Balancing AI Innovation with Student Protection

With AI poised to impact the educational landscape increasingly, Pear Deck Learning and GoGuardian (Pear Deck Learning’s parent company) have been at the forefront of creating trustworthy AI-powered solutions for schools for over 10 years, and continue to innovate into the future. At the core of our mission lies a belief in the capabilities of such technology and its role in education. This belief also comes with a dedication to and understanding of responsibility toward the students, teachers, and districts who trust us with their digital learning experiences.

Tyler Shaddix, co-founder, says GoGuardian was founded with the explicit goal of marrying innovations in technology with a dedicated focus on improving educators' and students' lives. As part of the GoGuardian digital education system, this goal is echoed throughout the Pear Deck Learning platform. 

“As a result, AI has always been at the center of what we do, because it provides a tremendous opportunity to help keep students safe and help educators accomplish their educational goals, as long as it's consistently grounded in ethical best practices, thoughtful design, and rigorous validation,” Shaddix explains.

‍

Since 2017, we have been leading the EdTech market in the purposeful integration of AI into our digital education system, pioneering responsible innovations that enhance student safety, improve learning experiences, and streamline workflows for educators. Our mission has consistently focused on combining the best in learning science with the latest technological capabilities to help our customers achieve positive learning outcomes for all students. Through the use of AI, we have maximized efficiencies, enabled personalized learning, and increased effectiveness in both the classroom and beyond, while always maintaining a careful and purposeful approach to privacy and data security.

Maximizing efficiency with the AI-powered Pear Deck Learning Platform

The role of AI in education goes far beyond safety — it allows us to create personalized learning experiences and make teaching and learning more efficient and effective. We’ve built AI into almost every step of the student learning experience across our new Pear Deck Learning Platform – launching for back-to-school 2025-26 – to make sure the next step of any lesson is always one click away.

Personalized experiences: AI is a game-changer when it comes to tailoring content, practice, feedback, and assessments to meet the unique needs of each student. We use AI to generate engaging instructional materials that introduce new topics in ways that resonate with the diverse needs of students, helping teachers better connect with their learners across learning styles and interests. AI also creates personalized practice questions and provides real-time feedback to students as they work through content, helping them to focus on areas where they need improvement.

Efficient workflows: For educators, AI streamlines time-consuming tasks and provides data-driven insights that enhance decision-making, including:

• Automated assessments - AI generates assessment questions aligned with curriculum standards, reducing the workload for teachers while ensuring assessments are consistent with learning objectives.
  
  
• Student performance analysis - AI helps identify when students need interventions by continuously analyzing their performance and detecting patterns that may signal areas of struggle or need for additional support.
  
  
• Personalized interventions - Based on proactive data, AI curates tailored interventions for students, leveraging learning science principles like Pear Practice and tools like Instant Insights. These generative recommendations help educators apply effective teaching strategies and ensure timely, targeted support for students who need it most.

By embedding AI across instruction, practice, assessment, and intervention, the Pear Deck Learning Platform enables a learning journey that is more efficient, personalized, and impactful. These innovations make it easier for educators to meet the diverse needs of their students and provide more individualized support.

Responsible AI: Our principled approach

One of the early leaders in responsible AI, we have worked thoughtfully to help shape the industry’s approach to education-safe AI through designing, implementing, and sharing our own set of Responsible AI Principles. These emphasize our unwavering commitment to harnessing the benefits of technology while prioritizing student safety and well-being. 

Beyond promoting these principles, we go the extra mile of getting independently certified as fully compliant with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), and all applicable state student data privacy laws. We are also a proud inaugural member of the EdSAFE AI Industry Council, an organization dedicated to promoting education-safe AI principles and practices.

AI at the core of the GoGuardian Suite

In addition to Pear Deck Learning, GoGuardian has long been a trailblazer in using AI to improve student safety and educator productivity. We were the first to introduce AI-powered content filtering and alerting in education, including revolutionizing the way schools ensure students can safely engage in online learning experiences. GoGuardian Admin analyzes student browsing activity and behaviors in real-time, automatically filtering harmful content and flagging potential risks to an educator to effectively manage activity when it’s happening. Today, GoGuardian Admin remains the most preferred K-12 web filtering solution.

We also introduced the first AI-powered suicide alerting based on student browsing and search patterns, providing timely alerts to school administrators to help identify students at risk and enable intervention. GoGuardian Beacon has been a cornerstone of our AI-driven approach to student safety and has prevented an estimated 18,623 students from physical harm since 2020.

GoGuardian’s suite of digital management and safety tools includes violence alerting, off-task mitigation, proxy detection, and website categorization — all powered by machine learning. These features automate administrative tasks, reduce distractions, and ensure educators can focus on instruction.

The future of AI in education

AI empowers educators to create personalized learning experiences, boosts efficiency in the classroom, and enhances student safety through proactive monitoring and alerting. These advancements not only save valuable time for educators but also ensure students are more engaged, supported, and safer than ever before.

At Pear Deck Learning, we’re excited about the future of AI in education and remain committed to using these tools in ways that protect and enhance the experiences of students and educators alike. We believe AI is an essential ally in building smarter, safer, and more personalized learning environments when applied with ethical best practices. The goal isn’t to replace educators but to empower them, making their jobs easier and more impactful by giving them the tools they need to focus on what matters most: Teaching and supporting students. 

As we continue to innovate, we’re dedicated to refining our approach, listening to feedback, and evolving with advancements in technology to best serve the education community.

Learn about our latest release in the Pear Deck Learning platform and how we are leveraging AI to support districts in meeting the everyday needs of their teachers to positively impact student outcomes.