Making The Grade: How Central Texas public schools are using artificial intelligence chat bots in the classroom

CENTRAL TEXAS (KWTX) - Six months into the school year, public schools continue to learn how new generative artificial intelligence chat bots could revolutionize learning; however, schools continue to show divided responses to the new technology.

The Making the Grade Investigative Team asked every public school in Central Texas how they are approaching the new A.I. tools at the beginning of the school year.

Of those that responded, we found a variety of approaches. About half use firewalls or content filters to block new artificial intelligence tools, and about half allow access on campus.

We reached out to all Central Texas public schools again six months into the school year. We found more rural, small districts responded to the request as most are learning about the tool as it continues to develop, regardless of if the district is blocking the technology or not.

Again, the approaches to ChatGPT and new artificial intelligence tools are scattered, about half allowing access to this technology on campus, and about half blocking it.

Midway ISD adjusted its response to artificial intelligence chat bot, ChatGPT, during the school year.

“That particular website was evaluated, and we determined it didn’t align with our policies for student use just because it lacks the visibility into the student prompts,” Midway ISD Director of Technology Jesse Garn said. “Then, we have no visibility into those results that are returned to the students, so there’s no real way to ensure that our standards are enforced on that site.”

Many schools we spoke with directly said they have been using artificial intelligence for years to monitor students’ use of technology in the classroom and to check students’ work for plagiarism.

However, the new, developing tool that has become the hot topic for districts is generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.

Generative artificial intelligence is a model that takes a large sum of information and generates new data, text, images, videos, etc. based on what it is prompted to do, according to a research article by Business and Information Systems Engineering.

Schools using generative artificial intelligence in the classroom

Salado ISD said it is not blocking access to these new tools on campus, so Salado Middle School life skills teacher, Leslie Allen, is using Magic School A.I. to help meet students’ needs in the classroom.

Her life skills class is filled with students with special needs from different grades, learning at different levels.

With Magic School A.I., she selects the grade level, number of questions and topics the students are learning, then, at the click of a button, the tool generates a quiz catered to that level and topic.

“This is fourth grade, the first one we did was Kindergarten, so this will test your knowledge a little bit more,” Allen said as she quizzed students learning about geography.

After reviewing the information that the Magic A.I. tool generates, she prints out the different versions of the quiz and tests students’ knowledge based on their learning abilities.

Down the hall, seventh grade English teacher Annie Ewton is allowing an artificial intelligence chat bot in students’ hands to learn about Greek Mythology.

“We’re going to go back and chat with Apollo,” she said as she teaches students how to use the tool for an assignment.

She said students can chat with Greek gods and goddesses, asking them questions that will guide students to learn about mythological stories, symbols and powers.

“The idea of this A.I. is to help them with self-discovery, so they can find things they’re interested in,” Ewton said. “With this one, I have the twelve Olympic gods. They got to choose three of those twelve to do a little bit of a deeper dive...It gives them the chance to learn on their own rather than me just barking out facts at them.”

Salado ISD is a small school district adapting to the new technology.

“New can be scary, but we didn’t block it,” Salado ISD Middle School Assistant Principal Karen Ewton said.

Ewton said she has been learning about ChatGPT and other generative A.I. tools and sharing this with teachers.

“A lot of what I’ve done is just curiosity, looking into it, finding out how we can use it,” she said. “I’ve sent out newsletters to teachers, like curriculum newsletters that address A.I. and give them tips and tricks that they can use to kind of make their lives easier.”

A.I. and concerns about cheating

At the beginning of the school year, many school districts were concerned about students using ChatGPT and new A.I. tools to cheat.

Over the past six months, some districts said they have seen issues with students using A.I. to plagiarize.

“There’s been a couple of issues with plagiarism,” Waco ISD Director of Technology Jerry Allen said.

“We have had a couple of incidents where kids have tried to have it write essays,” Ewton with Salado ISD said.

“A few isolated cases where someone tried to maybe get on there and use it,” Valley Mills Assistant Superintendent of Academics Josh Jones said.

However, districts said they have discovered that their teachers are quick to notice the chat bot’s work versus the students.

“You can kind of see the chat writing style,” Ewton said. “It’s not hard, if you’re a writing teacher, to find what kids are doing.”

Some districts are even using technology to detect cheating.

“There’s definitely tools that come with the software to prevent plagiarism,” Allen said.

Valley Mills ISD said some of its teachers are using artificial intelligence tools to help grade writing assignments and detect how students are using their writing skills for assignments.

“It’s just another way of using the technologies hand-in-hand rather than just pushing back against them,” Jones said.

Ending the Rural Dilemma

Texas nonprofit Collegiate Edu-nation works to end the rural dilemma in the state, and, now, the organization is educating rural districts about new generative A.I. tools.

“We can’t keep doing education the same way that we’ve always done traditional education,” Rachael McClain, who is the president of Collegiate Edu-nation, said.

The nonprofit said the tool can be revolutionary for rural school districts that do not have the same resources, materials and funding as larger districts.

In fact, CEO Dr. Kim Alexander said not adapting to the new technology could be detrimental for rural, small schools.

“It’s just knocking down so many barriers,” he said. “The rural schools that are unwilling or unable to adapt to it, I think those are the schools that aren’t going to be around very long.”

Groesbeck ISD responded to our request for information, stating it is not blocking access:

“As a district we are navigating the role that A.I. does and should play in the day-to-day operations of school with students, teachers, and administrators. We have seen students use the program to help them with understanding their assignments, used as a tutorial, as a launching point for creative thought, and used to create self-quizzes.”

Lometa ISD stated it is blocking access to ChatGPT and new artificial intelligence tools but is trying to learn about them:

“We monitor the development of A.I. and other large language models and their impact on schools… Lometa ISD will continue to learn about these emerging technologies, and recognizes their potential as educational and productivity tools, but will proceed with caution as we consider all ramifications of making them available in the classroom.”

Morgan ISD told KWTX its firewall is blocking ChatGPT:

“We are not currently monitoring the use of A.I. tools other than through our Firewall System, which is set to block access on our campuses… We do not currently have a policy stipulating the training of teachers, staff, and students regarding the use of A.I. tools such as ChatGPT but are interested in what other schools are planning or implementing.”

These three schools as well as most districts in Central Texas are rural, small districts.

School districts learning about A.I.

China Spring ISD said it is blocking ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence tools for students on campus, but it is one of the school districts working to make sure their teachers are on the fast-moving train.

“Technology is one of those things that is always evolving and changing,” Kristen Dutschmann, the Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment at China Spring ISD, said. “We’re always, as schools, having new things come out and trying to learn and grow, like we talked about with the teachers. So, right now, we are just continuing to embrace that growth mindset and try new things in our classrooms.”

China Spring Elementary School teacher Amanda Ziegler said she did a presentation for teachers at the district earlier in the school year.

“What I presented on was using A.I. to make differentiation easier and increase productivity for teachers,” she said.

She said she learned how to use these tools at a Region 12 training in the Fall.

Joshua Essary, who is a digital innovation education specialist with Region 12 said the institution cannot tell districts what they can and cannot enforce with these tools, but they can work with the districts to train them.

“We need to know, one, how to use it so that we can do our jobs the best, the teachers can do their jobs the best, and that students also know that it’s out there so that they can use it responsibly, just like whenever they’re using any other tool on the Internet,” Essary said.

“For the most part, we tell teachers, if you want to show students responsibly how to use it, do it as a demonstration in the class from your standpoint,” he said. “You can show them what it does, how to responsibly use it, how to check it, to make sure that it’s factually correct and that it’s not just making stuff up on the spot.”

Many Central Texas districts sent teachers and staff to a statewide Texas Computer Education Association training in Austin in February. A hot topic at the training was artificial intelligence.

Matt Miller was one of the speakers and presenters at the training. He is the author of “Ditch That Textbook: Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom” and has shared ideas on embracing technology in schools across the nation.

“At this conference, really, artificial intelligence was probably the biggest topic,” Miller said. “Now, when I say probably, I think it was definitely the biggest topic. I think really schools as an organization, but also teachers individually are all just trying to figure out what to make of this.”

A.I. tools decreasing teacher burnout

A big feature that is sparking interest among teachers is generative A.I. tools’ ability to increase productivity, save them time, and personalize learning to meet students’ specific needs, decreasing teacher burnout.

Ziegler with China Spring shared this idea with teachers at the district, educating teachers about the different A.I. tools.

“It helps, with a click of a button to have the ability to put things on your students’ level,” she said.

Rapoport Academy in Waco is showing teachers how to use A.I. to generate emails, rubrics and even behavior plans.

Second grade math and social studies teacher at Rapoport Elementary, Rachel Cady, said she uses Magic School A.I. for emails, parent teacher conferences and newsletters--busy work that may take hours now takes her minutes.

“We are being pulled in so many different directions,” she said. “It simplified things for me a little more, given me a little time back in my schedule.”

Larger school districts’ approach to A.I.

Larger school districts like Waco ISD still have not decided what to make of it.

“We’ve started the process of developing some policies around curriculum writing with that so that we can incorporate A.I. into the lessons,” Allen said.

It is not blocking the new technology now, instead, it wants students to learn to use it in hopes of benefiting them in college and the workforce.

“We really want them to use it because, in the end, there are going to be thousands of jobs out there that are going to be reliant upon A.I. in the future, and we know we need to get them ready for that,” he said.

While Midway ISD blocks access to ChatGPT for students on campus, it has noticed existing tools adopt generative A.I. models.

“The resources that we already have are adopting their own versions and A.I. plugins and those are continued to be used as learning resources,” Garn said.

It also wants to prepare students to be able to use these new tools properly.

“We’re going to work until we figure out what best suits our teachers, supports our teachers, and provides the kind of experience that we want our students to have here in Midway ISD, which is one of excellence,” Midway ISD Director of Communications Emily Parks said. “We’re excited about what’s coming up, and we’ll continue to really work on those things and be ahead of the game.”

Districts big and small said the new artificial intelligence tools will not replace teachers in the classroom.

“You never want to take the human out of teaching,” Allen said. “A.I. is scary for those that think that the human element can be removed, but it can’t be. It has to be there to help understand and help drive it.”

Districts agree that the technology is developing, forcing the world to adapt. Our Central Texas schools, teachers and students are seeing firsthand how their world in education will adapt too.

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