Embracing the future: Tusky Valley, Buckeye use artificial intelligence in the classroom

TUSCARAWAS COUNTY ‒ Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been progressing at the speed of a freight train in the past couple of years.

According to a 2023 Time magazine article, AI has surpassed humans in a number of tasks and the rate at which humans are being surpassed at new tasks is increasing. It has a myriad of possible uses, including assisting with medical diagnosis, solving crimes and identifying national security threats.

To prepare students for this brave new world of technology, some schools in Tuscarawas County are incorporating AI into their curriculum.

At Tuscarawas Valley High School in Zoarville, Tiffany Shaw began teaching a class on the subject last fall. "Our students are going to need to know how to interact with AI. They're going to need to know how to build the programming," she said.

And at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia, Tim Vandeborne is using AI in his engineering classes. "At the beginning of the year, I want students to know how to use artificial intelligence responsibly, and what the capabilities are," he said.

Earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced the launch of an AI Toolkit for Ohio’s K-12 school districts. This resource will empower policymakers, superintendents, principals, IT staff, teachers and parents to advance AI literacy in their school districts. It will also provide resources that help promote student privacy, data security, ethics and other factors.

More on education: Meeting a need: Buckeye Career Center will build addition to house its medical programs

AI used on district projects

The Tusky Valley class has gotten off to a slow start, with just three students enrolled this year. But more students have already enrolled for next year.

The class, which runs for one semester, has been fluid. Shaw alternates between teaching about AI and having her students work on projects for the district using artificial intelligence. One project was to create a video for the December opening of the high school auditorium using a program called Pictory AI. Superintendent Derek Varansky gave the class an outline of what he wanted. The class put the outline into ChatGPT, an AI language program, to get the wording. The completed script was then put into Pictory AI, along with photos that would be used in the video. Each of the students in the class was assigned to do a portion of it.

"It's been a great learning experience, I think, for the students and for me personally, not just personally but professionally as well," Shaw said.

Tanner Wood, 15, a freshman, said he signed up for the class because it's always been his dream to use technology in his life. "My dream job is Microsoft or some big AI job. I thought this would be a really good class to join. I loved working on the projects and learning about AI. It was a lot of fun."

'They've got to stay curious'

At Buckeye Career Center, Vandeborne began using AI in his classes last year.

"I look at AI and AI generation to really help the students," he said. "They've got to stay curious with what's happening. We're always talking about AGI, which is artificial general intelligence, and how that's going to change. We haven't achieved that yet, but a lot of estimates are it's going to happen sooner than later. How's that going to change the world? I talk to the students on how AI is changing things now."

Artificial general intelligence is when machines learn and think like a human does.

AI has many uses in engineering, he said. Some design programs have AI built into them, "that makes it better than we can ever design ourselves." AI thinks of things that humans wouldn't think of. And ChatGPT can grade documents and come up with suggested changes.

As a project, students in his class used ChatGPT to come up with a 10-page illustrated children's book in 15 minutes.

"One day we were having discussion in a senior lab about DALL-E (an AI system that can create realistic images) and ChatGPT and how they can be used to write a book," said Jarred Kimble, a senior from Garaway. "Mr. V. asked for a prompt on a lesson and two characters to follow for the story.

"DALL-E created the illustrations. Chat GPT created the wording for the story of a timid guinea pig and an adventurous mouse who would go out and explore their home and teach the timid guinea pig, named Guinea, that they can go out of their comfort zone and have adventures. Mr. V. even made illustrations for the book just by using DALL-E."

Vandeborne said he stresses to his students that they should use this new technology responsibly. He noted that they can use AI for ideas on writing an essay, but they should not let AI write the essay for them."I think AI has a future in the world. It's not going to overtake humans," Kimble said. "Eventually it will surpass us in intelligence, but there won't be a time where it can think on its own if they put the correct perimeters in place. AI has a future, but if that future is corrected limited, then AI can be a good tool."

What other districts are doing

Other school districts in the area are moving slower on AI:

• The Newcomerstown Exempted Village School District hasn't started using it in the classroom yet, according to Superintendent Jason Peoples. "Recognizing the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, Newcomerstown Schools has launched the Committee for AI Resources in Education (CARE). This collaborative initiative brings together teachers, administrators and community members to carefully assess and approve AI tools for safe and effective use in classrooms and by students."

• Strasburg-Franklin Local Schools uses AI to assist in designing lessons and provide new ideas for staff, said Superintendent Vince Lindsey. "There are a lot of free resources available right now that support us in developing tiered lessons to support all students. We know AI is increasing within our everchanging world. We want to stay ahead of it and use AI for positive outcomes with students."

• Claymont City Schools has had several staff trainings on the uses of AI in the classroom, said Superintendent Brian Rentsch. "We continue to learn how to use the advances in technology and being able to implement them to benefit student learning."

• Indian Valley Local Schools Superintendent Ira Wentworth said his district has pockets of teachers using AI in constructive ways. "For example, AI can convert content area reading passages to different ability levels so students with disabilities can better understand subject matter.  AI can be used to write short stories using students' names from class as main characters, which immediately garners students' attention." The district also has teachers helping one another to detect when a student uses AI inappropriately on an assignment.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Tusky Valley, Buckeye incorporate artificial intelligence in classroom