MANLIUS, N.Y. — The Fayetteville-Manlius School District is grappling with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, a topic that took center stage at a recent school board meeting. The district is collaborating with Syracuse University to develop a framework for AI use in classrooms, employing a color-coded system to determine when the technology is appropriate.

Terri Kiritsis, an autism behavior support specialist with 40 years of experience, expressed both optimism and concern about AI’s role in education. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. Education is my passion and my faith,” said Kiritsis. She acknowledged that AI programs can ease her workload but worried about students’ reliance on the technology. “I want you to know how to access the information. I want you to understand the information that you’re trying to disseminate. And if you use AI to do it for you, then you will never know,” she said.

Superintendent Craig Tice compared AI to calculators, emphasizing its potential as a tool. “We’ve got to be able to embrace it as a tool, much like the calculator. I mean, it didn’t end math education. It really just changed it and enhanced it,” said Tice.

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Kathy Daughton highlighted the varied impact of AI across subjects. “We had high school science teachers talking about the incredible ways in which AI has presented opportunities for students to really dig into really complex data sets that they wouldn’t be able to use without that technology, whereas humanities teachers were worried about making sure that writing that was being produced was done in a way that was ethical as well as informative and truthful,” said Daughton.

The district is focused on preparing students for the future, as Tice noted, “It really puts the students first, in fact that we’re trying to prepare them for their future, not for our past.”

With an ACT report indicating that nearly half of students use AI, the pressing question remains: how will schools evaluate AI use and establish guidelines?