About two dozen Missoula-area teachers pondered the uses and risks of artificial intelligence in the classroom at a first-of-its-kind AI “playdate” Thursday night.
Montana Digital Academy executive director Jason Neiffer introduced the concept of the “playdate” format to the teachers before they broke into groups to discuss and practice with artificial intelligence tools. Neiffer says the informal, hands-on seminar is a new way his organization is hoping to get teachers talking about how AI is transforming education.
“If we can just turn that into a larger conversation about teaching and learning, I think we will do some amazing things with it,” Neiffer said in an interview with MTPR. “But, the future seems to be happening so quickly all of a sudden, that it is certainly something to catch up to.”
AI programs like Chat GPT or Google’s Gemini use advanced machine learning to accomplish complex tasks in fractions of a second. Teachers at the playdate learned about its ability to draw up lesson plans or parent emails — and talked about how students should or shouldn’t be using it for schoolwork.
Frenchtown business and computer science teacher Ryan Goris says the session eased some of her worries about student use of AI.
“I think it can make things better, and I also think I need to adapt my way of grading the kids, so that I’m taking the AI part into consideration, but still finding authentic ways to measure learning,” Goris says.
AI software goes a step further than a search engine in helping students with homework — instead of just connecting them to sources that may have the answers they're looking for, it can answer questions directly.
That means teachers and the administrators supporting them will need to change the way they evaluate how their students are learning, says Montana Digital Academy’s Jason Neiffer.
Montana’s education leaders have provided little guidance on AI so far. A spokesperson for the Office of Public Instruction says it has not adopted any AI best practices. The Montana School Boards Association is in conversation with state lawmakers about how they can support schools.
