MARATHON — The public school board that serves the region east of Thunder Bay is integrating artificial intelligence into various aspects of its operations, both in the classroom and behind the scenes.
The Superior-Greenstone District School Board has partnered with Future Design School, an education-focused consulting and professional development company, to, among other things, further implement AI as part of classroom learning and for administrative tasks.
“One of the key pieces to this is to develop some policies and procedures that are going to allow for us to open artificial intelligence in a safe way,” said Will Goodman, the board’s director of education.
“We know that there's an ethical component as well, and it's really important for us to do this in a way that we're not behind in the times, but we also have to ensure that we're creating opportunities because the learners of today are using artificial intelligence.”
Goodman added the new initiatives will prioritize critical thinking about AI alongside the actual use of it.
“We've been working with Superior-Greenstone for the past several years on their strategic plan, and part of the priorities for that is really around student achievement,” said Sarah Prevette, the founder and CEO of Future Design School, who, along with other company staff, was leading a session in Marathon helping deliver training to senior board representatives and school principals.
“The district has, I think, really ambitious goals for student success, and our role at Future Design School is really about amplifying the great work that they're already doing.”
Prevette said the AI component will be largely helping with data management and processing and administrative tasks, which “frees educators to do what they do best … build good relationships, inspire curiosity, and really support every learner.” Goodman said that could include AI’s help with things like scheduling, or other functions like adapting texts to multiple reading levels, but not using it to handle sensitive or confidential information.
Prevette said her company focuses on “data-driven decision making” and, with ongoing advancements in technology, “now we're able to provide even greater insights in real-time predictive analytics, things like that.”
Goodman added there will also be an in-class component, including the use of some tools “that are basically sandboxes.”
"(This) allows the educators to put all the resources that they want to select into a place where the students can work with (them), and then, from that, there can be lessons in there, there can be research opportunities.”
All of that can then be turned into other forms like videos, audiobooks or podcasts using artificial intelligence tools, Goodman said.
Prevette said the partnership with the Superior-Greenstone board includes access to Future Design School’s own proprietary technology, as well as training and education on more effective use of other existing platforms.
Goodman said safe use and critical thinking about the technology will be at the core of these new initiatives.
“It's more about educating our staff and our students that they have to look at things from a critical lens, and those are some of those skill sets that we need to teach so that when people are looking at it, there is always still a human, there is always a person (involved),” he said.
“We have to make sure that what is produced or what is created or what comes out of it, always has to be critically looked at, and I think those are the parts that we're looking at there.”