School Administrators Discuss the Use of AI by Students

Wednesday, February 19th, 2025 -- 11:00 AM

(Lorin Cox, Wisconsin Public Radio) Monroe High School associate principal Josh Wilson knows some of his students use artificial intelligence programs to help with their schoolwork.

According to Lorin Cox with Wisconsin Public Radio, chatbots like ChatGPT and others are free and available online for anyone to access. The Monroe School District is like many others in the state that don’t currently have a formal policy for AI use in schools.

Wilson told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that he and other administrators are working through conversations about what that policy should look like. “We know that even if we block it at school, kids are going to find a way to use this,” Wilson said.

“So what’s the lesson that we want kids to have? To not access this whatsoever? Or to teach the kids how to use ChatGPT, while maintaining fidelity to an assessment that’s getting them to challenge themselves and to grow academically?”

The conversation started as an informal chat among principals, and now district leaders are convening broader groups of teachers and administrators to shape artificial intelligence policy.

Wilson has heard a wide range of opinions from teachers in his building. Some are concerned about AI doing all the work for students. Others are more eager to implement the technology to enhance student learning.

“What originally started as this conversation about, ‘How am I going to catch kids plagiarizing?’ turned into this larger conversation about what kind of assignments we want to give kids,” Wilson said. “What kind of learning experiences are important for our students at Monroe to prepare them for for the rest of their lives?”

When the topic of AI first came up among his colleagues, Wilson wasn’t very familiar with the programs and shared many concerns he’s heard from fellow teachers.

But as he spent more time with ChatGPT and other software, he developed a better sense of what it can do and why it’s important for the district to prepare for it.

Wilson wonders if forbidding students from using AI could hinder them when they “go off to the workforce, or if they go off to college, and they are in a class with somebody who has been taught how to use AI in a productive, meaningful way.”

“That’s what I see artificial intelligence as: Not replacing the classroom experience, but challenging what it is that we want our kids to know and to do, as they move forward in their life,” he added.

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