Indian Prairie School District 204 will unblock generative AI tools for the 2024-2025 academic year. Several AI tools will be implemented throughout the high schools, while middle and elementary schools will mostly focus on learning about the technology.
Five IPSD 204 staff members presented the plan for strategic integration of AI to the board of education at Monday’s meeting.
Unblocking AI at Indian Prairie School District 204
Currently, generative AI is blocked for students, according to Tania Moneim, the district’s instructional specialist for equity and innovation.
This technology can generate new content like text, images, code, and sound. With AI’s growth over the last year, some educators felt it was time to incorporate the tool into the schools.
“When we talk about it at Neuqua and a lot of the other schools, we don’t talk about the risks anymore. That was the initial fear,” said Steve Wick, instructional technology coordinator at Neuqua Valley High School. “The kids are going to use it one way or the other. We need to also be able to use this as educators and then be able to educate our students in all of these different things.”
Wick said some benefits of AI are personalized learning assistance, timely feedback, creative aid, and idea formulation. While there is much to gain from AI, the presenters said they still want to remain alert for potential risks.
Forming a task force to integrate AI at IPSD 204 schools
To successfully integrate AI at the schools, the district created a task force during the 2023-2024 year. It’s a collaboration of K-12 teachers, principals, and district representatives.
The task force comprises four groups focused on specific outcomes: creating a belief statement and principles, building professional learning for staff, optimizing student learning through AI, and determining which AI tools would be most helpful to the schools.
Priorities include developing AI policies, fostering readiness, educating teachers and students on the technology, and ethically maximizing AI benefits.
“The task force really wanted to be intentional about how we think about guiding our staff, students, and community through this new change,” said Nader Najjar, assistant superintendent of equity and innovation.
Implementing AI tools into the classroom
Some programs the district plans on using include Magic School AI (staff only), Microsoft CoPilot, Canva, and Adobe Firefly.
Only the high schools in the district will receive access to all the AI tools in the next academic year because most privacy policies limit use to people 13 years and older, according to Moneim.
How soon or for how long AI will be in each class will depend on the course. Staff is currently working on this process.
AI use at middle schools will vary by grade level.
Sixth grade will introduce AI along with an ethical focus on access and biases, while seventh grade will begin engaging with AI, focusing ethically on its impact on society. Eighth grade will create with AI and explore the moral dilemmas that come with AI programming.
Middle schools will also continue to have access to Canva and Adobe Firefly.
Elementary schools will only teach students about AI on a basic level and will not use the tools.
Looking ahead to the 2024-2025 school year
District 204 officials say there is a learning curve to AI implementation, and it will take time to fully understand the technology and how to use it in the classroom.
“You can’t ever look at this in isolation, it’s got to be the big picture of that whole entire learning process, both for us as teachers and for the students,” said Wick. “As AI evolves, we’re going to evolve as educators and we’re going to collaborate a ton.”
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