platform?
Aisha Bryant:
The initial question was, “What can we find that's going to be a robust platform?” We wanted to provide all of our teachers, no matter the content area, a space to really explore AI in the education world and in the classroom. We were looking for that intentionality. In a space like AI, the explosion into the education world happened for many very rapidly, but it has been building for many, many, many years. So we wanted to think through and not just dive into any and every possible AI platform. We really thought about what is going to reach everyone or as close as we can get to everyone and offer a lot of different options for our teachers and for our students.
Also, we needed a tool that satisfies the privacy piece and makes sure that our students and our teachers are getting that experience with AI, but in a safe way. We needed to be able to still protect data and privacy, which is part of our mission and part of our tech goals.
So, in looking through all of the different platforms, Flint really rose to the top in many, many ways as far as what the platform offers, the safety and privacy that they consider, and its ability to act as a space where we could have a History teacher and a Math teacher and an English teacher all working within the same platform. It really encompassed every possible avenue and that was really important. One of my main goals is that it's intentional and there's going to be value added no matter who it is who is experiencing or exploring that platform.
As a teacher, what were your first impressions of Flint?
Ned Courtemanche:
I was first introduced to Flint through Aisha as we were just demoing a ton of stuff. She would send me three or four different things, asking, “What do you think of this? What do you think of this?” And then December of last year, Aisha said, “Hey, this one's really promising.” From my perspective, seeing that Flint had already been working with a couple of schools that were similar to ours, I thought there must be something here, and I really wanted to check it out.
I was really having fun playing with AI, and I wanted to try and get the kids more involved. My two biggest concerns were the 13-year age minimum with OpenAI’s GPTs and not being able to prompt enough to avoid being the most verbose and overly helpful. It was fun, but it wouldn’t have been helpful for things in class that required the withholding of some degree of information. And so with even the earliest form of Flint, we were still lightyears ahead of just the open sea of AI tools. I had much more control over how forthcoming I wanted the chatbot to be. I think the ease of use with Flint giving me tons of ideas and helping to pre-populate a lot of the assignments was really, really helpful.
Getting teacher buy-in at McDonogh
How did you go about rolling out the platform?
Aisha Bryant:
There was a core group of faculty that were really eager and had already been exploring on their own a lot of different AI platforms and even brainstorming what they could possibly do with this tool. That group really helped drive so much and made calls on which direction to go in and knew where we were going to get traction with other teachers.
So thinking about the rollout, I checked in with that first core group, asking what questions they still had, what they liked, what was missing, etc. Asking all of those questions and really knowing that that group dug into Flint and tested what we would potentially use this for—that is what sells it for me, really, is that if we have a group of teachers who liked Flint, their opinions are what matters.
While we were thinking through those questions and how we can really leverage AI, they became a kind of think tank for how we could potentially roll this out. We always have our early adopters, and then we have that in between where we’ve got to show what the platform can do and offer some time for people to explore and be curious about it.
How did you accommodate the different teacher learning curves?
Aisha Bryant:
We had that window of time—during which a Flint team member even came on campus—where we offered a lot of tutorials and introductions to our divisions one at a time because our lower, middle, and upper schools are different. I think of them as three different children, each with their individual personalities. Making sure that we were really attentive to the direct needs of each of those divisions, we worked on making that introduction for our lower school, an introduction for our middle school, and an introduction for our upper school, and then started to roll out smaller opportunities for those who were curious.
So that next tier of faculty, the curious ones, wanted to see a little bit more and were intrigued but were not quite sure they were ready to jump in with both feet. Being able to have the Flint staff available for Zoom calls for individual meetings was really helpful because I think a lot of times when we're trying to roll platforms out, there’s the question of, “Am I going to be supported if I try?” This is really huge. Being able to show that there is support or there is information readily available is really another key component when we do role platforms out.
Most recently, we decided we are adopting Flint as that platform for the next year at least, and that moving forward, for any student-facing AI use this is the platform that we would like our teachers to use. Now, let's build that baseline and really make sure that everyone has experienced Flint and everyone understands what the possibilities are.
We'll continue smaller workshops like the prompting piece and all of those other parts of how we can really leverage the platform in a way that's going to be beneficial for teachers, beneficial for our students. We've moved away from McDonogh just having a few techie teachers to “this is who we are and this is our mission to be future-facing”. All of our teachers have experienced this in some way. Some are going to integrate it in a really great, very meaningful way. Some are going to do it here and there. Some are going to still explore it on their own and until they feel comfortable. We know that we have all of those different levels, but we know at a baseline we at least have trained our faculty.
Working with people in a specific department, how did you get teacher buy-in or help with the learning curve of using AI?
Ned Courtemanche:
To Flint's credit, both from an admin and teacher perspective, you guys really have the human touch. Each and everywhere you step, from your visits to campus to the popup on Flint’s main page asking, “Hey, how can I help you?” I've used that feature quite a bit, the response is so quick and you feel as if there's always somebody there to support. Teachers are already giving their students every waking moment so there isn’t always lots of bandwidth to change things up. I think your team has done such a great job of taking what can be, for your average overworked teacher, overwhelming, scary, and something you want to ignore and making it a little more human and really friendly, really helpful. That has been a game changer as we encourage teachers to get more involved.
Two other things that have been really helpful have been the ability to share different tutors. I could make stuff and then scale it really quickly and just tell my colleagues to check it out. In particular, we were able to find some success with our freshman team of four teachers. They’re a tight-knit group and we could whip something up for a common unit and then share that out immediately. That was really, really useful and helpful that they didn't necessarily have to get under the hood to tinker with things. Lastly, like I said earlier, the fact that Flint pre-populates so much ahead of time so that an overwhelmed teacher can just give one prompt and, within two clicks, they're up and running and trying it out and brainstorming new ideas. With the revise feature, that magic wand sort of box at the bottom there, they can give continued suggestions too. I think the ease of use there is about as easy as it gets with still a ton of functionality and abilities at their fingertips.
Aisha Bryant:
To jump in, I think Ned is not giving himself enough credit. As the department chair for history and our English department, he knew the fear that many, many educators had around AI really kind of seeping into the classroom. That's what it felt like—a slow seep or maybe a flood in many ways. But, they got their teams together to really have open discussions about what they were worried about, what they needed to consider, and what ways in which the departments could stay ahead of, but also control and encourage AI use in the way that we want.
Ned really acknowledged how his team was feeling and some of the questions and concerns that they had. While we were promoting Flint and saying it is a great platform, there was also space to say I'm frustrated or I'm worried about X, Y, and Z. The type of platform that we have has to acknowledge those questions and those fears and those worries.
I was able to come and sit in and listen to these conversations. That's what really helps to guide whether we think a platform is going to survive in our school, when we know that we can at least address and answer those questions and we have something to help provide that safety net for our teachers. It's not going to be perfect, but having that space and being able to acknowledge those feelings within training and other workshops really helped get buy-in.
Training faculty, especially in the Lower School
Tell us more about the PD session you held for the whole school at the end of the school year.
Aisha Bryant:
It was the time of year I was a bit worried about. We do have teachers who are, at the end of the year, not thinking about or don't want to be pressured to think about next year. We had our early adopters who have been just cranking away who feel experienced at this point, we have the middle of the road, and then we have some teachers who are still very worried and have not used any form of AI in their classroom. So, how could we provide a good session where they're going to walk away with new information, maybe something that they can use? That's our philosophy of those workshops—when someone gives us their time, I want to make sure that they can walk away with something that they could potentially use tomorrow. We wanted to really develop a baseline for our faculty.
So, we had a full plenary session. We wanted to give a general overview of Flint. Many people had experienced it in some way, but we wanted a refresher for just a few minutes for those who hadn’t. We had reached out to our teachers who were using it, having opinions on both ends. They could show what worked well, what didn't, and how they adjusted and tweaked and saw where it went from there. It’s amazing how our faculty are just willing to step up. In June, while putting grades in and comments, they were willing to give their time to run two 30- or 45-minute sessions about some aspect of AI and Flint that they were using. That was a great way for us to give choice as well—we know not everyone is interested in the same things, so providing choice and a way for them to sign up kind of like a conference was really helpful.
Having the support of those faculty members who were eager and happy to provide whatever we needed also created more of a peer-to-peer relationship, too. Our teachers need to see that it’s their colleagues leading this, talking about how they used it. I could talk all day, but I'm not in the classroom every day. It's so important for those connections to happen, and for our early adopters or those who have been using it in an intentional way, celebrating with all of their work was really important as well.
So, we had two different sessions. I think teachers had 11-12 different choices. Most of our faculty ran the same one just two times so everyone would have the opportunity to experience those workshops. And then from there, it was really just giving them time to actually dive into the platform and work and explore and potentially come in with their teaching materials or just thinking through real scenarios where they’d use Flint. That's how the workshop day ran. I'm hoping that we can continue that style as we move into the new school year and really touch on different ways that you can use the platform.
McDonogh is special in how you all have decided to roll out Flint truly school-wide, especially in the lower school. How did you decide to and go about rolling it out to those younger age groups?
Aisha Bryant:
That's a great question. We initially rolled it out to upper school, then middle school, then lower school. What we decided to do was roll Flint out from the teacher's perspective and how Flint could help and assist a teacher, whether it's a lesson plan, different activities, etc.
But what was great to talk about, and I know this is something that you and I talked about early on, is how can our younger students engage with Flint. What if this was the opening question or an exit ticket or an activity where small groups are interacting and the teacher may be putting in the responses—thinking about kids sitting on a rug and they're interacting with the AI and answering questions together in that collaborative space—I think that resonated with our younger grade levels.
Then, as we thought about the 3rd, 4th grade area, how AI would help in a small group or independent work was really critical. We really started with the teacher side, showing behind the scenes here's what Flint can do, and here's how Flint can really enhance or support the classroom experience. That planning aspect was the first level for the lower school rollout.
Then, thinking about how the lower school teachers may not have their kids working with Flint this year, but how can we start to build some of that capacity where they get more comfortable with it and I’m starting to think through how a young student can interact and engage. That's the next step and push for us.
And, having the “friendly AI” and the ability to have GPT-4 in a safe, secure way really provides huge possibilities. Even when we're thinking about a fourth grader who is starting to learn the writing process and seeking help on a thesis statement or how to start, for example. The next level for us with our lower school is really getting them to understand where Flint can be a part of the process. It's not just the beginning and or the end, but maybe it's right in the middle where a student has started a writing project and could use some feedback from the AI.
And again, just helping to build the muscle for our teachers. I have a particular topic. I have five groups. What ideas or what questions should I be asking? Getting them to just try that, so then what they're bringing to the table contains a reflection of what I can take from what Flint has provided to really make a unique experience for students.
Even just the text-to-speech and speech-to-text enabling the young students to listen to the prompt or question, to listen to the feedback, and the ability for a student to just say what they're thinking—this was critical in deciding whether we would go with Flint or not because we're thinking about every student. That audio piece is huge for every grade level. I think we think just our younger students need this, but sometimes the barrier for letting out all of the creative juices is sitting and typing or figuring out what word I need or the sentence structure. The ability for students to just start talking is critical, especially for our younger grade levels as well.
Uses and impact of Flint
For Ned, what initially excited you about Flint? What sparked the feeling you could use this in class or for yourself?
Ned Courtemanche:
Having experienced the open ocean and played around with ChatGPT, I was thinking, “This is so powerful, but how would I bring this into the classroom?” Flint had already put a lot of prompting in there that allowed me to quickly create tutors, customize them, share them, and have students login so easily.
Even when a student ran into technical issues, I could easily go to the feedback within the system itself. It's amazing how quickly you guys respond to requests. Technology is rarely perfect, and the fact you guys were able to be there and immediately follow up was so hugely helpful, especially if I was a teacher who wasn’t fully invested and just sort of trying it out, lack of tech support could have so easily been used as an excuse to not give it a shot.
I was just able to share the link to a tutor. We use Canvas, so I was able to just post it into an assignment with the link right there. Everything this year was formative assessment and I think for us as a school, formative is just as important as summative. All the possibilities when it comes to formative assessment with Flint, it's just endless.
How did Flint assignments play out in your classes?
Ned Courtemanche:
An early memory involved the realization that I could check in on students, and that really surprised them. I remember my juniors were feeling all cocky and just giving it one-word responses. And I asked, let’s say Timmy, “What’re you up to?” And he said, “I'm doing my work, Courtemanche.” I responded, “I don't think so, buddy,” and I projected his session up on the board just because I knew this student could handle it and the class was like, “Oh my God!” He was so embarrassed, but it was a great reminder this wasn't just the open ocean. I'm with you. This is a classroom. This is an educational space and I'm still the teacher. It was encouraging to the students knowing we mostly used Flint not for an actual grade, but rather for small-scale, formative, low-stakes opportunities to practice.
Next, I was transitioning to more skilled practice. One of the toughest things for us is creating skill practice around writing. Taking ten minutes to just practice thesis statements and just keep giving them questions and they have to respond—that's such an easy thing for an LLM to do and for me to prompt. Also, it doesn't have to be about history. It can be about topics that are more accessible to them. It's just a great chance to get reps in without me having to either go hunt up some sort of handout or make it myself. Before, I might've spent an hour creating an assignment for in-class skill work, and I’d feel really good about it until it only took the students ten minutes to complete in class. That's not even close to a one-to-one investment of time. That's a terrible ratio—totally unsustainable over the course of a school year! Flint immediately flipped that age-old equation so that I might spend a minute prompting a tutor to run ten minutes of high-quality skill practice for my class.
Last thing, in the spring as some of my juniors also were like, "Oh no, another AI assignment! Courtemanche, you're such a geek," we actually leaned into some of the more creative scenarios. For me, it brought back the joy of the unknown—when you're prompting AI to create or recreate historical scenarios for the students to live and interact with. One of my class’ favorite open-ended tutors had them playing the role of a US diplomat trying to stave off war in the Philippines prior to that atrocious conflict in 1898. To succeed, the students had to recall and apply a challenging homework reading on the history of the Philippines-American War to find creative solutions to a preventable conflict that stole hundreds of thousands of lives. Talk about a charged classroom environment! And talk about a powerful example of why the humanities matter and how, so often, peace is possible. All it took was my dreaming up the scenario, explaining it to Flint in plain English, uploading the night’s homework and it ran all forty of my students through forty unique simulations. It was a total highlight.
Also, I guess I prompted it, but then, Flint did most of the heavy lifting and its versatility also allowed me to keep the tool fresh. There's certain edtech tools that, you know, they're kind of one-hit wonders. That's cool, maybe they do something like jeopardy lab really well, but you can only use it so often. At some point, teenagers are teenagers, and they're gonna roll their eyes at whatever the assignment is, no matter how interesting. So I respect and love Flint because I just think the possibilities are pretty endless. It's really fun that, ultimately, I don't see an end to what we could keep tinkering with next year. That's really exciting for me as a teacher.
Were there other ways that teachers used Flint that surprised you?
Aisha Bryant:
For our PE and athletics department, like the coaches, oftentimes these workshops and tutorials about different platforms aren’t useful to them. But with Flint, we were able to show them ways in which it could help plan a practice, talk about athlete wellness, prepare for a competition, or act as an AI sports psychologist. Our coaches and our PE staff were shocked, “Are you serious? This is something that we can really dive into.” Thinking about nutrition, thinking about workout plans—those uses were really, really interesting. Or if a coach was thinking, “My team is just not communicating from the defensive standpoint.” They could ask Flint and get a practice plan. It was eye-opening. I had our athletic directors come up and say this workshop and actually seeing how we can use it in their space was really, really cool and eye-opening.
And so that was another benefit. But as Ned said, I think those scenarios he was able to try with students were so great. Students were really pushed to critically think about something, pull in their experiences, pull in knowledge that they've learned, and then try, “Okay, what if I said this…” and see where things go. I don't know how else we could recreate that without Flint.
Future of AI at McDonogh
What is the future vision for AI at McDonough?
Aisha Bryant:
It's definitely talked about frequently, these modern skills are no longer just an added benefit. It is something that as an educational institution, it is our responsibility to help students understand that space and be able to use it in an ethical way—be able to have practice in making those decisions. The only way that they can do that is by having exposure and experiences and opportunities. So AI for us, we're talking about modern skills at McDonough and thinking about what that encompasses. It's no longer digital citizenship. It's just like living in our world, and there are things that you just have to understand.
One thing we did with our 9th graders this year was diving deeper into how AI works. Getting behind the scenes or under the hood about large language models, facial recognition, etc. That gave us the opportunity to talk about bias, sources for all of this data, and when AI is answering a prompt or a question that you've put in, how it generates an answer. So, we hope that students are now not only using it but also understanding where the response is coming from.
We hope that this just becomes part of how we teach and that AI will help to produce new spaces and new questions that our faculty can ask their students. That's almost the hardest part. Looking at my curriculum—which is what they live and breathe, and it's very, very personal—and thinking, “What can I now explore because AI can take care of these other pieces?” The next step of how AI becomes part of planning, becomes part of the curriculum, becomes part of what students are using and routines are built around this platform—I think that's where I would love it to go.
Ned Courtemanche
Aisha and I have both lived through many a tech trend in education. And no surprise, we had a few teachers who were very upfront with us last year who said, “I am an ostrich when it comes to AI. I'm ignoring it, and I'm just going to do my thing.” But AI found a way into their classrooms just the same and so we’re all preparing for a new educational landscape in 2024-25.
So for next year, we will continue to build and share valuable FlintAI tutors with our team while really leaning into AI’s role in humanities research, analysis, and communication. What does it mean to write in a scholarly, professional way with AI as a copilot? Certainly, our math and science departments are just coming on to Flint’s new GPT 4o capabilities. We were all impressed with those really cool videos of Sal Khan's son practicing trigonometry with a talking, seeing AI tutor —and that's using the same back end that Flint is built upon. I imagine that next year we will have some early adopter types in those departments as they are just beginning to stretch their legs on the Flint platform.
And then lastly, and I think this is a really important value proposition, is the work you've been doing—building cool stuff and floating it out there to folks. The barriers to other schools within the larger, cross-school Flint community are becoming less. If we start sharing really awesome tutors with people around the world, you're creating an ecosystem that is incredible. I think Flint has built so much architecture on top of AI that is a huge value proposition in and of itself. And, of course, the team and the human side of what you guys do is so important in the school world. We really are looking for partners, not necessarily just cool platforms.
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