If you own an internet connected device such as a computer or smartphone, or even a Smart TV, your experience has probably been touched by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in some way, whether you realize it or not. And if you have school age children, AI has most assuredly touched their connected lives.

When it comes to AI, its origins, or at least the omens, may well have come from the English department rather than any science class. Science fiction has always been a predictor of future technology. Writers such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick posited the use of AI in numerous applications including computers, space exploration and robotics.

In today’s world, AI is becoming part of our everyday life much like the internet in the late 1990s. One of the most prevalent ecosystems where AI has taken hold is education.

As each generation that has come after GenX has grown up with technology, for better or worse, that technology has evolved and has become more and more involved in education. This was never more true than during the global COVID-19 pandemic when so many children were required to engage in remote learning. Now, teachers and students alike are using AI for a host of applications including tutoring, lesson planning, homework assistance and administration.

According to Aberdeen School District Co-Superintendent and Career and Technical Education Director Lynn Green, teachers and staff have been using AI productivity tools for a variety of tasks.

“We have staff that are using AI in different ways, administrators and teachers and potentially other support staff as well. Lesson planning was a very common response from staff, from teachers,” Green said. “Some examples were they would identify and include the standards and develop hands-on activities with those prompts and have had some great success. They have found ways to create really engaging lessons.”

Green said that AI tools have proven to be a time saver for teachers and staff and that ChatGPT is the most popular application they’ve used.

In a March opinion piece in The New York Times, columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote, “Of course, A.I., if applied properly, can save lives. It has been useful for producing medical protocols and spotting patterns in radiology scans. But crucially, that kind of A.I. requires people who know how to use it. Speeding up interpretations of radiology scans helps only people who have a medical doctor who can act on them. More efficient analysis of experimental data increases productivity for experts who know how to use the A.I. analysis and, more important, how to verify its quality. A.I.’s most revolutionary potential is helping experts apply their expertise better and faster. But for that to work, there has to be experts.”

The same can be said of teachers.

“Teachers are trained in their content areas, they are trained in instruction and they’re trained in the standards that they should be delivering, whether that’s in their content area or by grade level, or whatever area we’re looking at and so it’s using that knowledge that they have to get to that outcome piece,” Green said. “What AI helps them do is just create that product they can implement in the classroom to engage students in learning.”

According to a Jan. 1 American Psychological Association article, “Among adolescents, the use of generative AI is already widespread. Of the 7 in 10 who reported using at least one such tool in a 2024 Common Sense Media survey of 1,045 teenagers ages 13 to 18, homework help was the most common reason. About half of those who used generative AI for schoolwork did so with permission from a teacher. A similar number checked the veracity of generative AI outputs using outside sources, suggesting that many students are aware of the fallibility of such tools.”

Green said that while Aberdeen students are using AI to generate art or enhancements and graphics for presentations, knowing and understanding what AI is and what it can do has been a focus for teachers and students.

“Understanding AI, understanding what’s out there, understanding how AI works, understanding how it’s changing the world, and how it’s affecting the workforce … I especially heard that in the CTE realm, where teachers are talking about different careers and preparation, and talking about how our different career fields are changing,” Green said. “Medicine is a big one and healthcare and what are some things that are happening with the progression of AI tools and resources in that pathway and what that looks like.”

One of the negative perceptions about AI in the classroom is the potential for cheating. Green said she’s heard of some instances, however, teachers in the Aberdeen School District have come up with creative ways to prevent students from using AI to cheat.

“It’s only as good as what you put in. (Teachers) have moved some of their written assignments to include more experiences and a bit more emotion and a bit more of that connection to students within their assignments. AI is not necessarily great at that piece,” Green said. “Understanding the human element and the emotional piece is something some of the teachers who are using more AI and are/or cautious of students, may be using that in place of their own critical thinking, are incorporating those pieces so they can elicit more of that from the students.”

Green said one of the more interesting aspects surrounding the use of AI in Aberdeen classrooms is the reactions and conversations emanating from the students themselves.

“In some of our art classrooms, they’ve looked at AI generated art and then critiqued that,” she said. “Based on all the things they had learned about art and their foundational information they had learned, is AI created art really art? A lot of the art students were saying they did not necessarily consider it real art. Was it mimicking that? Sure. Teachers are engaging students in some thoughts about what AI is, what does it mean, what does it look like, how can it be used. One of our teachers said they had a student do a writing assignment on their own and then had AI edit it, and then went through and looked at the edits together and talked about why some of those edits may have been made by an AI tool, (which) helped students understand more about the editing process, or even the writing process.”

AI extends well beyond primary and secondary education with computer fields rapidly evolving to keep up. In May, Coursera suggested nine AI careers to consider including AI engineer, machine learning engineer, data engineer, robotics engineer, software engineer, data scientist, natural language procession engineer, AI research scientist and computer vision engineer.

Green said that students in the Aberdeen School District are not expressing interest in AI specific careers, however, students are not shying away from technology.

“I’m not seeing that big trend in our district at this time. We absolutely have some students interested in computer science. We just started an eSports class this fall and there’s huge popularity for that,” Green said. “It’ll be interesting as that course continues through the year, I know our instructor will probably be having those conversations as they talk about programming and gaming and some of the things that are all related. It’ll be interesting to see if that brings more of that affinity for students. Students might be in their medical pathway and hearing about the way AI is utilized in medicine or healthcare and then relating to that but not necessarily gravitating toward that career because there’s AI. I think I’m seeing it more embedded in other career pathways.”

According to the Aberdeen School District’s official website, “Career and Technical Education in the Aberdeen School District is designed to empower students for effective participation in an international economy as world-class workers and citizens. The district’s CTE programs are designed to contribute to the broad educational achievement of students, including basic skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics, as well as to their ability to work independently and as part of a team, think creatively and solve problems, and utilize technology.”

In addition to literary works, numerous films and TV shows have portrayed AI in myriad capacities with many serving as cautionary tales for all the things that could possibly go wrong. According to Green, the benefits and the positives outweigh the negatives.

“I see it as a positive thing in our society and education, but also do recognize that anything can be used for bad to some extent,” Green said. “It’s a changing workforce, I don’t know that it has to be a shrinking workforce. With the CTE side, there’s so many careers we’re helping students prepare for that I don’t see going away with AI. It can change, just like our world changes with AI overall. The workforce is going to evolve and change.”

As careers and education continue to evolve, Green says that teachers and counselors will need to be armed with new and different tools and information to help guide students.

“In CTE, we have advisory committees that are made up of folks from industry. Those folks are going to continue to be critical in informing our teachers in some of the ways AI is being infused into what they do and how it is changing jobs. Our advisory committee members are a huge resource for us,” Green said. “We have over 100 folks from our community that serve on our advisory committees just for Aberdeen CTE programs and we’re combined with Hoquiam and Montesano for some of those. When you’re talking about counselors and we’re talking about career and college guidance, we definitely need to make sure we’re giving students as current information as possible to make the best choices they can when they leave our hallways.”

Green believes that AI is a tool that can be used to improve productivity and enhance teachers’ abilities to produce rich learning experiences for students, however, it is the teachers’ core competency that will drive its use in education.

“Whether it’s education or healthcare, if you’re going to use these tools that are available, it’s only as good as what you give it, you have to understand that core foundation,” Green said. “Learning is enhanced when you build relationships. If we build relationships with our kids, they’re going to have higher results in learning. If you think back to our own experiences in education, it most often comes back to a connection with a person. Think about your favorite class, and it most often is because the teacher made you feel something in that classroom. That human element is always going to need to be part of education. AI is another tool in the toolbox for people to use.”