JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Artificial intelligence is on the rise, even in your children’s’ classrooms.
Duval County Public Schools posted an announcement to its website Wednesday saying in part:
“Team Duval Teachers looking to save time generating test questions and passages for students have found support through software powered by AI.”
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The district outlined in that announcement its plans to hold its first ever “AI institute,” aiming to teach educators how to use AI safely and effectively for crafting exams, presentations, and even in-class lesson plans.
“It’s here whether we want it to be or not,” DCPS parent and Walden University professor Michelle Slater said. “And so having these types of awareness of it, having training on it, I don’t think we can avoid it.”
Slater told Action News Jax Thursday she feels AI in education is not something to run away from, but it is something to be cautious of.
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Slater outlined the fine line she feels the district has to walk of making sure it supplements teachers, instead of replacing their personalized touch.
“I think kids are getting too much computerized learning as is,” Slater said. “And if this could help improve that because teachers aren’t doing so much busy work, then I’m all for it. If it’s just another barrier to student connection, then I see a lot of pitfalls there.”
Action News Jax also spoke to Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, on Thursday about the district’s move toward AI in the classroom.
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Spar said while AI can be a helpful tool, its important teachers also do their own reviews of the technology’s work, because, he said, AI doesn’t always get it right.
“AI is not perfect, yet. It pulls information that it finds on the web, and it could be, or very well be false information,” Spar said. “There are certainly positive benefits to AI, but there needs to be some guardrails put into place.”
Action News Jax reached out to the district for more clarification on how they plan to integrate AI into learning instruction, but they simply redirected us to their Wednesday announcement. You can read through that full announcement and the district’s plans for artificial intelligence in the class, by clicking here.
Read: Duval County students show off robot building skills at school district competition
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