Board of Regents discuss AI's impact on education |
On Board Online • March 18, 2024
By Sara Foss
Special Correspondent
How will artificial intelligence impact teachers, students and classrooms throughout the state?
Members of the Board of Regents considered this question during a presentation on AI and P-12 education at their March meeting.
While some Regents expressed concerns about AI's potential impact on learning, privacy and other areas, members agreed that teachers and students must be taught how to use the technology safely and responsibly. They also heard from experts who said AI can enable deeper learning and make teaching easier.
"AI is undergirding and supercharging the tools that many districts, students and staff already have access to," said Mike Doughty, assistant superintendent at the Northeastern Regional Information Center and speaker on AI at NYSSBA's 2023 Annual Convention.
"If we aren't teaching our students how to access and use these tools appropriately and ethically, then who is?" Doughty asked. "If we're not teaching them in schools, then students with access to the tools at home are going to access the tools and use them, and kids without access won't."
He acknowledged concern that students will use chatbots like ChatGPT to write their papers. Doughty said schools already have policies, such as codes of conduct, that can address some of the concerns about students using AI to cheat.
Paul Cardettino, coordinator of educational technology policy at the State Education Department, said the state must provide guidance on AI in schools. Many districts have questions about whether the technology can be trusted, how to ensure academic integrity and other AI-related issues.
"Guidelines and guardrails are essential to providing a future where AI is used responsibly in schools," he said. "The good news is that many of those are in place already. In fact, we've been using AI in schools for some time." Among other things, AI is used to optimize internet speed and enhance student information systems.
Tara Carrozza, director of digital learning and innovation for New York City Public Schools, said the city aims to be a worldwide leader in integrating AI into the K-12 education system. In 2023, the chancellor lifted a ban on ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot launched in 2022. The district now runs a citywide AI course for educators and has developed a generative AI algebra teaching assistant.
"With our students, we can't not give them access (to AI)," Carrozza said. "The risk of not allowing our students access to such a global, critical tool will only increase inequities that already exist." She said New York City schools have embraced AI as a "lever to dismantle already inequitable systems."
"It comes back to student outcomes and what (AI) means for student learning," Carrozza said. "That is our north star. How is it going to improve learning for us?"
Regent Shino Tanikawa recommended involving parents at the policy level when developing guidelines for AI. "(AI) is here to stay," she said. "It's going to continue to evolve into something newer, better, scarier, different. It's good we're taking it on."
Regent Aramina Vega Ferrer said that students are already quite adept at using AI, and the state needs to harness their knowledge. "We need to have those students become leaders, so they can make presentations for us in the future on how they are using it, how the schools allowed them to use it, how they're using it at home, how their families are using it," she said.
Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa said conversations on AI will continue at the State Education Department. "We have to think about innovation that will propel us forward," she said. "The world that we live in is not the world that these young people are going to live in."
A report entitled "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning," was issued in May 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology. It emphasized potential benefits of AI tools to students with disabilities and English language learners.
While "algorithmic discrimination" is a risk of using AI, the report said, "We envision a technology-enhanced future more like an electric bike and less like robot vacuums. On an electric bike, the human is fully aware and fully in control, but their burden is less, and their effort is multiplied by a complementary technological enhancement."
Read the report at tech.ed.gov/ai-future-of-teaching-and-learning .
For a review of other states' AI policies, see an Arizona State University report at bit.ly/3PiVMD4 .