AI is everywhere. How should schools handle it? Teachers’ different approaches show its potential — and limits

KRISTEN TAKETA

The San Diego Union-Tribune

Oct 29, 2024

In Jeff Simon’s math class at Sage Creek High School, students are not only allowed but encouraged to use AI.

Simon introduces students to artificial intelligence tools that explain, step by step, how to solve a math problem — all they have to do is take a picture of it. There are AI tools that graph equations and math chatbots that students can ask for help on a problem, as if asking a teacher. With AI tools, students can quickly check their answers before turning in classwork or homework. To Gabriel Raposo, a 15-year-old sophomore in Simon’s Intermediate Algebra class, “it’s kind of like a private math tutor.”

Simon, a teacher of 31 years with an electrical engineering background, is unique among Gabriel’s teachers in how much he embraces AI. But more teachers are embracing it, or at least incorporating it into their jobs. Schools around the country, including in San Diego, have been ramping up efforts to train teachers on using AI in the classroom — both in showing teachers how they can use AI to make their jobs easier, and in teaching students the proper and ethical use of AI.

With AI tools already prevalent not just in daily life but in the workforce, schools now find themselves needing to navigate several questions: When is it appropriate for students to use AI, and when is it not? How will schools teach students about AI literacy, including how to detect whether something is AI-generated or human?

How can teachers prevent AI cheating and plagiarism and ensure students are truly learning, rather than relying on AI to come up with answers? How can schools and students monitor the content AI produces for bias and inaccuracy? And how can teachers incorporate AI without compromising human relationships and creativity?

“We’re trying to teach the ethical use of these new tools that are just going to keep on growing,” Simon said.

California doesn’t yet mandate any policies or rules for schools about AI use or teaching, but it says students and teachers should be taught about safe and appropriate AI use and how AI produces content. A new law approved last month requires the state’s Instructional Quality Commission to consider incorporating AI literacy into curriculum frameworks for math, science and social science.

“In this age of AI, it is essential that both educators and students demystify this technology and grasp how it produces output,” state guidance says. “A conceptual knowledge of the benefits and potential risks of computing technologies is increasingly relevant for our students and educators alike.”

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