Not all districts are taking a wait-and-see approach to ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms. The early adopters are putting the technology—also known as GenAI—to different uses in their schools, a new analysis finds.
Many early adopters have focused on developing artificial intelligence policies and experimenting with new tools while some “are undertaking much more comprehensive approaches to preparing teachers and students for AI literacy and skills,” say authors of the Center on Reimagining Public Education’s “Beyond Tools” report. They broke K12 GenAI usage down into four categories:
- Guidance: Setting policies for student and staff use of AI.
- Stakeholder-facing tools: Serving students, staff, and families in new ways with AI-powered tools.
- Changing systems and structures: Training students, staff, and families in AI literacy, offering courses that build students’ AI content knowledge, and revising learning standards to include AI-specific skills.
- Back-office AI tools: Streamlining operations and central office functions and strengthening school safety and surveillance.
Early AI adopters who are digging deeper with the tools can serve as models for other educators in discovering the problem-solving power of generative technology, the report contends. These trendsetters can help inform the broader K12 community by documenting what does and doesn’t work while conducting AI pilots in their schools.
Generative AI: How to keep ‘humans in the loop’
This use of AI should be centered on the needs of students, families and the broader community. All three groups must be engaged if GenAI is going to create lasting change, the report advises.
For example, Colorado’s St. Vrain Valley School District offers AI-focused hybrid courses and after-school and summer programming on AI. Students use multiple AI tools to solve local problems, such as measuring animal populations and training elders in AI to reduce fraud abuse, the report points out.
Ednovate Schools, a California charter management organization, asks three questions to assess AI tools and initiatives: 1.) Does this promote equity? 2.) Does this promote personalization? 3.) Does this promote sustainability for staff experience, as well as revenue and expenses?
Early adopters should also allow employees in all functions to experiment with how AI can improve operations. This work should target “long-standing, intractable challenges” and guarantee equitable access to AI tools and initiatives.
“For example,” the report concludes, “how can AI reenvision how families and students navigate learning differences, language differences, or cultural differences to build trust and alignment? Our communities need early adopters to model ways AI can help us allow historically marginalized students to thrive and build a new vision for what’s possible.”
