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AI in Education – Part 3 of 3

6 - How an Iowa district plans to embrace AI in the new school year

Starting this fall, Iowa City Community School District will pilot new AI guidelines governing how the technology is used in the classroom.

By: Anna Merod • Published Aug. 15, 2024

When Iowa City Community School District began exploring artificial intelligence use for students and staff in 2023, those spearheading the effort took a “go slow to go fast” approach.

With administrators in the 14,000-student district realizing AI wasn’t going away, they began to consider early steps for developing guidance, said Andrew Fenstermaker, the district’s instructional technology coordinator.

Fenstermaker formed an AI work group representing a variety of voices in the district, including students, administrators, support staff and community members. The group then spent the 2023-24 school year drafting student and teacher AI guidance. In May, the school board updated policies to reflect the AI drafted guidance as recommended by the work group, Fenstermaker said.

When Iowa City Schools students return to school on Aug. 23 for the 2024-25 school year, the district will be implementing a new curriculum that teaches them how to safely use AI, Fenstermaker said. The age-appropriate AI lessons are required by the school board.

The curriculum, for example, teaches the basics of using AI to K-2 students, along with discussing the technology’s pros and cons. Students in higher grade levels will dive deeper into safe and responsible use of AI, he said.

Preparing districtwide AI guidance

Iowa City is certainly not alone in having worked on this issue in the last year.

This school year marks the second in which districts are having to navigate both the opportunities and challenges of generative AI in classrooms since ChatGPT entered the public eye in November 2022.

As of June, 15 states had released AI guidance for education leaders. And policymakers and industry leaders are continuing to develop guidance and frameworks for schools.

While some school systems are still wary of bringing AI into their schools, others are pushing forward as the 2024-25 school year gets underway.

Here are four takeaways from Fenstermaker on how Iowa City Schools approached the adoption of AI.

1. Develop an AI champion group

Over the summer, Fenstermaker put together an AI champion group with teacher representatives from each school building across the district.

The group is to meet monthly starting this fall, with three overarching goals in mind:

Understanding generative AI and its applications and implications for K-12 education.

Developing skills for using and applying AI tools effectively in the classroom.

Evaluating AI-powered tools, their functionality and outputs.

Fenstermaker developed those goals using the AI literacy framework from Digital Promise, a nonprofit that advocates for equitable learning environments through technology.

The AI champion group provides an opportunity to hear from a wide range of stakeholders, which will better inform the district as it continues to map out AI guidance, he said.

“The thing that I’m personally most excited about is probably the AI champion group,” Fenstermaker said. “That will be the opportunity for me to partner with a group of teachers that are in the space with students in real time every day and navigating that landscape.”

2. Test out guidelines

Iowa City Schools’ draft AI guidelines will be tested in grade 6-12 English Language Arts classes during the new school year, Fenstermaker said.

The district will collect feedback from those classes and continue to refine the guidelines. From there, Iowa City Schools hopes to implement them on a larger scale and include them in a student handbook by summer 2025, he said.

“Potentially, other districts are really wanting to go really, really fast and have all these things rolled out,” Fenstermaker said. “But the reality is, with it being such a complex, new thing that we’re