The use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a valuable teaching resource is being embraced by Central Okanagan Public Schools.

An expected two-year planning process is already underway in the school district on how to respond to and implement the evolution of AI in the classroom as an added instructional tool for teachers, while the school district administration is developing policy use guidelines for teachers and students to follow.

Troy White, district principal of learning technology services, led a presentation to the Central Okanagan Board of Education on Wednesday (Oct. 11) about some of the impact issues being introduced into the education of students by the latest AI developments.

He was joined by Tobias Blaskovits, a District STEAM/Learning technology consultant, and Nicole Leboe, a learning technology consultant.

鈥淭echnology is inherently neutral,鈥� White said. 鈥淎I is a teaching tool. The question is how you use it.鈥�

He said that the learning process was jumpstarted with the recent unveiling of ChatGPT, a game-changer AI service, a complex computer algorithm that utilizes a large language model with billions of parameters to search the Internet to find and synthesize information to produce 鈥榦riginal鈥� content.

White cited some of the negative issues associated with AI 鈥� ethics of creating misinformation, errors in ChatGPT feedback referred to as 鈥渉allucinations鈥� on the tech world, AI doing the work for students in research and writing and academic learning integrity.

On the plus side, White noted AI offers a teaching and learning tool with immediate feedback and support, improves classroom time efficiency for teachers and students, empowers students with diverse learning abilities and has language translation benefits.

White stressed that human-driven instruction will always be an important element of education, the question remains how schools will respond to the AI revolution.

He said Okanagan Public Schools is looking to embrace that challenge, and be proactive rather than reactive in how AI is absorbed into the school system while continuing to engage parents, students and teachers in the awareness and education aspects of the new technology.

He said the Ministry of Education and Childcare has already developed a B.C. Digital Literacy Framework, identifying technology skills students should have when they graduate and how to absorb AI into the learning curriculum.

Like any new technology, he noted ChatGPT has not worked out all the kinks, from providing factual inaccuracies in synthesizing the Internet for data, something we already encounter today in determining what is real and what is not on social media websites.

鈥淭here are AI checker systems being developed to flush out false information,鈥� White added.

鈥淏ut that is a process that will take us at least the next two years to understand and respond to as AI continues to develop its uses.鈥�

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