This year’s VEX Robotics Educators Conference inspired some great conversations about AI in education - from the mind-blowing Opening Keynote by Dr. Touretsky, to workshops on AIM, to Educator’s Lounge conversations throughout the conference. This morning a NY Times article, How Miami Schools Are Leading 100,000 Students Into the A.I. Future highlighted the amazing work being done by the Miami-Dade school district in this area. It also talked about another conference presenter - Dr. Maya Israel, and her work as part of a task force to develop AI guidelines for local schools.
The Miami effort is part of a larger push to spread A.I. tools and literacy in Florida classrooms. Last year, the University of Florida set up a statewide education task force — which includes more than two dozen districts, among them Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County schools — to develop A.I. guidelines for local schools.
A.I. is already coming into schools, and so not having an informed, strategic approach to considering A.I. is really risky,” said Maya Israel, an associate professor of computer science education at the University of Florida overseeing the group.
The article goes on to describe the steps the district is taking to train and support administrators and teachers in responsible AI usage, as well as ways that teachers are incorporating AI into their classrooms in meaningful ways.
“I’m teaching students to use A.I. as a tool that’s helpful, like a book or a dictionary,” Ms. Lowd said. “I’m not telling them to use it to get the answer.”
This article was great food for thought to me, and I thought could be a good catalyst for continuing some of the conference conversations in the PD+ Community!
Please share your thoughts, reactions, questions, ideas, or your own stories of AI in your classroom to keep the conversation going.
