How can students be prepared for a world influenced by artificial intelligence? If you’re in the field of education, you could be dealing with AI in some way. “AI Readiness” has emerged as an important area of focus for advanced educators. This approach is not just about teaching students how to use AI tools. It aims to develop a comprehensive skill set that will enable students to understand, critically evaluate and engage with AI technology. As AI becomes wider, educators are aware that these skills are not just for future computer scientists and technical experts. Rather, they are essential for all students as they prepare for higher education, careers and citizenship in a world focused on AI.
Director of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia
Recently, Edsurge spoke with Sallie Holloway, director of artificial intelligence and computer science at Gwinnett County Public Schools. Holloway is at the forefront of artificial intelligence and computer science education in one of Georgia’s largest school districts. Her position was created to support efforts across two major districts. All programs are computer science and ambitious AI-Future Readiness pilot programs.
Edsurge: What does it mean that students are ready for AI?
Holloway: When talking about AI preparation, in that mind, when it comes to AI, I want to develop a student skill set so that I can become an ethical and responsible user, developer, and decision maker. Masu. We focus on preparing our students’ workforce. What will their future look like? If they spend 13 years with us, are we actually preparing them for that future? Since the growth of generator AI, we have made several updates to the framework, but have been kept to a minimum as we focus on student skills and strive to connect them to specific technologies.
Why is it important for students to be AI ready?
Gwinnett has a history of preparing students for the future in innovative and meaningful ways. I knew I would open a new school to help grow the population. Whenever you start a program or school from scratch, you have the opportunity to innovate and try something different. That’s honestly what led us down this path. “If I get the chance, what is the next iteration? What do I really need to consider?”
Talking about AI in K-12 education has a perceived risk of anxiety, but there is what that means for students, but honestly, the greater risk doesn’t explore it. I think so.
Thirteen years later, if students had to take part in a retraining program because they had not accessed or practiced some technology in the next phase, we did something that was disadvantageous to them. Talking about AI in K-12 education has a perceived risk of anxiety, but there is what that means for students, but honestly, the greater risk doesn’t explore it. I think so.
What misconceptions have you faced about the AI Preparation Framework?
One of the biggest misconceptions people have when they hear about our work is that we use a lot of AI. Honestly, it’s not. We are trying to pull back the AI curtains and make it clear for our students. We hope that we will first identify AI usage and at least have a general understanding of how it works. If you don’t know how it works, you can’t make an informed decision.
It also really delves into being critical of AI. Students are encouraged to question the tool’s agenda, data storage, privacy impact, origin and potential consequences. We are really trying to teach them how to ask questions, peck through holes and understand them.
Once students mature, they introduce AI tools, but the lenses as follows: What is the correct way to use this? What is the ethical meaning? Does this benefit us? Is there a better way to do this?
We are trying to pull back the AI curtains and make it clear for our students. We hope that we will first identify AI usage and at least have a general understanding of how it works. If you don’t know how it works, you can’t make an informed decision.
It’s not just about logging in to your child and using AI tools. Students look at AI through both a critical and optimistic lens and think about what they need to be careful about to ensure that they are responsible and ethical, what they can do for the population.
What was the process of developing the framework?
We developed the framework with the help of various people across the country. We started with industry and post-secondary partners, “You can see AI in your application. We want to learn from you.” Some were local experts, but Google, Apple, HP, Microsoft, Intel I was also interested in it from more well-known companies such as. He was in Georgia and involved engineers from the University of Georgia and the University of Georgia, as well as a local community college, Georgia Gwinnett College. We also received feedback from people from institutions such as MIT and Stanford. These groups helped me create my first thoughts.
When developing the framework, others provided feedback and helped with iteration. Once we had a solid foundation, we brought it to the advisory board, including our parents. After establishing a way to break it down across our thoughts and grade bands, we sought the opinions of a wide range of teachers. The teachers helped us determine what the implementation looked like and whether we were on the right track.
The framework includes technical components such as programming, data science, AI tools, and robots. However, there is also an emphasis on what is called “human-only skills” such as ethics, creative problem solving, design thinking, and user experience. We focus on thinking about others. Not only how something affects me, but what to do for someone else, good or bad.
There is a K-12 continuum that breaks down what this looks like in each grade band. Conversations in kindergarten are different from conversations in high school. Our classes continue to use the same standards. We cover all elective subjects, including the usual four core subjects and art, but they are taught through the lens of our framework. Teachers bring about what they are teaching, their standards, their real-world perspectives and create relationships with frameworks that help students develop AI-related skills.
What advice would you give to other school districts looking to develop similar initiatives?
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At first, you really need leadership support and the ability, resources and culture to innovate. The partnerships are also enormous. They were the key to getting this off the ground, especially when they created a three-course career path for high school students. These partnerships were essential to help us think about it.
In-house collaboration is also essential, whether it is mutually divided or from school to district. We have been instrumental in this development, from supervisors to classroom teachers, and helped to generate buy-in at all levels.
It is essential to understand why you are doing this and what you are trying to solve. What exactly does your community need? Depending on your situation, many versions of this may be correct.
When the conditions were correct, we built, iterated, got feedback and took steps to try things out. We worked closely with principals and teachers to evolve into collaborative planning and support for content created by teachers.
Being willing to come with them and be vulnerable made a huge difference. “No one has done this before. There’s no curriculum to call. We’re creating this together. It’s okay to make mistakes, but we’ll try it together.” This approach was important in the transition to implementation, buy-in and ultimately success.
