As lawmakers across the nation have begun taking steps to regulate AI, local schools have issued some guidance for how the technology is to be used in the classroom.
A group of educators from Pitt County Schools spent time over the summer developing guidelines for incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the curriculum, PCS Digital Learning Specialist Beth Madigan said. GenAI is an advanced form of artificial intelligence that has the ability to create new content from “learned” data.
“Some students are already using it,” Madigan told members of the Board of Education last month. “We just didn’t have the guidelines in place as teachers.”
The district-level guidance comes several months after the state Department of Public Instruction released a guidebook for the use of generative artificial intelligence in public schools. In January, NCDPI became the fourth state education department in the country to issue guidance to its schools on the use of this technology.
PCS guidelines include an AI integration scale used to indicate whether or not AI assistance would be permitted on assigned work and to what extent it could be used.
District 6 representative Worth Forbes said he is glad to see schools develop some guidelines.
“We have to be careful, I believe, as a district,” he said, “because we will have some parents, based on what they see on the news and articles that they read, they’re going to have some concerns.”
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, the number of users has reportedly grown to more than 200 million a week. As use has increased, so have concerns among many educators, who questioned whether chatbot technology would lead to increased cheating or compromise the privacy of student data. Some school districts across the country initially banned the use of AI, while many others delayed attempts to regulate its use.
In developing a set of guidelines, PCS brought together 50 teachers for an AI “boot camp” and established a district philosophy and a list of ethical considerations for use of AI, along with guidance on issues of privacy and academic integrity,
“A lot of us use AI in our daily lives,” Madigan said, referring to the widespread home use of technology such as Alexa or Seri. “Artificial intelligence is not going away. We want to prepare our students for the future, give them the durable skills that they need that go right along with that Portrait of a Graduate.”
North Carolina’s Portrait of a Graduate defines the skills students need for success after high school, including adaptability, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, empathy, a learner’s mindset and personal responsibility.
NCDPI’s guidelines cite World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report 2023,” which found that 75% of companies plan to implement generative AI by 2027. The report also indicated that AI and machine learning specialists will be the fastest-growing occupation in the next five years.
The PCS guidelines state that AI tools are not a replacement for educators themselves but are designed to complement the learning environment. According to the district’s guidance, AI may be used to assist in content creation, grading and feedback, to inspire ideas, create personalized learning experiences or facilitate collaborative learning. The guidelines indicate that AI is not designed to replace teacher assessment or interactions with students.
“We are going to use this to teach our students futuristic skills,” Madigan said. “We still want that human interaction. Generative AI cannot replace humans. It cannot replace teachers. AI is another tool that educators can come along side of and really make our jobs easier and a lot more fun with creative ideas that we can offer to our students.”
The state guidebook says that AI literacy should be infused into all grade levels and curriculum areas but suggests that direct student interaction with chatbots should not take place at the elementary school level. Some AI technologies contain terms of service that prohibit use by ages under 13 or require parental permission.
Forbes said training teachers and establishing guidelines is key to addressing parents’ concerns about the introduction of the new technology.
“I’m glad to know that you’ve got a teacher with detailed training at each school,” he said. “You’ve got someone there that will be able to explain this is what we’re doing. This is how we’re using it. We’re not allowing certain things.
“There probably will be some more guidelines that will come down the pike eventually,” Forbes said. “We can’t go too far with it. I think we’re in the middle of the road here.”
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