Teachers are increasingly trying to take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the face of concerns about cheating and equity.
A survey released this month by Imagine Learning found that 50% of educators reported an increase in the use of AI in the last academic year, and just days later, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) released new AI guidelines ahead of 2024-2025. .
Experts say that so far teachers have primarily used AI to help complete lesson plans more quickly or create individualized instruction more efficiently, and that more training is needed to ensure the technology is used to its full potential.
“I think not all teachers are using AI yet, but the trend seems to be increasing that more teachers are interested in using these tools both for their own practice and to support student learning and engagement,” Torrey said. Trust, associate professor of teacher education and curriculum studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“From the research I have seen, the most common use by teachers is to save time, to help with lesson planning, to generate texts to communicate with administrative tasks and then to support student learning,” said Trust. “So also just with creative thinking, support and help to improve your academic success.”
In the Imagine Learning report, 68% of teachers said they use AI to analyze student data, 67% create instructional material with it, and 65% use it for assessment.
“I think teachers are getting a little more comfortable with technology and what it can do,” said Sari Factor, chief strategy officer at Imagine Learning.
While 55 percent of educators believe generative AI will have a positive impact in the classroom and 84 percent say AI training sessions are valuable, only 28 percent of respondents say they have the resources needed to properly implement AI in your teaching.
“I really want schools and leaders to take time to talk about how AI is already being used in our schools. That’s probably the most fundamental piece of any training I’m seeing,” said Jody Britten, head of innovation and research at Team4Tech, adding that educators have already been using Grammarly and other AI-powered resources without even thinking about it. .
“I think starting with that foundational element of all the ways they’re already using AI and then getting into the conversation about how they could use it, we’re seeing a lot more buy-in from educators in that way, because it takes some of the fear and a little of the anxiety out of the picture because they’re realizing how they’ve used all these tools for so long and never called it AI,” Britten said.
The AFT is specifically investing $200,000 in 11 school districts for solutions to understand and work with AI, an announcement that comes as the union released guidelines for educators to follow when working with AI in classrooms. The guidelines have six core principles: ensuring student safety and data privacy, centering human interaction, empowering educators to decide how AI is used, promoting equity and justice, promoting democracy, and teaching digital citizenship.
“It was very important to get a group of professionals from all over the country to do this work. And so, what we put out there is because AI has great potential and great danger,” AFT President Randi Weingarten told The Hill.
Federal governments and some state governments have also been working with teachers to stay up to date on the issue as concerns regarding AI have refused to abate.
“The dissatisfaction that remains is still great. The concerns about cheating… we haven’t really changed that,” Factor said. “Teachers need to focus on academic integrity and the purpose of learning.”
AFT also launched what it calls AI Educator Brain, in collaboration with New York City public school teacher Sari Beth Rosenberg and EdBrAIn, seeking to provide educators with free online resources on the topic.
“I hesitate to say that, because every time we have a new topic, someone says, ‘Oh, we should have professional development on this.’ But it’s really worth the time, the fluency, the knowledge, the professional support and the professional development for AI and the use of AI, it’s really worth it,” Weingarten said.
Schools face a long road ahead as technology becomes an integral part of the educational process while continuing to develop rapidly.
“From what I’ve seen, we’re just in the early stages: people figuring out what these tools are capable of and how they can shape education,” Trust said.
The hope is that this upcoming school year will no longer just be a discussion about AI, but will also produce concrete plans for a long-term vision.
“I think we have another year to just experiment and figure out what works, and I’m really hopeful that during that year, organizationally, schools and districts can set some goals for themselves around AI,” Britten said. “I hope this year results in that hard, visionary work across all of our states so that teachers can move away from experimentation and into really great, sustained ways of changing things.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
