by Donald Gilpin

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving at a rapid rate, bringing huge advantages along with some significant harms to all areas of society, and Princeton Public Schools (PPS) is looking for the best ways to benefit from AI’s potential to enhance the education of its students.

“We’re approaching the AI frontier together, and we’re all riding that balance of using it but also not abusing it,” said PPS Assistant Superintendent Kimberly Tew in a December 3 webinar, sponsored by PPS in collaboration with Common Sense Media, an organization working with the district to develop plans and policies concerning the use of AI in PPS.

Common Sense reports that 70 percent of teens nationwide have used at least one type of generative AI tool, with 53 percent using generative AI for homework help. Only 37 percent of parents with teens using gen AI, however, know that their children are using these tools.

A recently created PPS AI website, found under “Resources and Notices” at princetonk12.org, states, “The district recognizes that AI is a powerful tool that has the potential to support and enhance teaching and learning. However, it is also the responsibility of the district to teach students how to use AI critically and responsibly.”

Tew commented on some of the preliminary planning leading up to a two-day PPS AI Summit that took place this past summer, as the district gathered a group including board members, administrators, staff, and students to consider the future of AI at PPS.

“How do we find a balance and how do we provide more guardrails and safeguards?” said Tew. “We want to make sure that when students are using it that they aren’t over-relying on it and they’re reflecting as they use it.”

The PPS AI Summit explored uses and misuses of AI and developed policies and plans, organized professional development for staff, and updated the PPS web page — all while acknowledging that the process is ongoing, and constantly in need of revision as AI evolves.

Tew emphasized, “Our educators are the experts, and they are still leading the learning experience for the students. The teachers are designing real-time mentoring of student work.” She went on to note that the PPS’ SchoolAI platform allows students and teachers to work with AI in a structured, safe way.

In last week’s webinar, Quest Coordinator and Instructor Jenna Peluso discussed how the PPS elementary school teachers use AI as a teaching and student learning tool. “We use it as a creative planning tool for brainstorming, coming up with content,” she said. “It’s a jumping off point, and I can refine it and create resources to support it. I have the ability to customize this. It’s a way to have a teaching assistant at your beck and call and the ability to cater it to your students and your teaching style.”

She described K-5 students using AI as a learning tool, generating ideas for potential projects, with the ideas carefully catered to their tasks and the teacher in control of the process.

Princeton High School (PHS) Spanish Teacher Francesca Nunez-Powers described AI as “a great way for students to engage in conversation.” She explained how AI helped her students who were nervous or frustrated about giving a presentation in front of the class.

“I was very skeptical about the use of technology in a world language classroom, but I find it to be great,” she said. “It’s amazing to see how engaged my students were. I’m very happy I was able to bring this into my classroom.”

Providing a student perspective at the webinar, PHS senior Angel Ash, who was also a participant in the summer PPS AI Summit, applauded the district’s initiative in embracing the challenges of AI. “As a proud member of a tech-savvy generation who’s grown up with these crazy advancements, I really understand why people are concerned,” she said. “Like, what if AI kills creativity? What if we lose our connection to thinking skills? But there’s the immense potential of this technology. We should continue to embrace it.”

She continued, “I’m really happy to see Princeton Public Schools taking the big steps to integrate AI into the classrooms and to educate the community in the best way they can to increase that understanding and also promote responsible use among students and parents, because ultimately I believe it ensures that our future generations will see AI not as an enemy or inhibitor, but rather as an ally.”

Karla Cosgriff, head of the New York office of Common Sense Media and a PPS parent, echoed Ash’s sentiments. “It’s amazing that PPS has taken such a forward-thinking approach to this,” she said. “We’re getting a lot of questions from school districts across the country about how to develop policies on AI, and I think you all are approaching it really well. Parents are grateful.”

She went on to present a brief history of the past 20 years of developing technologies that impact young people and particularly the last two years since AI was released into the public sphere. “As parents, we need to understand that this is something we need to lean into,” she said. “One of the things we found in all of the research is how important it is to listen to kids. They have interesting perspectives on their future and on AI.”