Colorado Springs school districts embracing AI | Education

Few, if any, technological innovations have generated the amount of debate and deliberation that artificial intelligence, or AI, has in recent years. 

Some view it as a revolutionary step in streamlining workflow and productivity while others fear it will threaten entire jobs and industries obsolete.

Public education is no exception.

In response to these possibilities without much of a framework to work off, the Colorado Department of Education and Colorado Education Initiative released a roadmap for AI in K-12 education that details strategies and resources for its integration into schools for teaching and learning in August.

More specifically, “generative AI” refers to a type of artificial intelligence that autonomously creates new, original content like images or text in response to user prompts and has been the primary focus of recent considerations.

While the goal is to increase the understanding and implementation of AI statewide, some districts in Colorado Springs have already embraced the new technology.

Shortly after the rise in popularity of the AI language application ChatGPT among students and teachers in late 2022, Academy District 20 began conducting professional learning courses for its staff to familiarize them with the new field of technology, its possible applications and ethical use.

D-20’s technology integration specialist Dianna Fricke said the purpose of the courses was to determine whether the advent of AI was either “crisis or opportunity.”

“And, ultimately, we’re looking at it as an opportunity,” she said.

Over the past year, D-20 formed a technology advisory committee comprised of teachers, staff, students, parents and guardians to develop a shared understanding of AI’s place and purpose in their education. The main areas of focus identified were AI literacy and fluency, professional learning for educators, ethical considerations and revising existing district policies to include AI .

Some of the concerns raised with AI in public education have included the potential for students to plagiarize work, potential for private data to get exposed and possible biases rooted in AI programs.

Suggestions presented in the committee’s final report included implementing both AI and AI literacy into existing curricula when appropriate, using existing standards and guidelines to develop effective AI policies for the district, and approving specific AI tools.

To date, D-20 staff have received no extra training outside a series of webinar sessions on how to effectively implement AI into their instruction.

“They were excited to learn about it,” Frickle said. “Initially, there was a lot of fear. Will students use this to cheat? Will this replace their jobs? But I think this did calm a lot of those fears.”

To date, AI programs like PowerBuddy and MagicSchool have been used by some teachers to personalize instruction for individual students while also saving time. Meanwhile, among the students’ new skills were learning how to write appropriate prompts for research and how to cite their work to avoid plagiarism.

AI has also helped students improve their study skills and classwork by comparing them with AI approaches to the same material through back-and-forth conversations.

A more nuanced application could be found in an AP psychology class at D-20’s Liberty High School, where students interacted with Curipod. After “viewing” students’ drawings of abstract concepts of intelligence, the program would then pose questions asking students to explain their sketch and demonstrate their understanding of the material.

“And I heard from a lot of students from that class who said, ‘Yeah, this was really helpful.’ And for this program to be able to look at student sketches to understand these concepts of intelligence, it was really cool,” Frickle said.

To the south, Harrison D-2 implemented its own AI learning plan ahead of the current school year. In a January presentation to the state board of education, 92% of the district’s high school teachers reported using AI to support their teaching practices.

Much like D-20, D-2 educators have used chatbots to personalize student learning through unique phrases and colloquialisms and assist with more advanced research projects. Also, they said AI has aided them with lesson planning and preparation along with grading and student assessments.

Other local school districts have utilized AI to address issues outside the classrooms.

During the 2023-2024 school year, to address a shortage of bus drivers, Colorado Springs D-11 utilized an AI program developed by the rideshare company HopSkipDrive to identify deficiencies with its current bus route system. The solution was to consolidate and optimize existing routes and utilize smaller vehicles in areas that reach fewer students.

The changes increased on-time arrival rates, decreased staff needs and created budget savings for the district.

“When we started, we had bus routes without drivers, furious parents, overwhelmed staff, and kids missing invaluable learning time. That is all changing,” D-11 Superintendent Michael Gaal said in a case study. “Our creative and hard-working transportation team, in partnership with HopSkipDrive RouteWise AI, is transforming our district’s approach to transportation.”

The Colorado Board of Education received an update from the Colorado Education Initiative during its January meeting on the current state of AI in state schools. The report echoed many of the observations and solutions found in D-20’s report along with providing recommendations like establishing committees to drive statewide coherence and support toward implementing AI in education over the next 24 months.