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Google AI mode rolled out: Top features for students to learn faster, smarter

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The way we search for information is changing with developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google‘s AI Mode has officially launched for all users, bringing a fresh approach to how we find and learn information online. This new feature, built on the Gemini 2.5 system, marks a major shift in search technology.After just weeks of testing in Search Labs, AI Mode is now available to English-language users across India and beyond, and you no longer need to sign up for Google Labs to access it. In the coming days, as it is rolled out to more users, the feature will be available in both search and search bar in the google app. This change makes the feature accessible to everyone, moving beyond the traditional list of blue links. According to reports, the success of the initial experimental launch prompted Google to fast-track the broader rollout. Users consistently praised the speed and quality of responses, which led the company to make this powerful feature accessible to everyone without barriers.Traditional search often leaves us jumping between multiple tabs, piecing together information from various sources, and struggling to find complete answers to complex questions. AI Mode addresses these problems by providing clear, helpful responses that understand what you’re really looking for. Try these 7 useful features to improve how you learn.

Ask multiple queries simultaneously

Instead of breaking down your query into multiple searches, ask everything at once. For example, rather than searching separately for “indoor activities,” “kids age 6-8,” and “hot weather,” ask: “What are good indoor activities for energetic 6 and 8-year-olds when it’s too hot to go outside and we don’t have much space or special equipment?”AI mode processes all these parameters together, saving time and providing more targeted results.

Follow up with your searches

Take advantage of the conversation memory feature. After getting an initial response, ask for:

  • More specific details about certain points
  • Examples or step-by-step instructions
  • Alternative approaches or solutions
  • Clarification on complex concepts

The system remembers your original question, so you don’t need to repeat the context.

Use voice commands to go hands-free

Use voice commands when you’re cooking, commuting, or doing other activities. This is particularly useful for:

  • Getting recipe instructions while cooking
  • Learning about topics during commutes
  • Asking questions while exercising or walking
  • Accessing information when your hands are busy

Upload images for visual learning

Use Google Lens integration to:

  • Identify plants, animals, or objects you encounter
  • Get information about landmarks or artwork
  • Understand diagrams or charts
  • Translate text in images
  • Learn about historical artefacts or scientific specimens

Customise your learning path

Since AI mode provides organised, synthesised information, use it to:

  • Start with broad topic overviews
  • Then drill down into specific aspects
  • Ask for real-world applications
  • Request examples that relate to your situation
  • Get step-by-step guidance for practical tasks

Maximise the speed benefits

AI mode uses “query fan-out” technology to process questions quickly. To get the best results:

  • Be specific about what you want to learn
  • Include context about your current knowledge level
  • Ask for information in the format you prefer (lists, explanations, examples)
  • Specify if you want beginner, intermediate, or advanced information

Make the most of source integration

AI mode pulls information from multiple sources and presents it in a unified response. Use this feature by:

  • Checking the provided source links for deeper information
  • Asking for additional sources if you need more references
  • Requesting different perspectives on controversial topics
  • Asking for the most recent information on rapidly changing subjects





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England updates Keeping Children Safe in Education to include AI, cybersecurity, and digital misinformation — EdTech Innovation Hub

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The Department for Education (DfE) has published the 2025 edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), its statutory safeguarding guidance for all schools and colleges in England. The revised guidance, currently issued as a draft for information, is due to come into effect on September 1, 2025.

The update introduces several new references and expectations related to digital safeguarding, reflecting evolving risks around artificial intelligence, cyber-security, and online misinformation. These changes appear in Part Two of the document and are directed primarily at governing bodies, proprietors, and designated safeguarding leads.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories formally classified as online harms

Paragraph 135 of the 2025 guidance expands the DfE’s definition of harmful online content to include misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. These are now listed alongside existing risks such as pornography, racism, radicalization, self-harm, extremism, and online grooming.

The section emphasizes that technology is a significant component in many safeguarding and wellbeing issues and that children may be exposed to multiple risks simultaneously, both online and offline. The explicit addition of misleading and conspiratorial content signals a growing concern about its impact on children’s development, decision-making, and exposure to extremist ideas.

New guidance on AI use in education

Paragraph 143 introduces a direct link to the DfE’s product safety expectations for generative artificial intelligence in schools. While the KCSIE document itself does not prescribe how AI should be used, it highlights the need for appropriate filtering and monitoring systems when AI tools are accessible to students.

This addition aligns with broader departmental efforts to balance innovation in digital learning with safeguarding and data protection obligations.

Self-assessment tools for filtering and monitoring

In paragraph 142, the DfE recommends that schools and colleges use the ‘Plan Technology for Your School’ tool, an online resource that allows institutions to self-assess their filtering and monitoring infrastructure. The tool supports compliance with the DfE’s filtering and monitoring standards, which require schools to:

  • Identify and assign roles for managing digital safety systems

  • Review provisions annually

  • Block harmful content without disrupting teaching and learning

  • Implement effective monitoring strategies appropriate to their safeguarding needs

Cybersecurity standards added to support digital resilience

Paragraph 144 refers to the DfE’s cybersecurity standards for schools and colleges, which were developed in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). These standards outline the technical and procedural steps education providers should take to protect systems, data, and users from cyberattacks.

Recommended actions include regular backups, access control policies, secure configuration of devices and software, and procedures for responding to data breaches. The DfE urges institutions to periodically review their systems to ensure they remain resilient to emerging cyber threats.

Annual online safety review recommended

While not new, paragraph 145 reiterates the expectation that schools and colleges conduct an annual review of their online safety provision. This includes carrying out a risk assessment that reflects the specific threats facing their student population, especially those who are considered more vulnerable.

The guidance also points to free self-review tools such as 360safe and the LGfL online safety audit.

Additional changes unrelated to technology

While the 2025 update is primarily technical, it also includes broader safeguarding revisions such as:

  • Support for kinship care added to the role of Virtual School Heads (para 199)

  • Statutory status for attendance guidance (para 177)

  • Revised terminology aligned with the SEND Code of Practice (para 205)

  • Signposting to new RSHE and gender-questioning children guidance (paras 128, 204)

  • New resources such as Shore Space from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation (para 545) and safeguarding materials from the CSA Centre and The Children’s Society (Annex B)



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Threats to local school officials have nearly tripled, research finds : NPR

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When the school board in Florida’s Broward County defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on school mask mandates during the pandemic, some parents sent vitriolic emails and made veiled threats.

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When Sarah Leonardi filed to run for Florida’s Broward County School Board in 2019, she had no idea what she was getting into.

Leonardi won and took office in late 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. It was tumultuous. Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to withhold school funding after the board defied his masking ban. Angry over mask mandates, some parents sent vitriolic emails and made veiled threats.

But as COVID rates began to ebb, new flashpoints emerged. In the fall of 2021, Leonardi chaperoned an elementary school field trip to a local bar and grill that happened to be gay-owned. Some conservative media ran with the story. New threats poured in.

“Some of them were like ‘You can’t outrun my Glock 9mm gun’ [and] ‘Take a dirt nap,’ ” Leonardi recalled in an interview with NPR. “One was like, ‘Sell that b**** as a sex slave to ISIS,’ which was oddly specific.”

Leonardi says she still receives threats when conservative media occasionally republishes the school field trip story.

“I’ll get an email or a phone call about it, just telling me what a horrific person I am,” she says.

Harassment and threats up 170% 

Leonardi’s experience captures how threats against local school officials across the U.S. have shifted and grown, according to researchers at Princeton University. They conducted what they say is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind in the country. Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative interviewed Leonardi along with 38 other school board officials. They also surveyed more than 820 school board officials with a group called CivicPulse. Using open-source material, investigators documented threats and harassment against school officials from November 2022 through April 2023, and the same period two years later. They found such incidents rose by 170%.

Bridging Divides says some of the local cases corresponded with national attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as well as on LGBTQ+ policies. Roudabeh Kishi, the project’s chief research officer, says the targets held a variety of political views.

“This isn’t really like a partisan issue,” she says. “We’re seeing really similar reports of experiences (on) all sides of the political spectrum.”

In addition to Leonardi, NPR interviewed six other current or former school board officials who said they had been targets of harassment or threats. They said the anger and distrust that developed during the pandemic helped fuel and shape future disputes over cultural issues.

“The pandemic started this conversation about what are individual freedoms,” says Alexandria Ayala, a former school board member in Florida’s Palm Beach County. “What can a government tell me to do or not do?”

A second “Civil War” in Gettysburg

Al Moyer, who’s now in his ninth year on the Gettysburg Area School Board in Pennsylvania, says battles over masking frayed relationships in the district. Then, in 2023, some people in the community became uncomfortable with a tennis coach who was transitioning to female and had used the girls locker room.

Moyer said one resident called a Republican board member who opposed renewing the coach’s contract a “Nazi” to her face. He says his wife lost friends over the controversy.

“Those two situations really caused a kind of second Civil War battle in Gettysburg,” Moyer says. “It was pretty ugly.”

School board members have to navigate fights over genuine issues, but increasingly they have to grapple with fake ones as well. Russell Devorsky, who recently retired after 14 years on a school board in suburban Waco, Texas, says false stories on social media sow confusion and fuel harassment. “I am consistently and constantly harangued with individuals saying, ‘Well, kids are dressing up like cats, and they have litter boxes in bathrooms,’ ” says Devorsky. “Even though there’s never been a school district that had that situation, people believe it.”

“Like pushing a wet rope up a hill”

Even ordinary issues — such as the construction of a new band hall — can be targets of misinformation, Devorksy says. He says there were false claims on social media that the hall wouldn’t be ready on time and that students wouldn’t have instruments. Trying to set people straight who consider comments on Facebook community pages authoritative is exhausting, Devorsky says. “It’s kind of like pushing a wet rope up a hill,” he says.

The Princeton researchers worry that harassment could drive some school board members to leave public service — which they are monitoring — or avoid engaging on controversial topics. But Sarah Leonardi, the one who took the students to the gay-owned restaurant, says she isn’t quitting because she feels like she’s still making a difference.

“Ultimately, I decided to move forward and run again,” Leonardi says. “That is just a sacrifice — or a vulnerability — I’m willing to accept for now.”



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Pasco County, Fla., Schools to Personalize Education With AI

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(TNS) — When Lacoochee Elementary School resumes classes in August, principal Latoya Jordan wants teachers to focus more attention on each student’s individual academic needs.

She’s looking at artificial intelligence as a tool they can use to personalize lessons.

“I’m interested to see how it can help,” Jordan said.


Lacoochee is exploring whether to become part of the Pasco County school district’s new AI initiative being offered to 30 campuses in the fall. It’s a test run that two groups — Scholar Educationand Khanmigo — have offered the district free of charge to see whether the schools find a longer-term fit for their classes.

Scholar, a state-funded startup that made its debut last year at Pepin Academy and Dayspring Academy, will go into selected elementary schools. Khanmigo, a national model recently highlighted on 60 Minutes, is set for use in some middle and high schools.

“Schools ultimately will decide how they want to use it,” said Monica Ilse, deputy superintendent for academics. “I want to get feedback from teachers and leaders for the future.”

Ilse said she expected the programs might free teachers from some of the more mundane aspects of their jobs, so they can pay closer attention to their students. A recent Gallup poll found teachers who regularly use AI said it saves them about six hours of work weekly, in areas such as writing quizzes and completing paperwork.

Marlee Strawn, cofounder of Scholar Education, introduced her system to the principals of 19 schools during a June 30 video call. The model is tied to Florida’s academic standards, Strawn said, and includes dozens of lessons that teachers can use.

It also allows teachers to craft their own assignments, tapping into the growing body of material being uploaded. The more specific the request, the more fine-tuned the exercises can be. If a student has a strong interest in baseball or ballet, for instance, the AI programming can help develop standards-based tasks on those subjects, she explained.

Perhaps most useful, Strawn told the principals, is the system’s ability to support teachers as they analyze student performance data. It identifies such things as the types of questions students asked and the items they struggled with, and can make suggestions about how to respond.

“The data analytics has been the most helpful for our teachers so far,” she said.

She stressed that Scholar Education protects student data privacy, a common concern among parents and educators, noting the system got a top rating from Common Sense.

School board member Jessica Wright brought up criticisms that AI has proven notoriously error-prone in math.

Strawn said the system has proven helpful when teachers seek to provide real-life examples for math concepts. She did not delve into details about the reliability of AI in calculations and formulas.

Lacoochee principal Jordan wanted to know how well the AI system would interface with other technologies, such as iReady, that schools already use.

“If it works with some of our current systems, that’s an easier way to ease into it, so for teachers it doesn’t become one more thing that you have to do,” Jordan said.

Strawn said the automated bot is a supplement that teachers can integrate with data from other tools to help them identify classroom needs and create the types of differentiated instruction that Jordan and others are looking for.

The middle and high school model, Khanmigo, will focus more on student tutoring, Ilse wrote in an email to principals. It’s designed to “guide students to a deeper understanding of the content and skills mastery,” she explained in the email. As with Scholar, teachers can monitor students’ interactions and step in with one-on-one support as needed, in addition to developing lesson plans and standards-aligned quizzes.

Superintendent John Legg said teachers and schools would not be required to use AI. Legg said he simply wanted to provide options that might help teachers in their jobs. After a year, the district will evaluate whether to continue, most likely with paid services.

While an administrator at Dayspring Academy before his election, Legg wrote a letter of support for Scholar Education’s bid for a $1 million state startup grant, and he also received campaign contributions from some of the group’s leaders. He said he had no personal stake in the organization and was backing a project that might improve education, just as he previously supported Algebra Nation, the University of Florida’s online math tutoring program launched in 2013.

©2025 Tampa Bay Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.





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