Is your school behind on AI? If so, there are practical steps you can take for the next 12 months

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The last week saw continued advances in AI.

Prominent universities, including Oxford, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, and Columbia University, joined a growing list of universities developing specialized programs and integrating AI across the curriculum.

Seventy-two percent of businesses have adopted AI across at least one business function, and 50% have adopted it across at least two business functions. A new report indicates that 68% of businesses would not hire someone without at least basic knowledge of AI tools.

Multimodal AI is now freely available to everyone through ChatGPT-4o. ChatGPT5 (they may give it a different name) is expected to be released in the fall of this year.

Google previously announced Learn LLM and OpenAI is offering specialized AI enterprise packages for educators that include grading and grant writing assistance.

If your school (district) or university has not yet made significant efforts to think about how you will prepare your students for a World of AI, I suggest the following steps:

July 24 - Administrator PD & AI Guidance

In July, administrators should receive professional development on AI, if they haven’t already.

This should include —

AI basics. AI basics include what is AI, with particular attention to generative AI and other AI models and applications (vision, prediction, etc.) that are impacting education. This should include an honest discussion of current capabilities and emerging agentic abilities. It should also include a range of qualified opinions on where this is likely headed over the next 3-8 years.

Many like to talk about whether or not AI systems will achieve AGI (human-level intelligence), but that isn’t especially relevant. Existing AI and even modest improvements will continue to massively disrupt education and industry.

Education. This should include how AI is impacting education as well as different types of models and applications of those models that students, and some faculty, are currently using.

Use it. Administrators should have the opportunity to use AI in different parts of their work.

Challenges. Administrators should understand challenges related to privacy, bias, deep fakes (especially as the problem is manifesting itself in schools), etc.

Variance. Administrators should see how different schools are using and not using AI. Last spring, I saw this as more of a public-private school phenomena, but that is probably no longer the case. There is just more of a growing divide between schools whose faculty, staff, and students are working with technology and those that are not.

Guidance/Policy. Schools should adopt AI Guidance documents to help govern AI usage in the district and classroom for 2024-5. We wrote a free report on how to do that and the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD)’s guidance we worked on is a great model.

Administrators can learn a lot by reading our book.

Administrators should also organize a plan for how they will help prepare students, teachers, and families for more radical advances in AI.

August 24 --Professional Development for Teachers and Staff

Before the start of school, all school (district) staff should receive training that includes AI basics, how teachers should not use AI in the classroom, and under what conditions it can be used. Staff should have the opportunity to use AI in different parts of their work.

Scaling this type of PD into a school can be challenging, but as Vera Cubero noted, there are staff members in every school who have learned a lot about the technology. They could be provided stipends to provide regular support to staff.

At a minimum, teachers need to understand the technology and how students can and are utilizing it. AI writing detectors won’t protect assignments and even current AIs can do a lot more than write.

Fall 24 -- Parents; Co-curricular; Classroom experiments

Teacher experiments. In the fall of 2024, teachers should be encouraged to experiment with AI in the classroom, at least in terms of how AI can help them prepare lessons and related classroom activities. Under the terms of any guidance, teachers should facilitate student use in at least one assignment.

Parents. Parents are becoming more and more interested in understanding AI, the role it plays in their student’s learning and instruction, and how they can best help their students prepare for an AI World. Schools should begin communicating this information to parents.

Input. District administration should work on revising the Guidance policy they designed in July with support from feedback from faculty, staff, and students. Having worked with a district going through this process, I can say for sure that all of these groups have many good ideas that end up in the guidance.

December 24 -- Revision to Policy

A revised guidance should be published, and at least online professional development should be conducted.

Spring 2025 -- Integration

Iterative professional development should continue, and schools should find ways to provide more support for teachers and students.

Schools should also begin the process of instructional redesign, including a focus on interdisciplinary, project-based learning and performative assessments, including public speaking and debate. We outline these in our book.

Schools should start working with local and regional businesses and universities to develop a synergy between what is taught about and with AI so that students are prepared for the future.

Here, you can see the connections developing between school districts, businesses, and universities in Orange County.

Check out our book.