AI in Education, Part 4: Ready, Set, Go

In the final episode of this podcast series on AI in Education, Dr. Chad Gestson and Dr. LeeAnn Lindsey chat with Lauren Owens and Lindsey McCaleb about where teachers can go from here — where to begin, where they can find guidance, resources, and additional professional development for using AI with confidence.

Dr. Gestson and Dr. Lindsey are both a part of the Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy, a part of Northern Arizona University, while Lauren Owens is the director of information technology for Agua Fria HS District and Lindsey McCaleb is the principal of an online school in the Balsz School District.

Lauren and Lindsey share how they have started to work with AI in their schools and districts and the discussions they've had with school leaders and teachers to move toward using AI. They reflect on the process of planning, implementing, and assessing when integrating any new technology or change initiative. 

Today's episode also focuses on how policy creation, at the state or district level, can be much slower than how quickly technology is developing. Dr. Lindsey shares how only nine U.S. states have developed some guidelines for AI use in schools. The Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy has been working to add Arizona to that list of states and will soon be releasing an AI guidance document to help inform state, district, and school policies.

That guidance document will be available on May 13 at nau.edu/aiee/azai with a corresponding webinar, "GenAI Guidance for Arizona K-12 Schools," on May 15 from 3 to 4 p.m. To sign up to receive the webinar link, click here.

Learn more about the Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy at this link and about the Arizona K12 Center at azk12.org.