Is My School Behind the AI Curve?

This past school year while co-facilitation the creation of the AI guidance for the State of Washington I have also worked with over 60 school districts here in my home state and another 20 or so in other states and countries. That’s not including all the superintendents, principals, and educators I’ve had the pleasure to lead through conferences and workshops.

As we head into the end of the school year and I connect with school leaders they start the conversation with “I know we’re behind on AI.”

First off…it’s hard to be behind when this technology is not even two years old yet. Secondly, you’re probably not as behind as you think you are and because it’s so new if you think you’re behind good news is you can close that gap pretty quickly. The “early adopters” or “early leaders” aren’t that far ahead because again this technology isn’t even two years old yet.

So I wanted to take a moment and share where I personally feel you should be as a school or district right now as we end the 23-24 school year. This is were the schools who I have been working with are at right now and where, my hope is, we are across my own state but also a nation and globally as well. My intent with sharing this with you is that you can give yourself a pat on the back if you have already accomplished or have moved beyond some of these things and also consider what your next step is as a school. Right now the only way you are truly behind is if the following are true:

• You’re team/school/district has not done any work around AI to date
• Educators and staff are still afraid of, scared of, or don’t really understand what AI is
• You have no plan for moving forward
• Students using AI is seen as cheating
• Staff are still in the “What” and “Why” stage as in “What is it” and “Why do I need to know about it”.

So here we go…..where I believe you should be right now based on my own work with schools/districts in the “How stage” of AI implementation:

• Have had initial training for Central and School based Admin teams:
  My trainings are roughly 3 hours and support Central and School admin on understanding what Generative AI is, the power if holds for them in their own work and what it means for educators and students.
• Have had initial training for K-12 educators, para-educators and office staff:
  My training of roughly 2 hours helps to set a baseline understanding of what Generative AI is, how you should think about it, how to prompt it, and what are some of the pitfalls to watch out for.
• Have created an “AI Team” to start making policy and guidance recommendation:
  This team most of the time is falling under the scope of Teaching & Learning Departments. It is sometimes an AI PLC team or a team of early adopters. I HIGHLY recommend that you find your student earlier adopters and get them on this team too. Their voice is critical as we create norms, and guidance around generative AI use within the classroom.
• The “AI Team” should be starting to make recommendation for the 24-25 school year around policies and guidelines that need to be updated for the coming school year. This includes:
  • School Board policies recommendations (see references in the WA State Guidance)
  • Updates to the student code of conduct around AI (see this article for ideas)
  • Create teacher responsibility guidance around AI use in the classroom (see this article for ideas)
  • Creating or adopting an “AI Matrix” to be used at either the school or department level. This example from the WA AI Guidance is a great starting point and inside the guidance you can download an editable copy of it to update and make your own.
  • Suggesting updates to Syllabi for MS and HS staff that reflects the relationship between the AI Matrix and the student and teacher responsibilities around AI.

• Should be in the process of creating an AI training calendar for the 24-25 school year for educators around the implementation of AI in lessons, conversation and projects.
• Should be in the process of starting to learn how to create custom GPTs to be using within the school system and as supplement for and in some cases replacement for curriculum (I have 4 districts who I am supporting now working on this).
• Should be starting to think of or design Generative AI electives or courses to offer to MS and HS students (2 schools currently).

That’s where I think schools should be at this time. If your school or district is anywhere close to this then you’re on the right track, you are not “behind” and you’re probably leading the way. I’d love to hear where your school is in relation to these ideas right now as we close out the 23-24 school year.