AI in Education: Innovating Responsibly in the Sun Prairie Area School District

6th-12th Grade Educators Professional Development Module

May 17th, 2024

Welcome, 6-12 educators! Today's professional development will focus on Artificial Intelligence and what teaching, learning, acknowledging, and responsible use will look like in the Sun Prairie Area School District. As you've most likely heard, AI has been a significant disruption to traditional educational practices—some changes for the better and some not so great. What the AI Committee was tasked with this year was to create guidance and a framework for our vision and purpose statement around AI in SPASD. The draft of that document is being reviewed by district and building leadership, with more learning about it happening this fall. Stay tuned!

Learning Outcomes

Enhance Efficiency: Equip teachers with tools to streamline their workload, optimizing educational practices to work more effectively.
Real-World Relevance: Equip educators with the knowledge and skills to understand, teach, and leverage AI, ensuring that students can utilize this practical skill beyond the classroom and maximize its potential.
Shift Perspectives: Transition the view of AI from merely a concern of academic dishonesty to a valuable educational tool that can enhance teaching and learning.

Must Do!

As you walk through each section of this training, you will come to a Pre-Assessment and an Exit Ticket (Post-Assessment). These will be used as measures of completion and a means to collect questions or concerns. There will also be opportunities for Group Discussion. Each Group Discussion has a Stop & Jot form available to reflect individually and provide feedback or questions you have for that section of the training. Please utilize this group discussion time to learn and grow from one another.

You can walk through the training together, but we will need to collect exit tickets (pre and post-assessments) from all staff participating.

Your building principals will have access to the responses to ensure completion and address any concerns or questions. If there are any universal questions to be addressed for all of secondary, Anne Stanislawski and/or Curt Mould will send out further communication.

Inclusion Activity

Let's use this as an inclusion activity. Take a look at the meme below, what feelings are coming up for you?

Why are we learning about this now?

As AI technology advances rapidly, we must ask ourselves why it’s so important to learn about it now. We’re at a point where we need to quickly get on board, adapt, and ensure we’re using AI the right way.
It’s everywhere, but are people really using it safely? There’s also a cool opportunity coming up with Google, which could be a great tool for teachers (see more in this training).
We're on the verge of selecting the tools we'll use by next year. Access to our premium accounts could require completion of formal training. This initiative is designed to ensure that everyone remains knowledgeable and accountable when it comes to AI.

Instructional Framework Infographic

Connection to Instructional Framework

Artificial Intelligence holds the promise of significantly enhancing our Instructional Framework by weaving its capabilities through every element: Experiences, Environment, and Equity. As we explore the integration of AI into our teaching practices, it offers innovative avenues to enrich classroom experiences, creating more interactive and personalized learning opportunities. In terms of environment, AI can streamline administrative tasks and optimize learning spaces in ways that support both teachers and students more effectively. Furthermore, AI's potential to analyze vast amounts of data can lead to more equitable educational outcomes by identifying and addressing individual student needs and disparities in educational access.

Acknowledgements

This work could not have been completed without the hard work and commitment of our AI Committee. This committee was composed of teachers (K-12), library media specialists, technology integrators, building administrators, and district administrators. Thank you to all the members who have contributed to ensuring that our students at Sun Prairie Area School District have access to learning about AI and using AI in the most equitable and safest way possible.

Group Discussion & Pre-assessment

This form needs to be filled out individually. Take a few minutes and reflect on the prompt individually using the form to gather your thoughts and then share out to the group.

What are the key reasons educators should be well-versed in Artificial Intelligence, especially in today's educational landscape?

Disclaimer

As we move through this training you will see the following disclaimer on the bottom of every page. This is an intentional reminder of how important it is to consider data privacy, accuracy, harm and bias when evaluating or utilizing AI tools or outputs.

YOU SHOULD NEVER ENTER PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION FOR YOU OR STUDENTS IN ANY AI TOOL.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ENSURE THAT THE INFORMATION IS ACCURATE, IS NOT HARMFUL, AND FREE FROM ANY BIAS.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is defined as any data that could potentially identify a specific individual. In the context of AI in education, this includes information such as students' names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, social security numbers, and any other data that, alone or in combination with other data, can be used to identify, contact, or locate a person.

In the context of using AI in education, we must be vigilant about the outputs generated by these systems. Here's what we need to consider:

Bias: Sometimes, AI can show bias based on its data. This means it might favor or discriminate against certain groups (like different races, genders, economic statuses or other historically marginalized groups). It's important for teachers to notice and address if AI seems biased.

Accuracy: AI's answers or assessments need to be correct and trustworthy. Mistakes can happen if the data is wrong, the AI isn’t well-built, or it misinterprets information. Teachers should check if AI's outcomes make sense and confirm them with additional sources if necessary.

Harm: AI mistakes can be harmful, particularly in areas like student evaluations, counseling, or career advice. Harm can result from biases, inaccuracies, or privacy issues. Teachers should be cautious and ready to step in if AI's advice might harm a student.

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