Butler Area School District will enact an administrative regulation dealing with the use of artificial intelligence technology in school.
Butler Superintendent Dr. Brian White distributed a draft of this directive to school board members as part of a discussion about how the district plans to deal with these new tools available to teachers and students.
The objective of the guidelines is to inform teachers that any use of the AI technology must receive written permission from the superintendent and cannot use personal data.
Also, students will be informed that AI technology cannot be used to violate academic integrity with any use of the technology clearly directed by a teacher and required to be clearly cited.
According to White, AI technology is now a part of our society and it is up to educators to adapt to the situation.
“The reality is that the technology is here and this generation is going to use it some way, shape, or form. It wouldn’t surprise me if in the next five years we have an A.I course here teaching kids how to use A.I.,” White said. “But at the end of the day, kids still have to be able to write a sentence. We’re trying to balance something and what I don’t want to happen is that years down the road we didn’t plan.”
The district plans on engaging community members in a discussion of this topic during the coming school year and the board could choose to enact a new policy dealing with AI at some point next year.
“I’d rather take a step back, take a deep breath, and spend a year planning it out and be deliberate about how we’re using, or not using, A.I. in classrooms,” White said.
