The ArtificiaI Intelligence Era Is Here – How Schools Can Communicate About It Intelligently
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications
“Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
– Wayne Gretzky, hockey legend
The puck, in this case, is artificial intelligence, or AI as it has become ubiquitously known. Your school district probably is using AI or will be soon.
Think now about how AI can help, the implications that come with artificial intelligence, policies or procedures need to be put into place and how you’re going to communicate with the people you care about most – your parents, students, teachers and staff – about your schools’ use of artificial intelligence.
Because resistance will be futile.
Example: AI came into play when I was doublechecking the source of the quote at the top of this story. I was pretty sure it was Wayne Gretzky. I’ve seen the quote plenty of times – it’s probably been used in countless PowerPoints at business conferences. And with the Google search, the “AI Overview,” of course, popped up first.
So, is your school ready?
Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that advocates for a safe and equitable digital world for children, partnered with market research company Ipsos Public Affairs to conduct a nationally representative survey in the spring of 2024 about AI use in schools.
In September 2024, K-12 Dive, a journalism website that focuses on education topics, reported on that survey. Survey results cited by K-12 Dive speak to the need to act now to put policies in place:
- A majority of teens — 70% — have used at least one kind of generative artificial intelligence tool, according to a survey released Wednesday by Common Sense Media. Teens between the ages of 13 and 18 reported being most likely to use AI for homework help (53%), “to stave off boredom” (42%) and to translate something into another language (41%).
- Among those tapping into generative AI for school assignments, 46% of teens said they used generative AI without their teacher’s permission, compared to 41% of teens who said they did get permission and 12% who said they weren’t sure, Common Sense Media found.
The survey’s findings suggest that schools and teachers “may not have clearly communicated about or implemented rules for generative AI,” said Common Sense Media,
And if it feels like we’ve been here before, well, we have.
“Young people are adopting generative AI quickly, similarly to how they adopted social media,” Common Sense Media said in its report. “And they’re using it most often for schoolwork. But most parents aren’t aware that their teens are using generative AI at all, even though seven in 10 youth have used at least one type of gen AI tool. And schools are struggling to keep pace with how these technologies affect teaching and learning.”
In April 2024, K-12 Dive reported on a survey from the Center for Democracy & Technology, a civil rights nonprofit. That survey indicated schools are scrambling to catch up:
- Nearly twice as many teachers said their schools are implementing policies that allow the use of generative artificial intelligence for classwork, with 31% reporting so in 2022-23 compared to 60% in 2023-24.
But the survey also reported that guidance for teachers on those policies is lagging:
- As AI use goes up, only about a third of teachers said they have received guidance on the actions they should take if they suspect a student’s use of AI is out of line with school policy, CDT found.
And while it seems plagiarism has been the early focus and fear on the schools front for AI, other equally important factors must be considered.
District Administration, another media website aimed at K-12 leadership, noted in December 2024: “AI introduces new challenges for schools, particularly around student privacy, data security and the transparency of automated systems. For example, with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act safeguarding student information, districts must be cautious about how AI systems interact with and store sensitive data.”
What’s a beleaguered school administrator, faced with yet another new, daunting challenge to do?
Help is out there. As the Dayton Daily News reported last February, “Ohio government leaders Thursday rolled out a new toolkit about artificial intelligence (AI) that is specifically designed for educators, students and parents, as K-12 schools weigh how to approach the growing technology.”
That toolkit and many other sources point to how generative AI can help, from the creation of lesson plans for teachers, to the ease of translating across languages, to using AI for simple communications with school audiences.
On the communications front, a fundamental best practice is to hew to two of the principles for all communications – truth and transparency. If you’re using AI to communicate with your parents, or any audience, be clear about that. And don’t allow the allure of using AI to communicate quickly and efficiently overshadow the desire of your parents, students, teachers and staff to hear from real people.
As District Education put it, “School leaders must also consider how AI could impact trust within the community. Automated communications, while efficient, can feel impersonal if not used strategically. Parents want to know they’re communicating with real people when discussing issues concerning their children, not just an algorithm.’
Finally, ignoring AI or not using this still relatively early and peaceful time to prepare for it, will result in the same kind of disjointed chaos that results when any organization tries to ignore a disruptive and inevitable force.
“Education is, by definition, forward-looking: a central goal is to prepare today’s students for the world they will inhabit tomorrow,” InnovateOhio says in the introduction to the AI toolkit. “Anticipating the skills and resources that will be required in a future state is always a challenge, but it becomes even more so as the pace of technological change accelerates, making it difficult simply to keep up, let alone anticipate.”
Plan now, as the old saying goes, or plan to fail.
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Thom Fladung is managing partner of Hennes Communications, a partner to the Ohio School Boards Association and the Consortium of State School Boards Associations, providing crisis management and communications services to members. Reach Thom at fladung@crisiscommunications.com or 216-213-5196.