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The future is here. Artificial intelligence is part of almost every area of society, including education, so it’s time to take a serious look at it. How can AI help teachers and administrators?

During the edLeader Panel “AI 101 for School Leaders: Navigating the Possibilities,” Felicia Chetrit, Supervisor of Elementary Education for Secaucus Public School District (NJ), and Amanda Jones, Assistant Principal at Secaucus High School (NJ), shared tips and tools so education leaders can make informed decisions about implementing AI in their schools.

AI isn’t going anywhere—ChatGPT alone has over 180 million users and gets about 600 million visits per month. Education leaders must adapt to AI and find ways that it can help teachers and students. Tools such as SchoolAI and Diffit can take a lot off educators’ plates by helping write letters to parents, develop IEP goals, or write letters of recommendation.

The AI-powered Chrome extension Scribe can help create step-by-step guides to any process, which is useful for making refreshers for experienced teachers or guides for new teachers. Merlin, which is similar to ChatGPT and Google Gemini, can summarize blogs, videos, and research papers, and create social media content, emails, and code. All of these tools have been huge time-savers for the teachers and administrators who use them and can help teachers better implement programs, which, in turn, can help raise student achievement.

When it comes to administrative work, AI can be a massive help. Goblin Tools is excellent for writing and tone checking emails. It can also be used for tasks like compiling lists, meal planning, and making writing sound more professional. Another tool, Conker, can be used to create quizzes and surveys and provide instant feedback.

Pi, an AI “personal assistant,” is popular among education leaders and also serves as a great introduction to AI. It can be made as personal as the user wants and helps organize both professional and personal matters. Writing assistants like QuillBot can help users improve writing and productivity while also detecting if AI was used in students’ work. Meanwhile, tools like Otter.ai can be used to transcribe meetings in real time, generate notes, and extract important items so users don’t miss important details while taking notes.

AI is a tool, but most of the work still needs to be done by humans. To start, users have to know how to give AI effective instructions. All AIs require a prompt in order to complete a task, much like how humans require instructions. The more detailed the prompt given, the better the result.

Also, the AI output must be tailored. Allow the AI to do 80% of the work on a piece and have the remaining 20% done by a person who can perfect and personalize the final product. This is called the 80/20 rule.

Of course, there is the issue of plagiarism—an ongoing discussion. When AI writes something, it’s always an original piece, but plagiarism is defined as taking another person’s work, so the question is: Is using AI in writing plagiarism?

As one solution, some writers include how much of a piece is human created, how much is AI created, and what the AI was used for. As of now, though, there is no clear answer, and some students caught using AI for assignments have even successfully argued for their defense.

As we better understand AI and how to work with it, its uses will become more practical and a part of daily life. The Gartner Hype Cycle, which explains the phases of a technology’s life cycle, indicates that even if AI doesn’t live up to our early expectations its uses will still pay off. AI is here to stay, so we must learn from and about it, finding ways to use these tools to make our lives easier. The best way to do that? Embrace AI and dive in.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, AI 101 for School Leaders: Navigating the Possibilities.

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Article by Jon Scanlon, based on this edLeader Panel