STARKE, Fla. (WCJB) – Leaders in Bradford County Public Schools said they are getting ready to implement artificial intelligence in the classroom.
Professor learning coordinator for Bradford County Schools Christina Cornwell said AI could simultaneously help fight the teacher shortage and set students up for success in an increasingly AI-powered world.
After researching teacher retention rates, Cornwell said she began gaining interest in how AI could potentially help keep teacher retention rates up. About 40% of Florida’s new teachers leave the classroom within their first five years of entering the profession.
“There’s simply not enough time in the day for teachers to do everything that we’re asking them to do outside of school hours. We had to find a way to allow them to accomplish what they needed to, to best meet the needs of our students, in a shortened amount of time. We’re not taking the workload off teachers, but hopefully through AI we’re able to allow them to get through some of this stuff quicker, so they can attend to other things, like differentiating instructions for our kids, meeting their specific needs.”
The technology, SchoolAI, could go as far as allowing students to interview AI-powered historical figures for their assignments. Cornwell said it’s important that staff first understand how to use AI, to be able to teach students how to use it ethically.
“They already have access to this technology,” Cornwell said. “If we are not teaching them how to use it ethically, then they are bound to use it inappropriately. So we have decided here in Bradford County that we are going to teach our students how to use it instead of shutting the door and pretending it doesn’t exist.”
Bradford County schools aren’t the first to implement this technology. P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School and Florida School for the Deaf in Blind in St. Augustine have similar programs.
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