The Prince Albert Catholic School Division has taken the first steps to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy with the goal of addressing a growing technological trend.
During the board of education’s regular meeting on Monday, March 23 the board passed a motion to approve the development on policy regarding acceptable use of Artificial Intelligence.
Director of education Lorel Trumier said the division is in a process of learning what acceptable use of AI is. She said that a committee has been working on this idea for the last six months.
“We are at a position where we would like to put a policy in place about acceptable use of AI so that both our students and our staff and our families understand, when, how, where we’ll use AI and how to use it in its appropriate form,” Trumier said.
Trumier said that AI is such an evolving item that a policy, if developed, would have to be able to evolve as well.
“I think AI is ever-changing,” she said. “I’m old enough to remember the use of the web in school … and my experience tells me that those tools, whether it’s AI or the World Wide Web, when used in its proper form, can actually be a wonderful tool. We’ve learned a lot about how to do that over the years.
“The element that’s important with AI is it’s changing faster than the World Wide Web ever did, in terms of its use and models of use and what acceptable use will look for.”
Trumier said academic integrity is “only one portion” of the AI policy debate. She said the policy will also outline to use AI responsibly in other areas of life.
“We’ll take that framework and indicate that those are the lenses for decision-making when we use AI, and that way everyone knows what we’re talking about,” she said.
“Use it for the good and not for other things that are not so good,” she added.
In January Giancarlo Bratto made a presentation on the acceptable use of AI to the School Community Councils for their Networking session. Trumier said that Bratto used a great analogy during the presentation.
“He said,’ If you remember what the World Wide Web was doing in our schools, it was moving through it like a hot air balloon, we were able to control the pace and flow of that particular balloon with the work that we would do in schools. But AI is different. It’s moving through schools like a rocket because it’s becoming so much a part of daily life,’” Trumier explained.
She said that AI is everywhere including on your cell phone and correcting words automatically. She also said that the different forms of AI are important to address the use.
“The different forms bring different aspects that we would need to consider in terms of decision-making and acceptable use,” she explained. “We want to put some of those things in place so that we can start educating our children and … our parents and our staff on what acceptable use would be.”
Trumier said that the policy could come under review sooner than the typical five-year timeframe of renewal for policies.
“I think putting something in place starts to create that awareness,” Trumier said.
She said the new policy whenever it is completed will come with some training for staff and students.
“There’s already a digital curriculum that’s developed. We’ll be tapping in on that to see the through lines through to AI use, and we know we’re not alone. (Schools) in this province and in this country are looking at the same thing. It’s a great time to be doing this for our school division.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
