By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education met last Wednesday for their regularly scheduled meeting where the board had the first reading of some new policy updates.
Updates include language updates, added definitions and revisions that reflect current state law.
Language updates to several policies were made to make the policies more generic in terms of who the policy is addressing and definitions were added to policies for the allowance of animals on school grounds and the use of tobacco products.
Definitions for what is considered a service animal and what are considered tobacco products were added.
Other things were added to technology policies to make sure that the policy is still in step with technology that is being used by students and staff.
Part of the technology policies included discussion of the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), which would allow teachers to let their students use AI in specific instances.
Treasurer Jake Singer is on the school board’s policy committee.
“You just don’t tell the students ‘no’, we have to teach them how to appropriately use this. They’re going to live in a world where this was always around,” said Singer. “Where it’s so new to us to see AI, you think of kids who are in elementary school now, (they will be exposed to it) their entire lifetime. So how to appropriately use these. And there were examples of how the staff is trained on what’s going into this. So, it’s just great to see the district being proactive about these things. We’re not putting our heads in the sand, we’re dealing with things as they come into society.”
Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Heidi Mercer echoed Singer’s thoughts, saying that the district is planning on promoting AI as a resource that can be used. Mercer also said that the week prior, the district sent out a staff newsletter which had an article regarding ChatGPT and other AI programs.
Once the policy is approved, administration will create administrative guidelines on how staff can use AI in the classroom.
Mercer added that in those guidelines she will likely suggest that teachers specify the use of AI on assignments.
“We can have (guidelines) anywhere from ‘AI cannot be used’ to ‘AI can be used for a majority of the assignment’ — and here are the objectives as to what the student is learning based on that,” Mercer said. “It really is dependent on the teacher, based on the assignment and obviously what the learning objectives are.”
The district has also started to work on getting information on AI to parents and providing resources to help them better understand its uses as well.
Currently, teachers do have access to AI but the district has not opened it up to students yet.
“We are not going to be able to ban this, nor would we want to. There are appropriate ways (to use it) and it can be extremely resourceful,” Mercer said. “As of today, we opened it for our teachers. It’s not open for students as of yet. It will be in the fall so we can get all of this in place. However, it’s being used, I can assure you. It’s developing each and every day. Just this week on Snapchat, it is on Snapchat, automatic and it can’t be removed unless you pay.”
The board is expected to vote on the policies at its meeting on May 10.