Implementation Resources for AI in Education

An-Me Chung

Cameron Benham

With artificial intelligence (AI) technology and tools emerging with lightning speed into schools across the country, educators, policymakers, and leaders are grappling with fundamental questions about how educators and learners might safely and effectively use, understand, and evaluate AI. As a result, states, districts, and others have developed guidelines and frameworks for implementation listed in the table below. In addition, the Open Technology Institute created a complementary guide for privacy and security considerations in education.

Background

AI, generally known as the concept of developing intelligent machines, began as a field of academic research in the 1950s. It continued to evolve with ups and downs and at the end of the 1970s, the first microprocessors emerged. This resulted in the development of expert systems, which eventually led to a highly publicized match between world chess champion Gary Kasparov being defeated by IBM's Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer game in 1997, and in 2017, Google's AlphaGo beating Ke Jie, a Chinese Go champion. Since 2010, access to massive amounts of data and new computing power has provided, for example, the ability to find answers immediately via a simple browser search.

As the field evolved, machine learning (ML) emerged, and computers were able to learn from data and make predictions. ML led to generative AI which can create new content and information, and large language models (LLM), such as OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022, that exhibits reasoning, cognition, attention, and creativity. Although AI has long been responsible for improving smartphone cameras, trip planning, and search algorithms, the application of generative AI and LLMs has reached new heights of use for fields such as medicine, art, financing, coding, military, transportation and education.

The spread has been rapid and with excitement and trepidation. In education, the primary question is how to prepare students and educators to use these tools in ways that embrace critical thinking, remain human-centered, and are responsible, ethical, and safe.

On January 29, 2024, the White House announced key actions to be taken for implementing the Executive Order on "safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence." In the meantime, the need is immediate, and states and districts are developing guidelines for educators and learners who have embraced AI, those who are unsure, and others who aren't sure where to begin.

Resources

For states, districts, and communities who are considering developing guidelines, we have created a repository of AI guidelines and resources intended for use in K-12 education; our colleagues at New America's Open Technology Institute have created a complementary guide for educators grappling with ethical privacy and security considerations inherent when using AI.

Note: The listing of the below resources is solely for educational purposes and does not imply endorsement by New America, nor discrimination against similar resources not mentioned.