Giving Tech Take:

· Educators discussed the instructional and ethical challenges that resulted from the use of personal assistant devices in the classroom at the Future of Education Technology Conference in Orlando. 

· What instructional and ethical challenges do these personal assistant devices present in the classroom? What are the legal issues?

· Read more about the use of personal assistant devices in the classroom.

Personal assistant devices including Google Home and Amazon Echo are proliferating rapidly, with an estimated 20% of U.S. adults (about 47.3 million) now owning one. With that spread, it was only a matter of time until they found their way into classrooms.

Artificial intelligence itself is no stranger to schools. Platforms such as TurnItIn are already used to grade students' work, detect plagiarism or provide other guidance. But these programs are all used under district licenses with student privacy safeguards in place, unlike consumer-focused personal assistant devices.

During a Sunday morning session at the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) in Orlando, two Massachusetts educators detailed the instructional and ethical challenges these devices present in the classroom, as well as their potential best uses.

Read the full article about personal assistant devices in the classroom by Roger Riddell at Education Dive.