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New Generative Artificial Intelligence Guidance

Guiding Philosophy

Whenever a new technology comes along it is easy to get swept up in the enthusiasm and promise of new and better ways to do things. The current crop of AI tools does appear to provide unique and revolutionary opportunities that may be different than past fads, but it is still important that we continue to focus on our vision for student learners, our shared beliefs, and the why behind our educational decisions. 

At the same time it is important that we are realistic about the impact of AI in the world. Chat GPT was first introduced late in 2022 and it has already begun to transform expectations for many about what constitutes content creation and the role humans have in that process. AI is not going away so we need to prepare ourselves and our students to leverage it to the best advantage. We have a responsibility to help staff and students become literate in the use of AI and how to mitigate the issues that it raises. This also means that we need to find ways to provide safe and appropriate access to AI tools to our students and teachers. 

Humans at the Center

Guidance from OSPI has at its core the concept of human centeredness.

“The rapid development of AI tools has created opportunities for educators to rethink the way they approach student learning. As our state embraces these changes, it is important to remember that human reflection and understanding are key to AI generation. This "Human-AI-Human" approach to AI puts our students and educators at the beginning and end of all interactions with AI. “

OSPI AI Guidance - Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence in Schools

Click on this link to OSPI guidance for more information

Key Considerations for Staff

Education is a difficult and time-consuming profession. Any chance to ease the workload so you can concentrate on students is welcome, but you always have to be cognizant of what you gain and what you may lose. 

For example:

Using AI for general communication is very appealing, but if it lacks key details, voice, and sincerity will it achieve what you want? Using generative AI to craft a draft can be helpful to get you started, but you should then modify the communication using your own voice.

If you use ChatGPT to help with student assessments, will you lose the chance to really know your students? It is not always clear, but you should be asking yourself the question.

Guidance for Student Use

What are the learning goals of any particular task? If learning to do an outline is the goal then using AI to write that goal is not advancing the learning goal, but if transforming an outline into a well written paper is the goal then perhaps using AI to do a draft outline can be a useful scaffold in moving a student towards their learning goal. Purpose and transparency are vital in effective use of AI for students.

Practical guidelines to consider

  • Privacy - Personal or other sensitive  information should never be entered into an AI tool unless you know what happens to that data. In most cases public AIs incorporate the data you enter into their language model and it is not always clear what ultimately may happen to that data.
     

  • Parental consent - The Terms of Service for Chat GPT and many other AI tools explicitly require parental permission to use their service if a user is under 18. This is the main reason we block students from accessing OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT. Open AI/ChatGPT Terms of Service
     

  • Bias - Responses from generative AI tools depend on large data sets that may have inherent biases. Bias is also often introduced by the prompts that are used to generate a response. There is a skill in developing prompts that should be part of what students learn when using an AI.

  • Ethics and Transparency - Using AI tools depends on data from other people’s work. How do you attribute that work when you use AI to generate content? When you use AI to create work is that plagiarism? Transparency is the key. Students need to understand and practice clear attribution when using AI. 


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