BY KARISSA MILLER
Bill Daggett, founder of Successful Practices Network and the International Center for Leadership in Education, told Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education members that Artificial Intelligence tools can help transform education.
During the board’s End-of-Year review on October 23, Daggett explained that today’s students were born into a world full of technological advances.
“Today’s kids are an extension of their technology. It’s not just the technology, but the change in behavior,” Daggett said.
He shared some data about high school seniors:
Seniors with driver’s license
• 2000: 87 percent
• 2022: 56 percent
Seniors with a part-time job
• 2000: 78 percent
• 2022: 43 percent
Seniors who have dated
• 2000: 79 percent
• 2022: 42 percent
“Our kids are coming to us fundamentally different. It’s the lack of experiences that they are having because they haven’t done these things,” he explained.
Daggett said that many times teachers don’t welcome AI in the classroom.
“Have we reached the point where we say it’s time to think about true transformation for our 21st century schools to prepare kids for the 21st century?” Daggett asked.
AI tools like ChatGPT and BARD by Google can be used by students and by teachers, he said.
Daggett said that it could relieve teachers of writing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which can take a couple of hours, and even create lesson plans.
Explaining that he grew up on a dairy farm, Daggett said that milking machines and milking parlors have revolutionized that industry.
He asked the group: How many people can remember mowing a lawn with a lawnmower that didn’t have a motor?
“I could give you tons of examples, but think about what automation did to manual labor in the 20th century,” he said.
Daggett then showed an example of an AI prompt and the letter that it wrote a parent. He emphasized that “you have to be a sophisticated AI editor” to use it effectively. Being able to write good prompts is also essential since the AI tools use the prompt to pull information from the Internet.
Effective use of AI, Daggett said, can remove around 80 percent of the time and effort that goes into a task. The remaining 20 percent must go into “fact-checking” and tweaking the output response, he explained.
Today’s students will need to be able to use AI in the workplace of the future. Daggett said teachers will need to balance when students can use it and when they can’t.
“Right now,” he said, “your students know how to use AI better than anyone in this room.”
Teachers can benefit greatly from AI training, Daggett added.
“Start by showing them how they can use AI to get their nights and weekends back.”
He also emphasized that AI isn’t going to replace humans.