GREENFIELD — The School Committee voted against updating its Empowered Digital Use Policy to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in schools after members shared Wednesday night that they do not feel they have enough information on AI to regulate it.
“Sitting here looking at the table, I feel like I know very little,” said Mayor Ginny Desorgher, who also serves on the School Committee. “To vote on a policy doesn’t feel OK.”
Proposed changes to the policy included adding bullet points noting that AI could be used for educational purposes, but users must acknowledge when AI is used. The policy came along with implementation guidelines that further explain what generative AI is and how it can be used, and requires that students be taught about the limitations and legal and ethical issues that come with AI tools.
The School Committee discussed making changes to regulate AI, and tasked the policy subcommittee with drafting the changes this past spring after hearing concerns from students that their classmates were relying heavily on AI and they wished to see some boundaries put in place.
On Wednesday night, member Melodie Goodwin said she does not want students learning about AI at all and she wants to discourage them from using it.
“The more I research, the more I read, I personally would like technology actually removed from our schools for the wellness of our children,” Goodwin said. “AI is just another level. High school students shouldn’t be taught about AI, but I think we don’t know enough as educators about it to move forward.”
She said the district is still trying to recover from the impact of the pandemic, and she believes online learning and digital tools have hindered students’ learning, resulting in “high school students who can’t write paragraphs, who aren’t using grammar [or] punctuation, because they are so used to technology and they haven’t learned to write.”
Goodwin said she does not believe she knows enough about the potential impacts of AI to feel comfortable adding it to the school district’s policies.
Member Jeffrey Diteman added that he would like any AI policy to center around academic integrity and viewing technology as a tool to achieve learning objectives. He believes the current policy draft is more focused on ensuring everyone learns how to use AI.
“I disagree with that message,” Diteman said. “I don’t think it’s important for everyone to learn about AI, and furthermore, the way this framing is set up, it seems like the concerns about academic integrity and honesty are coming second and the importance of AI is first.”
Committee members indicated they would like to see more research on AI and community involvement in developing the policy.
“In the spring, we had a lot of people come forward — students, community — who wanted to be involved in setting this policy,” Vice Chair Ann Childs said. “What I think is a better direction, not that I hate the policy, but a better direction would be to allow people to be involved, to do a task force to research and go deeper into this issue before we set a policy.”
