Artificial Intelligence at Dexter Community Schools: Developing DeeDee

How DCS is providing safe instructional artificial intelligence in the classroom

---

Earlier this year, DCS introduced DeeDee, a one-of-a-kind artificial intelligence (AI) tool built by our staff specifically for Dexter students. Unlike public AI platforms, DeeDee runs entirely on the district’s secure servers and is not connected to the internet, ensuring strict privacy protections. This approach keeps student information safe while allowing teachers and students to explore AI in a controlled, educational environment.

DCS Recognition of AI in Education

Dexter Community Schools sees artificial intelligence as a powerful tool to strengthen—not replace—human intelligence. The goal is to use AI to simplify routine tasks, support creativity, and give teachers more time for meaningful connections with students. 

DCS prioritizes AI that elevates human learning in five key ways:

• Personalized Learning: Tools that adapt to each student’s needs and learning pace.
• Equity and Inclusion: AI resources that help close learning gaps and ensure all students have access to support.
• Future Readiness: Helping students build digital skills for an AI-driven world.
• Educator Empowerment: Giving teachers data-driven insights to guide instruction.
• Ethical Responsibility: Using AI safely, transparently, and with accountability.

Background: Developing Dexter’s Own AI Tool – DeeDee

Over the past few years, the use of AI chatbots in everyday life has become common. A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation. Conversational chatbots, such as Alexa or Google Assistant, can only respond to specific questions using pre-written answers. Generative chatbots, such as ChatGPT, use artificial intelligence to create original responses. This makes them more flexible and natural to interact with.

In response to this growing trend, DCS has developed a custom DCS AI system with three priorities in mind: strong safety guardrails for students, cost efficiency, and data security. Because public AI platforms can’t guarantee full protection of student data, the District’s Technology Department decided to create its own secure system.

Using district servers that do not connect to the internet, Tech Department staff member Matt Bell built a local Large Language Model (LLM) that performs most of a generative AI chatbot’s functions but runs entirely within Dexter’s network. It never sends or stores data externally. 

DeeDee doesn’t retain chat history, doesn’t learn from users, and doesn’t know student identities. The DCS AI Group staff regularly review anonymous chat logs to see how students and teachers use the tool and make improvements. Extensive and ongoing testing has confirmed DeeDee’s safety. When asked for personal info like student IDs or emails, DeeDee generates obviously inaccurate placeholders (e.g. a 15-digit student ID with numbers and letters) rather than real information. DeeDee has been intentionally designed not to gather or store any data on students or teachers, and it is not used to train other models.

DeeDee is designed as what’s known as instructional AI. It has built-in limits to prevent it from writing essays or giving full answers. Instead, it focuses on guiding students through learning (see example below). 

Teachers can upload course materials and rubrics to tailor DeeDee’s support for classroom needs. A key takeaway from the project’s Initiate and Build phases was the importance of learning when AI can and cannot be used in the classroom. It needs to be a tool, not a crutch, and teachers will ultimately decide when AI use is appropriate in their classrooms.

While commercial platforms offer what has been called “AI candy,” it is the responsibility of schools to  emphasize “AI vegetables”—students don’t like it as much, but we know they need it. DeeDee is a safe, educational tool that supports student learning rather than replacing it.

Up next: Current project status, how teachers and students are using DeeDee responsibly, and moving forward.