Educational leaders recently met at an event sponsored by Lightspeed Systems in Sacramento, California, to discuss ai in education, including its implications for students, teachers, workflow, and data privacy.
“There was a diverse set of philosophies around the use of ai in districts,” said panelist Jason Borgen, director of technology and Innovations (CTiO) for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Some districts are taking the use of ai with caution, either banning it or discouraging it, while Borgen and the districts he works with are taking a different approach. “We have the mentality of the schools we serve and support: 'Let's try it, let's pilot it and test the waters with it,'” he said.
In the past, teachers were concerned about using search engines, spell check, and email with students, but over time they have learned to navigate these once-new technologies. To do that with ai, Borgen said educators need to get used to experimenting. “Life is sometimes R&D, and in our work as educators we need to research and develop how things can work for our own use and our own programs,” she said.
<h2 id="protecting-data-privacy-while-using-ai-xa0″>Protect data privacy while using ai
When using any technology in schools, protecting the privacy of student data is paramount. Although ai tools often save questions and input to add to their training set of data, Borgen said interacting with them is not that different from entering information into a search engine.
“It just comes down to digital literacy,” he said. “Do not share personally identifiable information about yourself or your students.” This applies to any digital tool that has not been vetted and does not meet your district's privacy requirements, whether it is a generative ai tool or a search engine.
Still, Borgen says it's okay for teachers to feed student work into an ai model as long as that work doesn't contain identifiable information about that student.
<h2 id="use-ai-effectively-with-students-xa0″>Use ai effectively with students
Teachers working in different subject areas often have different views on the utilization of ai technology. For example, “high school English teachers are somewhat conservative in their use and are worried about cheating,” Borgen said.
The trick is figuring out how to use ai in a way that familiarizes students with this important new technology and prepares them for careers that likely require them to interact with ai, while protecting academic integrity.
For those English teachers concerned about cheating, Borgen advises against using ai screening tools due to their unreliability and instead suggests creating assessments that are more ai-resistant.
“Assess small chunks of information rather than big summative approaches to writing because then you can really tie student voice to that,” she said. “Make sure students make connections to their life because obviously ai can't get into a student's body to understand their life and their mind. So when creating tasks, make sure there are those variables that ai cannot generate.”
<h2 id="use-ai-to-save-teachers-apos-time-xa0″>Use ai to save teachers time
The teachers Borgen works with are already using several ai tools to increase efficiency. These tools can do things like watch YouTube or other videos and then create transcripts, questions and instructional activities based on the video, Borgen said. Others can help teachers generate lesson plans, create IEDs, and more.
Borgen emphasizes that teachers must take care when using these tools. “However, if we're careful, these are all new tools, so spend some time making sure they're valid and correct,” she says. “The idea is not to replace the human being, but to really give him a catalyst to consider ideas that he may not have thought about before.”
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