Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use in the Classroom: Guidelines and Responsibilities
In alignment with the Peninsula School District's commitment to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and ethical AI use, this classroom embraces AI technologies to enhance educational experiences and support diverse learning needs. AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, Canva, MagicSchool, and Midjourney, are incorporated to assist in personalizing learning and offering various ways for students to express their knowledge and engagement. Students are encouraged to explore and utilize AI tools while maintaining a strong ethical compass, ensuring that their use of these technologies aligns with academic integrity and promotes responsible digital citizenship.
Expectations for Students:
We aim to foster a dynamic, inclusive, and forward-thinking educational environment by integrating AI tools into our curriculum. Our goal is to prepare students to navigate and shape the evolving landscape of technology and society while balancing the human element and AI assistance.
Key Points to Remember:
Using AI tools in class can be a fun and exciting way to learn. By embracing these guidelines, we can ensure that AI enhances our educational experience while upholding the values of integrity, inclusivity, and responsible technology use.
These FAQs were developed by the teachers who took part in the 2023 AI Action Research project in the Peninsula School District. If you are a teacher in PSD and need more assistance around AI, we encourage you to reach out to your Digital Innovation Leads or the AI Action Research project team members.
Slide Deck: Guide to Co-Creating AI Behavior Expectations
The theory behind co-creating classroom norms with students is that behavior norms are a community agreement that all members of the community (students and teacher) need to adhere to in order to create a safe and productive learning space.
In an MTSS guided system, there should be some set of boundaries or character traits to start with. These character traits can then become the basis for behavior norms (i.e. what does it look like to be kind in this classroom space?)
The hope for this kind of work is that students will better understand how to meet behavior norms because they spent time considering what behaviors will help the learning environment and how they can enact those behaviors to be successful and supportive of the community.
So, what does this look like with AI norms?
Create Your Classroom With Students for a Powerful Start to the School Year
Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision (TechTarget). Artificial intelligence received quite a boost in public notoriety with the open access to ChatGPT, however the field is significantly larger than simply ChatGPT.
Generative language models are algorithms that gather information about how language functions in various situations to generate unique responses to questions based on patterns of language and information.
According to ChatGPT: “Imagine you're trying to teach a computer to understand and generate human language, just like how you learn to read, write, and have conversations. Large language models are like super-smart virtual assistants that have been trained on huge amounts of text from the internet, books, and other sources.
To train these models, experts feed them with millions or even billions of sentences and paragraphs, allowing them to learn patterns, grammar, and even some of the nuances of language. Just like you learn by reading many books, these models learn by analyzing vast amounts of text.”
How does ChatGPT work?
ChatGPT is not sentient. It does not think for itself. Rather it is a large language model that predicts common responses based on the information it’s been fed. For this reason, it can create incorrect answers, especially when providing quotes.
ChatGPT allows users to share links from a conversation, showing their process, and the prompts that they are using to generate the responses they’re looking for.
An example of this can be seen on the PSD Artificial Intelligence Principles and Beliefs page.
Artificial intelligence tools can be used to reduce learning gaps, especially when students are taught how to autonomously use AI to meet their learning needs. For example, a multilingual learner can use ChatGPT to create sentence stems for a prompt, or to translate content into the target language to increase comprehension. Likewise, a student reading below grade level can use AI to summarize a reading, pull out pertinent vocabulary, and even adjust lexile level. These examples have been in use with tremendous success within the Peninsula School District. Check out this document for more information.
We know that AI will have a high impact on the field of education. As the field continues to develop, the US Department of Education is rolling out more information.
The Peninsula School District has a philosophy outlining the district’s stance on artificial intelligence tools. Key to this philosophy is the belief that AI can intensify the human element in education, and that learning is a collaborative process. In order to support students' fair and ethical use of AI tools, it is vital that educators initiate clear conversations on use and expectations in the classroom. These conversations should be collaborative; facilitated by the teacher, and co-created by the classroom community.
Beyond the sample policy we provide for teachers in our Principles and Beliefs Page, here are others from outside groups:
Edsurge: Getting started with AI in the classroom
ISTE secondary classroom instructional guide
Common Sense Media: AI Lesson guide
MIT Daily Middle School Curriculum
If you’d like more examples of how this is being used in PSD classrooms, please contact your building’s Digital Innovation Lead, or any member of the AI Action Research team.
Artificial intelligence tools are being used widely in many sectors. A few examples can be found below:
This field is rapidly growing, and it’s important to note that relevant information can become outdated very quickly. Here are a few leaders in the field who provide insights on artificial intelligence in education:
We recommend lessons focused on topics such as digital media literacy, understanding what machine learning is, and recognizing bias for students in the elementary grade band. In middle school, as students are transitioning to the secondary level, we recommend an emphasis on the importance of process over product, where students show their workflow and corresponding learning. Finally, at the high school level, students need to demonstrate their capabilities using the tools, as well as the depth of their ability to discern the ethical use of AI in their processes and projects.
Assessments that lead students to intentionally or unintentionally replace their own thinking with the information generated by AI are ineffective. Assessments that are solely based on the final product, especially if it is a written product, have become difficult to accurately assess with the evolution of AI products. Therefore, assessments that are based on final products in conjunction or verified through process-related tasks and assessments may be more effective.
Absolutely. Perplexity AI provides the sources searched for when a student uses AI within the tool. Class Companion is a Social Studies specific AI tool, built to provide feedback on the use of AI in Social Studies.