Staff and students at District 87 schools enjoy Bloomington Junior High School (BJHS) are now on the same page regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Resulting from a District 87 AI Policy Working Group, BJHS students are allowed to use AI in the classroom. BJHS uses AI MagicSchoola more heavily regulated and limited alternative to AI classics like ChatGPT or Gemini.
MagicSchool allows students to use it for help in school without being able to use it for off-task needs.
“It’s a contained AI, so it doesn’t let them do everything and ask all kinds of questions,” said eighth-grade social studies teacher Crystal South-Law. “So it’s contained; it’s very controlled.”
Training policy
Current guidelines in all District 87 schools prohibit the use of AI as a substitute for school work that requires original thinking. Using AI to complete assignments, projects, or tests without permission from the instructor is prohibited. Students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) may have additional authorization to use it as an aid. The policy also allows school staff to use AI content detectors to check for AI use or plagiarism.
Other schools have similar policies. Unit 5 And Tri-Valleyfor example, have almost identical language to District 87 in their student handbook.
South-Law was a member of the task force that helped develop the policy. She also took classes over the summer to learn about AI technology and how it can be implemented in the classroom.
Even though some teachers are hesitant to include it in their classes, due to environmental concerns or impacts on learning – South-Law said students would be at a disadvantage in the job market without some experience.
“Across the country, there are schools that specifically teach how to be responsible when it comes to AI,” South-Law said. “And I think it’s important that my students are just as competitive as those who come out of that kind of situation.”
The task force is the result of several years of discussions within the school district about how to approach AI in District 87 schools. South-Law said the discussions ranged from ways to implement it in the classroom to whether an outright ban was warranted.
Classroom use
The ability for students to use MagicSchool and other individual software with teacher permission has completely changed technology classes at BJHS.
“You can create classroom settings within it that are helpful to students and really limit what they can do,” technology teacher Jeff Platt said.
Platt’s seventh grade students can use AI in their graphic design assignments, allowing them to focus more on the design itself rather than spending too much class time on research. This also provides an opportunity to teach students how to use AI as ethically as possible and how to spot incorrect information, if any, in their answers. Platt’s class also uses AI image generation from the online platform Canva both to complete assignments and to learn some ways to spot AI-generated content.
South-Law continues to work on implementing a clear way to show students when and when not to use AI in classroom assignments. Next school year, she plans to include symbols on lessons and slideshows to indicate the extent to which AI is allowed to be used for a given task.
“Setting that goal, that requirement or setting that parameter for kids, so they know it,” she said.
Current students in her class, she says, understand when and when not to use AI. For example, an essay: AI can be used for brainstorming and it can also be used for spelling and grammar checking. Sites like Grammarly, as well as writing software like Google Docs or Microsoft Word, use AI to check for errors, clarity or conciseness – these functions are also allowed. Yet this is not allowed when it comes time to write an essay outline, a rule that students sometimes try to get around.
“Oftentimes you will see language that is way beyond their linguistic capabilities,” South-Law said. “You’ll see hyphens left in. Even writing a sentence, a complex sentence, kids aren’t necessarily at that level, right? And so you see these things copied and pasted. A lot of times they’ll copy and paste and the bold type will still be there thanks to ChatGPT.”
When South-Law suspects that a student may have attempted to pass off the AI’s writings as its own, it initially avoids accusations.
“I’m not going to lose my relationship with a student because of this,” South-Law said. “What I’m going to do is say, ‘What I’d like you to do is I’d like you to rewrite this. And could you write it down on paper for me?’ I think it’s better than losing my relationship.
South-Law prefers vision test over AI detection sites like GPTZero. She said her students who are learning English as a second language, for example, have their work more often labeled as inauthentic by AI detectors simply because of the way they write.
“They do a lot of things in writing that AI could do,” she said. “So there are biases even within these detectors.”
Students who wish not to use AI for their homework will be allowed to do so.
“You can always look at the encyclopedia pages and all the different sources that are available,” Platt said. “You can go to the library to do this research.”
The extra protection provided by MagicSchool, intended to keep students out of trouble, has already helped Platt’s class. A year ago, a student asked MagicSchool for relationship advice. The software worked as expected, responding with a message to the student that such use was not intended and informing Platt when this occurred.
“But if they get unfettered access, that will provide an answer. We need them to learn. That’s not what you use it for, that’s not a person,” Platt said.
“Either we teach the right way to use it and the protections you need in your brain when you use it, or we end up with adults who believe things so outrageous that you really have to know the difference,” he added.
Access to MagicSchool was purchased by the district to provide access to teachers as well as students. Platt said teachers can use it to create projects and set up spaces for children to use in the classroom. Although he says a number of classes use it for this purpose at the middle and high school levels, he doesn’t think elementary schools do the same.
Platt said that for instructors, MagicSchool is aimed at teachers who are generally less tech-savvy. Being a technology-oriented person, Platt was able to use Gemini for more difficult tasks like coding.
“Anytime you create any type of code, the starting point is always the hardest part, so it gives you that first starting point, and you bring it up,” Platt said.
He then reviews the code and makes his own improvements to make it more functional where needed. Explaining the process to his students gives him the opportunity to teach critical thinking and problem solving.
“You have to have these multiple areas of knowledge to be able to use them really effectively, not to create text, but to create something useful.”