Beyond ChatGPT

By Dr. Shawn Bishop

In the rapidly evolving landscape of education, artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as a transformative force. AI is often referred to as a “tool,” yet this term fails to capture its true scope. AI represents a technological revolution more akin to the advent of electricity, the printing press, and the internet. Just as electricity is now an integral part of daily life, AI is set to become woven into the fabric of education and leadership. This article explores the practical steps district leaders can take to effectively implement AI in their schools.

Understanding AI in Education

AI in education is not just about automating tasks; it’s about augmenting the capabilities of educators and administrators and ultimately producing students who are world ready. From personalized learning experiences to data-driven decision-making, AI tools can help educators tailor instruction to meet individual student needs and improve overall educational outcomes, but that is just one area of impact. AI will impact everything from transportation of students to scheduling and counseling. Though the classroom remains the central focus, every layer of our organizations – whether athletics, the arts, or buildings and grounds – will be impacted by AI.

In addition to organizational layers such as athletics, buildings and grounds, transportation, and food service, AI’s direct impact on students is multifaceted. This includes AI’s role in material and lesson designs from instructors, students working directly with AI tools, assessments of students, instructional design and changes based on AI insights, and even teacher evaluation. The potential applications and benefits of AI in education are virtually endless, promising to transform every corner of our educational institutions. AI tools such as Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT can already serve as thought partners in summarizing and making suggestions for school and district improvement.

Even though we are in many ways in the infancy in presentation, I can already show school leaders how AI software like ChatGPT can take our K-5 Math Power Standards documents and look at them for gaps in instruction practices and unnecessary overlaps. It can give suggestions as to scope and sequence of learning and things to be aware of as schools. Current tools like Magic School, Diffit, and others can provide teachers with curriculum resources and rubrics for scoring, aid in developing lesson plans, and much more. Khanmigo and Amira provide glimpses of the future of learning in an AI world. These tools demonstrate how AI can provide adaptive direct instruction to students in real time.

Some have said that education is in need of reform and have accused education of being slow to change, even stuck in old habits. Whether this is true or exaggerated can be debated, yet regardless of where you stand, there can be common agreement that AI may just be the inflection point in PK-12 education that forces changes.

To effectively navigate these changes, district leaders can look to strategic frameworks to guide their implementation efforts. Many of the best change processes we’ve traditionally used can easily be used to help in the implementation of AI. We already know the best practices in how to implement change and can use these. Though there are many you could look to, one such framework is Kotter’s change model, which emphasizes creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding coalition, and generating short-term wins, among other steps.

KOTTER’S CHANGE MODEL

Below is a simplified version of district implementation concepts related to AI.