Built by Brickfield for teachers
Why we built this, how to use it, and the things worth keeping in mind before you start.
Why we built this
At events and conferences over the past couple of years, the same questions kept coming up. Teachers asking whether AI is worth the effort. Teachers who had tried it once and got something useless. Teachers who wanted to use it but were not sure what was allowed, what was safe, or where to even start.
This site is our attempt to answer those questions in one place. It is not a set of instructions. It is a set of approaches — things that have worked for teachers, explained clearly enough that you can decide whether they might work for you.
Everything here is free, requires no login, and collects no personal data from you.
How to use this site
Think of this as a colleague sharing what they have found useful — not a policy document telling you what to do. There is more than one way to use AI well in teaching, and what works depends on your subject, your school, your students, and your own comfort level.
Before you use anything here, check the guidance at your school, department, or organisation on how AI is — or is not — permitted to be used. That always comes first. If your school has no policy yet, that is worth raising with your leadership before you go further.
Three things to keep in mind
Whatever you use AI for in your teaching, these three principles apply in every situation.
- If in doubt, do not do it. If you are not sure whether something is allowed, appropriate, or safe — stop. Ask a colleague, check the policy, or come back to it when you have more clarity. No lesson resource or email draft is worth a professional or legal problem.
- Do not share private information. Student names, assessment results, medical details, safeguarding information, parent contact details — none of this belongs in an AI prompt. Ever. Describe situations generically and fill in any personal details yourself, afterwards, in your own system.
- Do not share content you do not own or have permission to share. Copyrighted textbooks, publisher materials, third-party curriculum resources — check before you upload. Your own lesson plans and slides are generally fine. Someone else's published content is not yours to paste into an AI tool.
A few more dos and don'ts
These are not exhaustive, but they cover the situations that come up most often.
DO
- ✓Check your school or organisation's AI policy before you start — and check it again when it is updated.
- ✓Treat AI output as a first draft. Read it, verify it, and edit it before it goes anywhere near students, parents, or colleagues.
- ✓Check facts, dates, and subject content. AI can be confidently wrong. You remain responsible for everything you share.
- ✓Start small. One task. See what comes back. Build from there.
- ✓Share what works with colleagues. The most useful AI learning in a school happens when teachers share their experiences honestly — what worked, what did not, and why.
DON'T
- ✗Do not submit AI output without reading it first. Not to students, not to parents, not to a colleague — not anywhere.
- ✗Do not use AI for decisions that require professional judgement — safeguarding, pastoral care, grades, disciplinary matters. These are yours.
- ✗Do not assume free AI tools are covered by your school's data agreements. They are almost certainly not. Check with your DPO.
- ✗Do not use AI detection software as evidence of student misconduct. Current tools are unreliable and have wrongly flagged legitimate student work — including work by EAL students.
- ✗Do not expect AI to know your students, your curriculum, or your school. It does not. That knowledge is yours, and it is what makes your use of AI different from anyone else's.
About Brickfield Education Labs
Brickfield Education Labs is an Irish education technology company specialising in making digital learning more accessible and effective. We build tools that help institutions find, fix, and future-proof their online learning content — with a particular focus on accessibility and inclusion.
We have been working with learning management systems, particularly Moodle, for over a decade. Our accessibility toolkit is used by universities, schools, and training organisations across Ireland, the UK, Europe, and beyond.
This site applies that same focus — making things practical, clear, and accessible — to the challenge of helping teachers use AI well.
Visit Brickfield.ie (opens in new tab)Accessibility commitment
Every page on this site is designed to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA accessibility standards. This includes:
- ✓ Colour contrast ratios of 4.5:1 or higher for all body text
- ✓ Full keyboard navigation with visible focus indicators
- ✓ Semantic HTML with proper heading hierarchy
- ✓ ARIA labels on all interactive elements
- ✓ Respect for prefers-reduced-motion settings
- ✓ Abbreviations expanded on first use
If you encounter an accessibility issue on any page, please contact us and we will address it promptly.
About the AI tools referenced
This site references Claude (by Anthropic), Gemini (by Google), ChatGPT (by OpenAI), and Microsoft Copilot. Brickfield Education Labs has no commercial relationship with any of these companies. The tools are referenced because they are the most widely used AI tools among teachers.
The Prompt Lab is available in versions for Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Copilot.
Contact us
For questions about this resource, accessibility issues, or to get in touch with Brickfield Education Labs, visit brickfield.ie/contact-us (opens in new tab).