Google drops plan to disable Search in schools, European Commission presents schools package, and more - AI in Education #74

In this edition, covering 4 to 10 November:

• Google reversed its plan to disable Search for US K-12 schools that did not adopt Gemini, and schools can now manage Search and Gemini separately.
• Parents in North Carolina sued Google, alleging that Gemini and AI Mode on their 13 year old daughter's school Chromebook worsened her mental health crisis.
• The European Commission presented a nonbinding Education and Skills Package for EU schools, with an AI Literacy Certificate pilot planned from the 2027/28 school year.

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Google and school search

Google reversed its plan to disable Search for US K-12 schools that did not adopt Gemini AI products. The company now says schools can manage Search and Gemini separately, with both services off by default for student accounts. US Senator Edward J. Markey asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai to let K-12 schools disable AI features and chatbots, including Gemini, AI Overviews and Guided Learning, while keeping access to Google Search. He also asked about the technical feasibility and the safety effects of these tools on students. Google reversal · Senator Markey

Parents in North Carolina sued Google in a California state court, alleging that Gemini and AI Mode on their 13 year old daughter's school Chromebook worsened her mental health crisis, including discussions of suicide and self harm. The complaint also alleges that Google hid student AI chat logs from parents and that the chatbot failed to direct the teen to real world help. Lawsuit

Securly expanded its Filter tool so school districts can block Google AI Mode and AI Overviews while keeping standard search features. Administrators can apply the setting by policy for different schools, grades or classes. DuckDuckGo is encouraging schools to change their default search engine and says its search and browser settings let schools turn off AI features without losing search. Securly · DuckDuckGo

Berkeley Unified School District in California is weighing alternatives to Google Search because AI Mode and AI Overviews stay built into Search after Google's change. The district already restricts tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. Berkeley Unified

Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia started a pilot with Google's Gemini Notebook at four middle and four high schools and its virtual learning program, with teachers guiding use while the division updates its AI policies. Loudoun County pilot

Rules for schools

The European Commission presented a nonbinding package to improve basic skills, support teachers, strengthen vocational education and guide the safe use of digital technology and AI in schools. It includes an AI Literacy Certificate pilot planned from the 2027/28 school year. Most Dutch MPs backed a D66 motion calling on the government to create a national AI strategy for vocational, higher professional and university education, covering AI skills, critical thinking, source research and the limits of AI. The Association of Dutch Universities supports the proposal. EU package · Netherlands

Estonia's AI Leap programme will include upper secondary vocational education and training in the 2026/27 school year, reaching about 18,000 learners and 2,100 teachers. It provides AI tools, training and learning materials, including ITI, a ChatGPT based application for Estonian learners. The University of Tartu, Stanford University and OpenAI are studying AI supported learning in about 100 Estonian upper secondary schools. In the UK, Jisc launched a framework for college and university leaders on AI adoption, covering skills, knowledge and culture, technology, and governance. Estonia · Jisc

Chicago Public Schools blocked ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude on student accounts, devices and its network, citing student privacy and safety. Seattle Public Schools will limit device use for students in grades 3 to 5 to 60 minutes per day from January 2027 and end one to one device access. From 9 November the district blocks unapproved generative AI tools, including Gemini and Google Search AI summaries, as well as YouTube for K to 5 students and Minecraft for K to 12 students, with limited curriculum exceptions. The Elite Academic Academy charter network in Temecula, California, joined the 2026 to 2027 EDSAFE AI Alliance District Policy Lab, a cohort of 14 districts and charter networks that write policies for AI use in schools. Chicago · Seattle · EDSAFE policy lab

Anthropic

Anthropic signed an agreement with the American Federation of Teachers and its New York branch, the United Federation of Teachers, aligned with the unions' AI Safety and Privacy Standard for Schools. The unions say the agreement is legally binding and its terms apply to Anthropic's existing agreements with school districts. McGraw Hill is working with Anthropic to let US K-12 teachers at participating districts access licensed McGraw Hill curriculum through Claude for Teachers. Using the Model Context Protocol, teachers can create lesson plans, learning tools and personalized materials based on their district's curriculum. Teachers unions · McGraw Hill

OpenAI

UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney, La Trobe University and Adelaide University are working with OpenAI to give students and staff access to its AI tools. An OpenAI commissioned survey of more than 1,000 students found that 81% use AI several times a week. Australian universities

An OpenAI report on its education partnerships in Estonia, Slovakia, Greece and Italy cites ThinkYoung research showing that 79% of surveyed students use AI for homework or assignments, while 47% have been shown how to use it. The report calls for teacher support, AI literacy, local partnerships and stronger evaluation. OpenAI also says ChatGPT weekly active visitors in Nigeria rose more than 130% in the year to 24 October, during a week of events in Lagos with Paystack, Andela, Miva Open University and Antler. OpenAI report · Nigeria

Universities

England's higher education regulator, the Office for Students, says many unsupervised assessments can be completed to a high standard with AI and cannot be reliably checked, and it calls for more AI free or controlled assessments. Universities UK says institutions already use exams, presentations, vivas and other methods to adapt. Microsoft and The Ohio State University announced a five year partnership covering a smart hospital model, the migration of about 70% to 80% of storage and compute to Microsoft Azure, a unified data platform, AI tools for clinicians and researchers, and wider access to AI training and certification. Office for Students · Microsoft and Ohio State

Rice University broke ground on the Arc, a nearly 200,000 square foot research and corporate innovation building in Houston's Ion District. It is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2028 and will house Rice's AI Foundry, and Rice plans to occupy nearly 80,000 square feet. OpenEvidence launched Learn, a free platform for medical students, trainees and clinicians with more than 50,000 board style questions, AI case tutoring, flashcards and CME tracking. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will help test it. FF EAI partnered with California Science and Technology University and Boston International Business School on robotics education and research, with a planned joint robotics lab. Rice · OpenEvidence · FF EAI

Teacher training and grants

Google.org committed more than $9.5 million to five organisations that develop AI teaching tools, digital literacy programmes and learning standards. The recipients are the City University of New York, the Krause Center for Innovation, Fab AI, Teaching Lab and 1EdTech Global. With Google.org support, the Krause Center is expanding its Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence Project across California, giving TK to 12 educators AI training and classroom resources after a Year 1 evaluation by WestEd. Fab AI, Google.org, the Gates Foundation and Google DeepMind launched Small Models Lab, which provides open Gemma based AI tools and training for educators in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, with an initial target of up to 500 teachers and 15,000 students. Google.org · Krause Center · Small Models Lab

The Liverpool City Region in England will host the largest regional rollout of The Big AI Project, which gives school leaders and education staff free training and resources on using AI safely. Agilix Labs received an AWS Education Equity Initiative grant for the Future Learning Institute's Finder Program in Sierra Leone, a year long program that trains young people to use AI and local knowledge to answer questions from businesses and community groups. It starts on 10 November at a new Community Learning Center at Freetown Polytechnic. BoodleBox is supporting AI hackathons and workshops in Colorado Springs, at Pikes Peak State College and in Baltimore, where students and community members use AI to work on local challenges. Liverpool City Region · Agilix Labs · BoodleBox

South Africa launched the AI Research Foundations programme at Stellenbosch University on 9 November. Supported by Google.org, it trains lecturers at 30 universities in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, with a goal of reaching 30,000 students. AVPN selected 28 local organisations for the third phase of its AI Opportunity Fund, which trains teachers, students, workers and small businesses in 19 Asia Pacific markets, and launched a learning platform in 16 languages, backed by Google.org and the Asian Development Bank. AI Research Foundations · AVPN

Tutors and learning products

Astral raised $5.5 million in a round led by Andre Charoo of MapleVC, with Stand Together Ventures Lab, Conversion Capital and Original Capital. Astral says its AI tutor is used by thousands of families in more than 33 US states. Mindmax, founded by former Memrise team members Ed Cooke and Daniel Zohar, raised £2.5 million from Concept Ventures, Redrice Ventures, Daybreak Ventures, Lerer Hippeau and angel investors for its AI tutor for professional exam preparation. Chen Lin, the former CEO of ByteDance's Toutiao news app, confirmed his move into AI education. His company runs Xiaolu Aixue, an AI learning platform for schools with interactive lessons and practice exercises that also helps teachers track student progress. Astral · Mindmax · Chen Lin

South Korean science publisher DongA Science will launch the AiR NOVA AI tutor in January 2027 on web, iOS and Android. It answers K-12 science questions from more than 100,000 verified articles in the company's 40 year archive, shows the source articles and supports Korean, English, Vietnamese and Spanish. Alpha School opened a Boston school in September for kindergarten to eighth grade, with two hours of AI tutored academic work a day followed by workshops led by human guides. Boston Teachers Union president Erik Berg raised concerns about screen based learning, data privacy and human relationships, and Alpha School said his comments did not reflect firsthand experience of its schools. DongA Science · Alpha School

Workplace and public sector training

Go1 will offer OpenAI Academy courses through its platform, giving employees role based AI training while HR and learning teams track progress. ABB Robotics and NVIDIA are launching a physical AI education program with hands on training in ABB RobotStudio and NVIDIA Omniverse and certification in robotics, simulation and physical AI. CGI Federal started a coalition with AWS and the University of Tennessee that offers training, certificates and projects for students and professionals. Go1 and OpenAI · ABB and NVIDIA · CGI Federal

Jamaica's Cabinet approved mandatory AI training for public sector workers who use or plan to use AI, and training starts before the end of the fiscal year. Zenarate joined the Jobs2030 coalition, founded by Zopa Bank and ClearScore, and will host free AI training modules for UK banking and fintech staff. The coalition plans to train 100,000 workers by 2030. Jamaica · Zenarate

Also

US student transportation company Zūm introduced Zoe, a conversational AI assistant in Zum CMX that uses real time operational data to suggest improvements to on time performance, route coverage, pay costs and product use. An Ayre Think Tank study of the 56 Commonwealth countries found that the 15 countries meeting its youth AI readiness benchmark could see a combined $389.2 billion increase in economic output over 10 years, compared with $29.2 billion for the other 41 countries. Zūm · Ayre Think Tank