Over the past few years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown exponentially, transforming how we live, work, and learn. The rapid development of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, have accelerated the need for schools to evaluate how they will approach the use of AI as a tool for learning.
We believe that embracing these advancements can be beneficial in deepening our students’ learning experiences while fostering their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. We also understand that this comes with challenges, such as ethical and privacy concerns and the need to teach our students to critically evaluate the use of AI.
St. Margaret’s is discussing the use of AI for learning with the following guidelines:
Teacher-Led Approach: Our teachers will remain at the forefront of the learning process, utilizing AI tools to support their instruction and augment student engagement. AI will not replace our educators, but rather amplify their efforts.
Data Privacy: We will ensure that any AI tool we employ adheres to strict data privacy and protection guidelines, safeguarding our students’ personal information.
Digital Literacy: As part of our technology curriculum, we will continue to educate students on the ethical implications of AI, the importance of digital citizenship, and ways to critically evaluate AI-generated content.
Ongoing Evaluation: We will continuously assess the effectiveness of these AI tools, ensuring that they align with our educational goals and positively impact our students’ learning outcomes.
With these guidelines in mind, the administrative team updated the existing Academic Integrity and Technology Responsible Use policies to be included in the Student Handbook.
We continue to recognize that the future will require students to use their imagination and creativity as well as practice empathy, ethical decision-making and critical thinking. Practicing thinking for themselves—rather than having a computer think for them—provides students with the best means of developing these important skills. Generative AI tools will be used to facilitate critical thinking practices and the ability to use AI as a tool for learning is considered to be a new literacy.