DeKalb School District 428 board talks AI use in schools

DeKALB – As artificial intelligence makes it way into the classroom, DeKalb School District 428 is looking to be proactive about empowering staff and students to use the technology effectively.

AI is an increasingly common tool embedded in technology that can be used to do anything from correct grammar to suggest text as people write emails.

Ben Bayle, the district’s director of technology, said the need for guidance to steer how AI is used in the classroom is becoming increasingly evident.

“I view AI the same way I view other teaching and learning technology integration, such as our 1:1 [devices] – which you guys just approved this evening – STEM, augmented reality, virtual reality,” Bayle said. “It is a tool for the classroom when appropriate. We’re already seeing AI being integrated in the platforms we own and utilize by staff and students. We also see staff and students exploring on their own.”

The board this week voted to replace 1,700 Chromebook devices for next year’s first, fifth and ninth grade students and staff, school board documents show.

Billy Hueramo, the district’s director of teaching and learning for primary education, said the district is working to stay ahead of the curve in addressing AI as it becomes more prevalent in the classroom.

The board in December had authorized several district employees to attend a national AI conference in Anaheim, California, school board documents show.

“AI is here. There’s no way around it anymore,” Hueramo said. “We look at it as an instructional tool in collaboration with Ben [Bayle]. … We need to know about AI; hence, you all approved us to go to the AI conference to be able to learn a little bit more about it.”

Jessica Nall, the district’s assessment coordinator, said she recognizes that AI brings with it a set of complexities for the district to address.

“AI can deliver content and information but cannot deliver context or emotion,” Nall said.

One such challenge that the district may have with AI, Nall said, is teaching the youngest students how to adapt to it.

“AI can only provide answers from the information it’s been given, and it doesn’t know if it’s accurate or true,” Nall said. “We are going to be tasked with making sure that our students know that they have to be skeptical about all of the information they’re getting from AI because the answers are only going to be as good as the information we put in, like all data systems.

“But I think for our younger learners in particular, this is going to be something we have to hit really hard.”

Nall said the district remains assured that AI won’t replace educators or the work that they perform with students going forward.

“We do not believe that AI will replace our learning and certainly not the relationships between students and teachers, so we want to make sure that we’re spending the time to teach students to use AI properly, so we don’t open pandora’s box and have it get a little bit out of control,” Nall said. “We want to put it properly in its context.

“This is a tool our students can use, not the thing that they can take advantage of to get out of doing the work that will help develop the skills that we need them to have.”

The school board is expected to give consideration to establishing a $30,000 budget to explore AI integrations to enhance teaching and learning for the 2024-25 school year at a later date.