Calgary Catholic School District hosting parents’ meeting about impact of AI on learning

It’s now been a year since  ChatGPT was launched by OpenAI and in that time students and teachers have been applying the technology as it becomes part of learning.

“The fear levels may be going down and there’s more of an acceptance that it’s not going anywhere. And also right now artificial intelligence is the least developed and the least sophisticated that it’s ever going to be,” said Sarah Elaine Eaton an associate professor at the University of Calgary Werklund School of Education.

The Calgary Catholic School District is hosting a meeting on November 28 to address the many questions parents have about the use of AI in schoolwork.

“We are getting questions from parents like ‘How is it going to change education, and how do we prepare our kids for a new world of work, and how can schools support that process? How do we as parents support ChatGPT in our homes? How do we use generative AI, and how do we talk with our kids about it?'” said Kirk Linton supervisor, Teaching & Learning at CCSD.

“For parents, I think the important thing is to not try to sweep it under the rug,” Linton said.

Linton said discussing the use of AI in schoolwork means focusing on critical thinking skills rather than things AI can do faster and better.

“It will produce things quickly, but what we want our students to do is to get to deeper learning. We want them to have deeper understanding, so we really need to focus as educators and parents on process rather than product. If all we’re doing is dealing with product, ChatGPT can probably do that faster, easier, and better than we can,” Linton said.

Linton said the school board is now working on creating policy surrounding AI and reaching out to other districts.

“We are working on developing a framework as we speak. It is early days and it’s something that we are still responding to because it’s changing so quickly.

He said the policies the district has around plagiarism and cheating can respond in the same way.

“We are reaching out to other districts as well, so we have multi-jurisdictional meetings where we discuss these sorts of things. Definitely, there needs to be a coordinated effort I think from provincial and national levels and we know all levels of government right now are responding to this, and providing lots of guidance on this too,” Linton said.

Eaton said schools need to have consistent messaging so students don’t have to deal with different rules from teacher to teacher. She said ensuring that kids know what the teachers expect of them is key.

“Because there’s so many inconsistent approaches to this technology right now, parents can encourage their kids to ask their teachers questions about what the expectations are especially when kids go into one class and the teacher says you have to use it and they go to another class and it’s prohibited,” Eaton said.

Eaton says policy and regulations are required but should be coming from provincial or federal governments.

“I think governments around the world will need to tackle this on a mega or a macro-level scale and it shouldn’t really be up to an individual classroom teacher or even individual school to come up with their own policies, because AI is available across the entire world to everyone,” Eaton said.

The Calgary Board of Education says it’s providing guidance and examples to teachers regarding effective use of AI in learning.

“We are in the process of working with schools to build a common understanding of AI’s legitimate uses and limitations in education, focusing on how it can be used ethically as a resource to support learning, while upholding the foundation of academic integrity,” read a statement from the CBE.

“It is important for teachers to clearly identify when to leverage AI appropriately in support of learning.”

The CBE says if student’s work is flagged using school board-approved AI detection software suggesting that it may not be original work, “additional information will be sought to ensure fair and accurate assessment.”

Both Linton and Eaton agree teachers will need professional learning and many more conversations will need to occur about the technology.

Eaton said future generations won’t lose their jobs to artificial intelligence, but they might lose their jobs to people who know how to use artificial intelligence.

“So ensuring that the kids who are in school today are prepared for the workforce tomorrow, I think would be a really helpful way to guide this and focusing on the kids and their future,” Eaton said.