AI Becoming a Resource for SCS Teachers

SCHOHARIE - AI, artificial intelligence, is everywhere and it is not going away anytime soon. 

AI has permeated almost every area of society, including education. The question for educators is how to use AI as a tool for themselves and students.

Schoharie sixth grade English teacher Natalie McKay has attended AI conferences and workshops and spoke to SCS school board members about AI and "how AI is making education better."

Ms. McKay has taken that knowledge and held workshops to show kindergarten-12th grade teachers three different AI platforms to equip teachers "with the knowledge and skills to integrate AI platforms in the classroom." It will also hep to get students engaged, she added.

The results have been encouraging, Ms. McKay said. She has held seven workshops and thus far 62 percent of teachers have attended the after-school workshops. In addition, 80 percent of teachers are using the platforms in their classrooms regularly.

The three AI platforms are:

* Magic schools: This platform is geared toward the elementary school and is an AI-powered learning management system for personalized instruction.

* Gradescope: 

This platform is geared toward the middle grades and is an adaptive assessment that provides real time feedback to students.

* School AI. For the upper grades, School AI is an intelligent virtual assistant to help students with homework and research.

The platforms, she said, "offer tools and capabilities to enhance student learning and support teachers in delivering personalized and adaptive instruction."

She will be giving more AI workshops in the future.

Ms. McKay gave an example of how AI can be used to aid instruction.

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, Ms. McKay prepared a lesson based on his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. in 1963.

AI provided lessons for four different reading levels and students were given the options of six different characters involved in the march and speech.

The students could be a participant, guard, journalist, an anti Civil Rights person, or others.

She was able to see which character they chose in the chatbox and AI would set the themes and the response.

The teacher, she said, could see what each student is doing and how they are doing. If they are having trouble, the teacher can give them some help.

This main tool can be used regularly and is new as of last summer, Ms. McKay told school board members. New AI advancements are made every month, she added.

Superintendent David Blanchard thanked Ms. McKay for her presentation and said it was good to see the value in AI and how teachers are responding to it.