CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — It seems like artificial intelligence is seeping into everything these days, and that includes classrooms.

“Our work is about improving the performance of learners and helping educators involved in that,” professor of education Mary Kalantzis said.

Professors of education Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis are pioneering what could be the future of education, and it all has to do with AI.

“It’s incredibly useful in a whole lot of ways,” Cope said. “So, how can we put that into a writing environment, a learning environment, where it actually helps the kids?”

Cope and Kalantzis started building online educational tools 20 years ago. Their most recent software, Cyber Scholar, allows teachers to customize an AI platform to the needs of their classroom. 

“What we say to the teacher is, ‘Look, it’s like having 30 of you, one for every kid, because you’ve told the AI what you wanted,’” Cope said. “What the AI says to every kid is different depending on what they’ve written.”

The technology’s goal is to improve writing. Teachers first upload a rubric and reading materials for an assignment, then students submit their work and the AI is able to give them feedback right away.

It doesn’t stop there. Once students get their initial feedback, they can push the AI to explain its reasoning and ask it questions.

“The students are like ducks to water,” Kalantzis said. “Even ones who have never used AI particularly, they love to do it.”

The software been tested in six classrooms across the country including two in Central Illinois. Before that, Cope and Kalantzis tried it out with their master’s and doctoral students at the university.

“Normally one person will put up their hand and the teacher will go over to that one person, answer that one person’s question,” Cope said. “But now with the material the teachers put in, everyone can be asking questions all the time, all at once and the teacher’s answering all the questions all at once.”

He said AI isn’t meant to replace teachers, but rather give them a new tool to take on the future. 

“[People are] worried teachers are going to be out of work,” Cope said. “No, they’re not going to be out of work. They’re going to have to be people who work with AI to make them more productive and make the learning experience for the students more effective.”

Cope and Kalantzis were given a $500,000 grant from the university in November. They said the next steps will be to collaborate with researchers across the country to increase the reach of Cyber Scholar.