A parent with a fifth grader asked Jennifer where she stands on artificial intelligence in the classroom. Jennifer’s answer is not one rule for the whole district, but different principles for different ages.
Where Jennifer stands on AI in schools
- Elementary school: AI should be limited. These are the formative years when children learn to interact, explore, communicate, build confidence and learn through creativity and play.
- Middle school: teachers should teach digital citizenship. Student privacy, security, and the risk of over-reliance on technology.
- High school: students can use AI for projects and research, under a teacher’s oversight, planning and supervision, and at the teacher’s discretion.
- The principle underneath it: differentiate by developmental stage, rather than applying one policy to every grade at once.
Transcript
Got a fifth grader. Should my fifth grader be using AI?
We want to be very mindful and critical in the use of AI at school. I understand AI makes information readily accessible to anybody. However, my stand on AI in elementary school is that I believe it should be limited. And let me tell you why.
One is because elementary school, those are the formative years where our students need to learn how to interact with one another, how to explore, how to communicate, and get to know who they are. Build confidence, and learn through creativity and play. So I think if we can just dedicate the elementary years to creating conditions for students to do that, that will be the most important thing. So I don’t think AI should have a place in elementary school.
And I’m going to take it a little bit beyond. I think during the middle school years, our teachers can teach digital citizenship. I think that is very important. When information is so readily available, we need to teach our students the safeguards, student privacy, security, and over-reliance on technology. So I think teaching digital citizenship during the middle school years is appropriate.
Now, high school. I think this will be the time, let’s say when teachers want to assign some projects or research. With a teacher’s oversight, planning and supervision, students can engage in a group project using AI for information. But I’m going to say it one more time: it must be under the teacher’s discretion.
So to answer your question, it’s not like AI for all. We need to differentiate it by elementary school, middle school and high school, based on the developmental stages.
Little kids, they’re learning how to think.
Yes. Critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, are fundamental to everything we do. And we don’t want to let AI take over. That’s why I think AI should not be used in elementary school, for that reason. This is the time we need to teach our students how to be a problem solver, how to be a critical thinker, how to be a collaborative member of the school community.
So we don’t want it to take over the thinking. At the appropriate time, it can be a tool, though.
Yes. It can be a powerful tool for learning. But I cannot emphasize enough that we need to be critical consumers, and we need to do it in a very thoughtful and cautious manner. That security piece, the privacy piece, is very important.
