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PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Parents and educators are raising concerns about how artificial intelligence should be implemented in Arizona schools.
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There are currently no statewide mandates when it comes to AI, leaving districts to make decisions about how to use the technology on their own.
Tech company CEOs are calling for more guardrails and oversight on artificial intelligence as the technology continues to grow.
No statewide requirements
LeeAnn Lindsey with Northern Arizona University’s Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy said the technology is changing every day.
“This is new technology, changing every day, and just when you think you know everything about it, you don’t,” Lindsey said.
The Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy provides AI guidance to schools across the state. Lindsey said Arizona does not have any specific requirements or restrictions when it comes to AI, leaving school districts to create their own policies for safety, school work and student access to artificial intelligence.
Ensuring students do their own work
One of the concerns is finding ways to make sure students do their own work.
“We talk about ways that students can use AI as a thought partner, as a perspective taker,” Lindsey said. “They can upload a piece of work and ask what might be missing from their work. In those ways, AI is helping them improve rather than replacing their thinking.”
The Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy has created an AI playbook to help schools build their AI guidelines. Since the technology keeps changing, districts have difficulty keeping up.
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Grading and AI
Michelle Watt, director of Arizona’s AI Alliance, said another question that has come up is how teachers use AI when grading papers.
“While there are tools that can provide feedback on student work that’s valuable that are AI powered, there’s a real sense from students and educators that an actual grade that affects a student should come from a human and not AI,” Watt said.
Safety guardrails
NAU experts said schools are starting to step up to make sure students are not being put at risk while using AI.
“There are absolutely places where guardrails are needed for any students to be interacting with AI, or any of us interacting with AI, and right now we are seeing those guardrails be put in place at the district level,” Lindsey said.
A number of the nation’s largest school districts, including Los Angeles and New York, have recently placed bans on the use of AI by students.
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