Artificial Intelligence in Schools: Allow or Prohibit? Ethical Considerations for Educators

Presented by Ariel Sykes, Assistant Director of The Ethics Institute, Kent Place School (NJ); Dr. Colin M. Potts, Postdoctoral Technical Specialist, North Carolina State University; Dr. Jennifer Galambos, Head of School, Kent Place School (NJ); and Dr. Karen Rezach, Director of The Ethics Institute, Kent Place School (NJ)

Sponsored by The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School

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With the arrival of ChatGPT on our students’ laptops and in our classrooms, educators are grappling with the ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence in schools. Whether writing an essay or lab report, conducting research, working through a math problem, or building a presentation, students now have access to learning aids that challenge the very definitions of “learning,” “original work,” and “plagiarism.” What boundaries do we set? Does “zero tolerance” toward AI’s use by students make sense if we are preparing them for the future world that they will live in?

Learning is not the only place where AI is found in school settings. How are we, the adults, modeling the usage of AI to our students? Facial recognition software and monitoring systems that track student internet usage are just two examples of interventions done in the name of “school safety.” There are three clear learning objectives in this edWebinar:

• A technology specialist helps you to understand the use, purpose, and indications for artificial intelligence tools in education
• An ethicist enables you to delineate the ethical considerations and implications for the use of AI
• A head of school explains how an ethical decision-making process can enable you to develop an actual school policy

This session helps build your awareness of the ethical issues raised by AI use in schools and empowers you to ask questions in order to make well-informed and ethical policies for the adults and students in your school communities.

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to K-12 teachers, librarians, school and district leaders, and education technology leaders.

View the recording for Part 2 on the topic: Artificial Intelligence in Schools: Allow or Prohibit? Ethical Considerations for Educators

About the Presenters

Ariel Sykes is the Assistant Director of The Ethics Institute. She is a skilled educator and teacher trainer with over 15 years of experience working in philosophy and education. Ariel is an endorsed practitioner of the IAPC (Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children), the world’s oldest organization devoted to young people’s philosophical practice. She serves on the boards of the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO), the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum (SEAC), and the National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB).

Colin M. Potts, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University under the supervision of Dr. Arnav Jhala and teaches in the Senior Design Center in the Department of Computer Science as a technology specialist. His research focuses on making AI tools accessible to domain experts, particularly natural language processing tools. This research includes considering the ethical implications of both designing and using AI tools, such as biases in language models. He started his research career at Lawrence University, where he studied automated planning and search algorithms before graduating with a B.A. in mathematics and math-computer science. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from North Carolina State University in 2022. His dissertation included work with the Liquid Narrative Group on multimedia narrative discourse planning before working with Dr. Jhala on interactive natural language processing systems for knowledge discovery and multimedia narrative generation.

Dr. Jennifer C. Galambos is the Head of School at Kent Place School in Summit, New Jersey. A native of Houston, Texas, she was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Friends School. She earned her doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University; her master’s degree in education with a concentration in private school leadership from Loyola University; and her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Franklin and Marshall College.

Early in her independent school career, Dr. Galambos was the Middle School Principal at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland; Director of Admission at Green Farms Academy in Westport, Connecticut; Director of Admission and Financial Aid at Saddle River Day School in New Jersey; and a history teacher, a dorm parent, and a coach at the Perkiomen School in Pennsylvania. More recently, she spent nine years at Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, as the Assistant Head of School and Upper School Director. Before that, Dr. Galambos was its Middle School Director. She lives in Summit and has been a nationally ranked tennis player and enjoys paddle tennis, travel, and reading.

Dr. Karen Rezach is the Founding Director of The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School. A leader in primary and secondary school ethics education, Dr. Rezach has been teaching and facilitating ethics workshops for students, parents, faculty, administrators, and private organizations for over 15 years. She has developed partnerships with leading ethical institutions, including The Hastings Center and Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics, to develop signature programs for high school students. Her doctoral research, Spiritual Leadership as a Model of Effective Leadership in Independent Schools, explores the ways that educators can bring values and moral awareness into non-sectarian settings. She has an M.Div. from Yale University and an Ed.D. from Seton Hall University. Dr. Rezach is the coach of the National Champion Kent Place High School Ethics Bowl Team.

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The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School promotes the process and practice of ethical decision-making in primary and secondary school communities.