Buckeye Central High School Principal Dr. Michael Martin has developed a new strategy for using AI for educational purposes. It’s called the “80/20, 20/80 “rule. Its purpose: to keep students accountable for their work while using AI.
Step 1: 80/20
Martin says the rule applies to all use cases of AI, including a presentation he gave to his staff.
Over the course of six months, Martin did all the research, collected resources and developed a detailed outline, which he estimates was 80% of the work. The remaining 20% was done by AI, which offered suggestions to the outline without making changes to Martin’s original work.
The same principle must be applied to students’ use of AI to enhance learning, he argues, as AI must not be used for “cognitive offloading.”
“AI didn’t write the outline for me,” Martin says. “I did the research and read its suggestions and I made the changes.”
He adds that he brought the ideas. AI simply made his ideas better.
Step 2: 20/80
After perfecting his outline, he needed to create the presentation, a less thought-provoking task that AI would streamline. In other words, Martin would contribute 20% of the effort and let technology do the rest.
He uploaded his outline into Gamma, a free-to-use, AI-powered presentation and website builder. In 30 seconds, it produced a presentation that was tweaked.
Martin hopes his students can benefit from this school of thought.
“We do not want kids leaving Buckeye Central doing nothing but cognitive offloading and replacing their brains with AI,” he says. “We want to teach them how to use it the right way as an assistant to improve their knowledge base.”
Experimenting without guidance
Meanwhile, Martin says the school district has paused its development of AI policies and guidelines after replacing nearly all of its administrators. In the meantime, he says educators can still introduce students and staff to the technology, because he fears an equity gap will emerge if kids don’t know how to use AI.
“The genie is out of the bottle,” he says. “We’re not putting it back in. We only get three wishes, so how can we use them to make sure we’re controlling AI so it becomes a tool for students without replacing their learning?”
The equity gap he’s concerned about doesn’t refer to access, but students’ expertise. Learners who fall “trap” of AI will use it to cheat and plagiarize. The experts will become stronger academically.
The Buckeye Central Local School District is also in the process of certifying its teachers in AI, which Martin believes will help leadership develop a stronger AI policy.
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Using AI to ‘isolate pain points’
Martin says he’s been experimenting with AI since before it gained national attention. Over the past several years, he’s picked up a range of skills—including analyzing data—that have improved his effectiveness as an administrator.
He adds that administrators should take caution in using AI to evaluate student data.
“You can’t just throw kids’ names in AI,” he explains. “There’s a process that I have to ensure the student’s information is safe. Once you know how to do that, you’re able to churn through data quicker and spend less time interpreting it.”
This process allows him to more quickly identify when students need help.
“When I save time, that enables me to go out and do what I think leaders should do, and that’s to be more present with kids,” Martin says. “It’s a relationship business. We can talk about AI as much as you want, but education is still a human business.”
