Ever since ChatGPT 3 launched in the fall of 2022, teachers, administrators, and technology leaders have been trying to keep up with all the new opportunities and challenges that generative artificial intelligence (AI) brought into the world. The sheer volume of information and intensity this technology has been throwing at us has felt much like an unstoppable force of nature that is terrifying and exciting at the same time. In a step toward addressing the growing influence of artificial intelligence in education, Darlington School has implemented an AI policy that seeks to balance innovation with responsibility. The policy seeks to acknowledge both its potential benefits and inherent risks so students and teachers can find balance in using and living with these new tools.
Our Artificial Intelligence Policy focuses on the appropriate use of generative AI tools, appropriate citation, privacy and security. Rather than taking an overly restrictive stance, we have chosen to create guidelines that encourage exploration while maintaining academic integrity. Students are permitted to use AI tools for some work, but only with explicit teacher approval and proper attribution of AI-generated content.
We would like to emphasize the importance of the ethical considerations and privacy issues brought up by generative AI. One of the more recent issues to come out is deepfakes. Deepfakes are photos, videos, or audio recordings that use artificial intelligence to make it look or sound like someone is saying or doing something that is not real. There have already been several cases in the news involving schools where deepfakes were used inappropriately, directly affecting other students. At Darlington, we will continue to update our AI policy and educate students and faculty regarding how to responsibly navigate this new technology.
On a more positive note, I have found some productive uses for AI in my work. I am using large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to request specific information that I would normally request from a search engine like Google. These LLM’s are great at providing specific information or answers to your questions instead of simply producing a list of links to websites where your requested information may or may not be. I have also used these tools to create detailed project management documents, including spreadsheets and timelines that would normally require hours to create, in just minutes.
I also have heard many creative ways Darlington faculty and staff are leveraging AI to improve and streamline many tasks they encounter throughout the year. Click here for a recent episode of The Darlington Podcast that highlights just a few of our teachers and the ways they are using AI. We must all ensure we do our best as educators and parents to teach and inform our students about these technologies, providing them with the guidance and motivation to use them as tools to enhance their productivity as learners.
