What is it and why is it important?
Pilots provide a controlled environment to test Flint's impact before full implementation. A well-structured pilot helps identify best practices, address concerns, and build teacher confidence with the platform.
Setting up your pilot
Define your purpose
It's important to align with your school leadership on why your institution wants an AI platform:
- Students: Enhancing learning experiences and developing AI literacy
- Teachers: Reducing administrative workload and gaining data and insights into student thinking
- Administrators: Providing oversight and measuring educational impact
Build your pilot team
Invite at least 5-6 teachers with diverse perspectives:
- Include teachers from different subject areas and grade levels
- Seek both technology enthusiasts and thoughtful skeptics
- Identify potential champions who can help with broader onboarding later
💡 The key here is to find tinkerers—individuals who will be willing to push the product, finding its limits and unexpected opportunities.
Set up accounts and expectations
Set your pilot team up for success by providing:
- A basic introduction to Flint's capabilities and educational value.
- Communication channels for sharing inspiration, questions, and findings throughout the pilot (e.g. class chats, shared documents, group meetings, etc.).
- Dedicated, scheduled time for collaborative exploration alongside structured training.
- Teacher account access or importing users via your LMS/SIS.
The comprehensive guide to rolling out Flint at your school can he found here.
Below is an email draft that you can copy, customize, and send to your teachers to ensure they log into Flint seamlessly:
Pilot introduction email template
Subject: {School name} // Flint AI Pilot
Hi team,
As part of our effort to explore safe, structured AI adoption at {School Name}, we're launching a school-approved pilot with Flint—an AI platform built specifically for K–12.
Flint allows teachers and students to use AI within a secure environment and to build AI-powered activities. You can create activities where Flint will quiz your students on a topic, speak with them in a different language, assist them in problem solving, or give them feedback on writing.
We're inviting volunteers across various departments and grade levels to start trialing Flint with students over the next few weeks to help determine fit across our campus.
Next steps:
- Join our pilot school: {insert school link}
- Review the Getting Started Guide: Get Started with Flint (for Teachers)
- Try building student-facing activities, quizzes, or chatbots over the next two weeks
This 30-day pilot is key to shaping {School Name}'s school-wide AI strategy. Please plan to engage and share feedback with me along the way.
Please reach out if you have any questions or need support from me.
Thanks in advance for your participation—this is an exciting step forward for {School Name}.
Best,
{Name}
Pilot timeline
A pilot duration of 30 days for a whole-school rollout is typically enough to know whether Flint is the right fit for your community because:
- A time constraint encourages earlier adoption and testing
- Most teachers will form clear opinions within 2 weeks of active usage
Setting goals and measuring success
Key success indicators
Focus on these achievable metrics and evaluation techniques:
- Aim for 2-3 teachers to have consistent Flint usage, particularly with activities
- Have each teacher use Flint with at least two classes
- Monitor school analytics to track usage patterns over time
- Collect qualitative feedback through conversations with teachers and students
For context, top schools using Flint average (per 100 users per month):
- 5.6 new activities created
- 75.1 new chats initiated
Hitting these metrics means your pilot group has probably thoroughly tried Flint out enough to make a decision. If your group exceeds these numbers, that's often a good sign that they like Flint.
Beyond the pilot: sustaining engagement
Strategies you employ in the initial pilot can also help to sustain engagement beyond the pilot. Regular communication with teachers, showing your support of them exploring, and expanding their perceptions of what AI can do can help them learn to embrace Flint more and transform their teaching.
Ideas for engagement
| Method | Implementation/Examples | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Timely nudges | Share about Flint's capabilities when addressing other pain points teachers mention (e.g. grading, report writing, etc.) | Teachers find new uses for a tool they already have access to |
| Teacher collaboration | Pair teachers who are excited about Flint with those who are hesitant | Teachers teaching teachers is odten way more effective than top-down training |
| Promote reflection | Conduct surveys and have chats that cover what has gone well, what could be better, and what new initiatives have potential | Both you get insights into usage and impact and teachers are prompted to reflect on Flint's impact and think of new applications. |
| Emphasize support | Share availability for teachers to meet with you and/or channels for them to share feedback and concerns | Share feedback and concerns with the Flint team—we'll work quickly to resolve any issues your teachers face |
| Inform about product updates | Share relevant product updates (covered in our newsletters and What's new page) with relevant teachers | Teachers who maybe found Flint lacking in aspects before might be inspired to give it another shot with new updates |
| Host lunch and learns | These can be themed for specific grades, subjects, tasks, or assignment types. | Creating bite-sized learning opportunities can feel more accessible and digestable to teachers |
| Visit/plan department meetings | Encourage department heads to talk about Flint and/or visit department meetings to show them how Flint is relevant to their domain. | Aligning departmental expectations is very important and brainstorming together as a group can be fruitful. |
| Develop AI literacy | Have both teachers and students go through AI literacy training and/or courses (Flint offers some, linked at the end) | Not understanding AI is often what holds people back from using it more and/or what causes misuse |
| Train students how to use Flint | Show students how to use Flint: how to prompt chats and create activities for themselves and their peers | Student use can inspire teachers to want to learn more about Flint |
| Recognize and award usage | Host competitions and award users who are promoting creative uses of Flint | Positive reenforcement is a great way to encourage more exploration and promote word-of-mouth |
Successfully integrating AI requires patience and persistence. Even schools that have used Flint for years are still finding new uses for it. When setting up your initial pilot, consider multiple factors including teacher comfort, student readiness, and alignment with educational policies. As you evaluate your pilot, ask:
🤔 Does Flint offer a means for us to fully explore the possibilities of AI that we currently want to and will it grow with us as we grow?
Remember that meaningful technology integration is a journey, not a destination. You can check out the session recordings where we discussed the contents of this guide with other school leaders who also shared their experiences piloting Flint.
Additional Resources
- Campfire session recording on Flint pilots #1
- Campfire session recording on Flint pilots #2
- AI policy library
- AI literacy course for students
- AI literacy course for teachers
- Communicating with parents about AI guide
- Sharable templates for teacher use:
- Flint Community (for asking questions about, sharing triumphs in, and troubleshooting Flint)