California was one of the first two states, along with Oregon, to publish guidelines for teaching and learning with ai. Although they do not establish official school policy in the state, the California guidelines provide teachers and school leaders with a vetted model of best practices and guidance for using ai in the classroom.
Katherine Goyette, Computer Science Coordinator at the California Department of Education and co-author of The Complete edtech Coach: An Organic Approach to Supporting Digital Learninghelped write this guide, titled Learn with ai, learn about ai.
Goyette shares highlights from the ai guidance, as well as tips for school leaders on how to craft their own policies.
<h2 id="1-teaching-with-ai-guidance-prioritize-student-safety-xa0″>1. Teach with ai guidance: Prioritize student safety
When using ai, as with any technology used in a school environment, the first priority is student safety. One particular area where ai can be a problem is data privacy.
“There are laws for student privacy,” Goyette says. “We remind educators that they have a moral and legal responsibility to respect these privacy laws.”
Unfortunately, many generative ai systems were not developed for schools and do not have appropriate privacy settings. So with some tools, Goyette says, “we urge educators to be vigilant and wait until safe, law-compliant ways to integrate this for student use in classrooms are possible.”
<h2 id="2-teach-ai-literacy-xa0″>2. Teach ai literacy
Regardless of what teachers and schools do about ai in class, students will use ai tools at home. That's why it's vital that educators provide ai literacy training to students as an extension of digital literacy programs, and talk to them about ai and how ai systems work, Goyette says.
When it comes to students who want to use ai outside of class without cheating (for example, helping with research instead of writing a paper), Goyette says he approaches it like he would social media. “As an educator, I'm not going to ask all of my students to use social media for our school project,” she says. However, if students show their learning through a TikTok or Snapchat video, and that project was created outside of school hours, Goyette wouldn't stop it.
“It's about them taking what's in their world and using it to integrate their academic learning, which is a win, and it's also an opportunity for me as an educator to have conversations about how those technologies work,” she says.
<h2 id="3-recognize-ai-bias-and-potential-social-impact-xa0″>3. Recognize ai bias and its potential social impact
California guidance suggests teaching ai literacy in the context of its social impact and bias. Students and teachers should approach ai “with the understanding that these ai systems are not infallible, but they are created by humans and could potentially exacerbate bias, so we need to be aware of that,” Goyette says.
This bias could have larger impacts on society, influencing everything from hiring to school admissions, and students need to be aware of this as modern citizens. “We want them to have this kind of foundation of understanding of how these things work, so that when they make our laws and when they decide as business owners whether they are going to use artificial intelligence systems for certain purposes, do it ethically and responsibly,” says Goyette.
<h2 id="4-xa0-incorporate-the-community-and-update-tech-procedures-xa0″>4. Incorporate the community and update technical procedures
When drafting ai guidelines, districts and schools should not do so in a vacuum. “It's important to value the voice of the community,” says Goyette. That includes both students and their parents.
He adds that analyzing a school or district's ai policies can also be a good opportunity to update technology policies, particularly around student privacy, in general. “These guidelines may have been created a decade ago and haven't been reviewed in a while; there may be outdated elements,” she says.
On the other hand, these existing technology policies can be a great basis for building ai policies. Goyette says, “Look at what exists today and say, 'How can we modify it to fit current technologies?'”
