Nov. 30—MASSENA — An artificial intelligence robot was one of the keynote speakers at a recent New York State School Boards Association conference in New York City.
Paul A. Haggett, Joyce Giroux and Robert M. LeBlanc, Massena Central School board members, were among those in attendance at the event.
“We had our picture taken with the keynote speaker from day one. That was Sophia, the AI robot. Sophia was interviewed by Executive Director Bob Schneider and she talked about a number of topics in education related to artificial intelligence,” said Haggett.
Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics that can mimic human expressions and communicate with humans.
Haggett said AI was a topic of discussion at the convention.
“The keynote speaker on day two was education author and researcher Dan Fitzpatrick from Britain, who walked us through a lot of the very quickly involved thinking about artificial intelligence,” he said. “One of the things I kind of took away in terms of the message is that it’s true that AI scares a lot of people. It’s kind of a wild west, a big unknown in a lot of ways. But his message was that as humans we need interaction with other people. It is therefore very unlikely that AI will completely take over the world.”
Giroux said she mainly attended workshops on AI “because I was also afraid of it and its impact on education and wanted to learn more about it.”
“Dan Fitzpatrick said if we stop using AI tomorrow, if there’s a ban, we’re done. We’re done. That’s it. It would take 20 years to unpack it at this point. The problem that they really have is because it grows so quickly, is that not enough energy is produced to support it.
Giroux said there were positives to using AI.
“We have to embrace it. We have to approach it with intention. There is a lot of good in it when it comes to teaching with teachers and students. Teachers can create lesson plans. They can create IEP (individualized education plan) planning for students,” said she. “He said AI should be seen as a calculator for words. I found that very interesting, a calculator for words.”
Giroux said AI has additional benefits. She said it can be used for personalized learning, including “increased student engagement, data collection and attendance trends in administration.”
“How about a second language for students using the translators? AI tools for students with disabilities, professional development. It’s actually mind-boggling,” she said. “So a lot can be done. We shouldn’t be afraid, but there is certainly a lot to learn about it and I am very curious about it.”
She said Fitzpatrick talked about a tool called SchoolAI.
“It’s a tool for teachers and students. Students can chat with historical figures. Wouldn’t that be interesting?” said Giroux.
Nicole L. Charleson, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction, had told board members at an earlier meeting that SchoolAI was now being used in the district.
“After meeting with a few companies, we decided on SchoolAI,” she said. “There are a lot of workforce tools that those who have started using them are quite excited.”
SchoolAI is an AI-powered writing tool designed specifically for schools and teachers. It helps save time by offering powerful AI-generated emails, markups, lesson plans, ideas, quizzes, brainstorms, reports and more. SchoolAI offers features such as personalization, email/letter mode, grade and grade mode, lesson plan mode, lesson plan mode resources, quiz mode, brainstorm mode, and a time-saving counter.
“The premise is to interact with AI, to learn about AI, but also to use it to improve our instructional spaces,” Charleson said.
