By Jeff Simmons, IDLA Superintendent
In a previous IDLA blog, Ryan Gravette shared the importance of using AI to “augment the human process.” AI is best used to support humans, not replace them. At IDLA, we believe AI will be a tool available to all of this generation’s students throughout their working careers. Students entering Kindergarten this school year will not know a world without AI.
With so many unknowns about an emerging technology, how do we move forward with an AI strategy that will augment learning in a way that prepares students for an unknown future? I’d like to share some of our AI strategy with you in this post. It starts with our Strategic Plan:
4.4 Prepare IDLA students for the AI-supported workforce.
The learning experience best prepares students for the future workforce when the learning environment reflects the workplace. Those in today’s workforce are using AI to augment their current roles. AI becomes everything from a thinking partner to an editor. AI is being used to explore ways that work can become more efficient and increase quality.
To reflect this in the classroom, we must ensure AI is part of the learning experience. If workers use AI as a thinking partner, designer, and editor, we must show students where to use AI appropriately in the learning process. However, the focus has to remain on learning. We don’t use AI to say that we used AI. We use AI to support learning that prepares students for the future workforce.
Our strategic goal is broad. It is meant to keep us moving forward in a positive direction with AI implementation, but not in a way that stifles innovation. As our teams have wrestled with this goal this spring and summer, they’ve come forward with three specific areas where we will explore the use of AI.
Just as students need to learn how to use AI to augment the learning experience, teachers need to learn how to use AI to augment the teaching experience. Our Supervision and Instruction Team is brainstorming how AI can support teachers in increasing the quality of their teaching. This team will work with our teachers to identify the purposeful use of AI in the teaching experience that leads to higher-quality learning experiences.
Our Technology Team is brainstorming where AI can better support academic advising in our Course Catalog and other tools supporting students. We know that quality academic advising leads students to the college or career path appropriate for each of them. School district resources for academic advising are strained despite their best efforts. We believe AI can help augment the registration process to support the academic advising students receive at their local schools.
Finally, our Content Team is looking for ways that AI can create a more dynamic learning experience. In our 8th Grade Career Exploration course, students need to interview a community member who works in their field of interest. Local resources can constrain this activity in some of our rural communities. We believe AI can help create opportunities for students who don’t have access to these resources in their local community. An AI-supported interaction will never replace a human interaction. Still, it may give students enough of an opportunity to determine if this is an interest they would like to pursue.
All three of these initiatives came from our creative and innovative team members. Each of them has the potential to advance the teaching and learning experience at IDLA. None of them are sufficient on their own, and this will not end our journey with AI. This is only the beginning! As we learn more about implementing AI, we will better use AI to augment teaching and learning. This will open up future opportunities to augment the human process in teaching and learning. We’re also committed to transparency with AI, so stay tuned to our blog for updates on our progress. We’ll share successes and lessons learned along the way.
