Around half of Colorado teachers report using AI to do their jobs and say that it helps vary their teaching methods to meet students’ needs, according to new data from the Colorado Department of Education’s Teaching and Learning Conditions survey.
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For the first time, the survey posed questions to teachers, leaders and other staff about AI.
Some use this technology to speed up lesson planning— by creating worksheets or slide presentations. Others, like Stephen Kelly, an anatomy teacher at Broomfield High School, use these programs to build AI tutors. Kelly has created a chatbot for each unit– each part of the human body– to help students when they are stuck.
“So, the way that I've designed these is it's kind of like talking to me. So, if a student comes up and they ask me, ‘Hey, can you help me with this question?’ I don't answer it right away, right? I'll guide them to that answer, but they have to input,” said Kelly.
Data from Kelly’s district, Boulder Valley School District, shows that usage of MagicSchool, an AI tool for educators, has taken off over the past year.
Lynn Gershman, BVSD’s head of Academic Services, says teachers usually start with little AI experience.
“Then you find the time to either attend a training, or you read something about it, or you talk to a teacher who's been using it, and then you're like, ‘Well, I guess I can just try it.’ And then the next thing, you know, just takes off,” said Gershman.
Many Colorado teachers are in the early stages of figuring out this tech. As it gains traction in the classroom, issues like how to spot plagiarism and teach AI ethics are under discussion. Colorado’s Department of Education has published a K-12 AI Roadmap, which contains resources for educators.
“As soon as…you get a sense of where things are, things evolve at rates that you probably have never seen before in terms of technology," BVSD Superintendent Rob Anderson said at a board of education meeting last month.
The Teaching and Learning Conditions survey shows that around half of teachers feel unprepared for the future of AI in education.
