More than three years before the arrival of the latest version of ChatGPT ignited a national fascination with artificial intelligence, Georgia鈥檚 Gwinnett County public schools set out to take on a challenge that few鈥攊f any鈥攄istricts had up to that point: Create a cluster of public schools that all taught an AI-oriented curriculum.
That process, started in 2019, took a big leap forward last fall when the 177,000-student suburban Atlanta district opened what some experts call the nation鈥檚 first AI high school.
Seckinger High offers stand-alone courses and electives in AI but also embeds the technology and its principles into math, science, language arts, and other subjects to ensure all students graduate with a solid understanding of how artificial intelligence works. For instance, a social studies teacher might incorporate how data scientists use the technology to track diseases in today鈥檚 world into a lesson on the spread of cholera in the 19th century. Three nearby elementary schools and a feeder middle school have a similar AI focus.
Ultimately, Gwinnett aims to expose all kids to artificial intelligence in every subject, as they move from kindergarten to 12th grade. Students who find themselves particularly drawn to the topic will get opportunities to delve even deeper into how the technology works and the ethical implications of using it.
What has Gwinnett learned from Seckinger鈥檚 first year and from being on the leading edge in teaching AI literacy? 91直播 spoke with Sallie Holloway, the district鈥檚 director of artificial intelligence and computer science. (Holloway said she has yet to meet another district leader who has AI in their job title.)
This conversation鈥攚hich took place on Zoom鈥攈as been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why does Gwinnett believe every student needs to understand AI?
If you are a person using any type of technology, you are likely interacting with AI in some way. Societally and culturally, we鈥檙e going to see AI show up a lot more in social media and communications and just the day-to-day tasks that we do outside of the workplace as well. We鈥檝e seen how technology can create such a gap in opportunities for our students if they don鈥檛 have access. So for us, it was a no-brainer. Every kid needs access to AI if they鈥檙e really going to be successful in the workplace, society, community, whatever鈥檚 next for them.
What happened in your district when ChatGPT 3 came out late last year?
It was so interesting, because the AI cluster schools were so excited. They were like, 鈥淭his is just the coolest technology! How does it work? Let鈥檚 look under the hood. Let鈥檚 like talk about it with our kids?鈥� Then, in our schools that aren鈥檛 piloting this work, it was a mixed reaction. There was a lot of 鈥淲hat is this? Is it sentient?鈥� or even 鈥楢ll of education is going to crumble!鈥�
What were the big concerns with ChatGPT?
The biggest thing that came up for education was cheating, right? That鈥檚 what everyone was talking about when ChatGPT came out.
We鈥檙e not going to ban ChatGPT. We think that it鈥檚 a tool. We want to teach our kids how to use it ethically and responsibly and how to trust and not trust certain things that might come out of it.
But we also know that if you are creating and submitting something that is not your original work, but you鈥檙e pretending it鈥檚 your original work, that鈥檚 still plagiarism, no matter what tool you use. We really felt strongly that definition still stands.
On the flip side of things was, 鈥淗ow do we help our teachers understand what this is and what it鈥檚 not? How they can leverage it in their classroom?鈥� We don鈥檛 want people to be scared of this tool. We want them to know how to be good users of this tool.
Did you feel pressure to move more quickly on AI literacy after ChatGPT 3 came out?
Honestly, it definitely created a bigger sense of urgency. The speed with which it showed up in our classrooms was like, 鈥極h, wow, like, we really need to figure out how to share what we鈥檙e learning with everybody else.鈥� Even if it鈥檚 not perfectly polished, even if it鈥檚 messy and we鈥檙e still learning, which honestly is where we are.
I think some of the teachers and leaders who maybe thought of the AI cluster as 鈥極h, this is a cool little project鈥� suddenly were like, 鈥極h, wow, this is an important part of education.鈥�
What鈥檚 been the biggest challenge in launching an AI-focused high school this year?
AI can be really scary for teachers. I had a great conversation with one of our math teachers last week who said 鈥淪ometimes, I don鈥檛 want to try something because I鈥檓 afraid that I鈥檓 gonna give the wrong information about AI or data science or whatever is happening because I don鈥檛 feel like I knew enough.鈥� Trying to make sure that our teachers have the right amount of background knowledge without totally overwhelming them is a tough balance. Helping teachers understand that it鈥檚 OK if you don鈥檛 know much about a topic but here鈥檚 how you could go about learning it with your kids in a safe way.
Your plan was to embed AI into all subjects and offer a high school elective course, too. Is that what you are doing now?
AI is still embedded in everything. Every kid doesn鈥檛 have to take that elective AI course, but honestly, so many kids want to, which is interesting. I know that the last time I spoke to the high school they were overcapacity already for next year for the number of kids who want to enroll in that course.
