Tom D’Amico, president of AI Leadership Consulting and retired OCSB director of education, presenting at RCCDSB's AI conference where students, educators and parents discussed this technology and how it should be utilized | Photo Credit: Kylie Gibson/RCCDSB
A few weeks ago myFM connected with Renfrew County District School Board’s (RCDSB) superintendent of education, Scott Nichol, to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way into the curriculum.
Back in January of this year RCDSB formed a committee to study, discuss and determine how AI will be implemented in the modern classroom.
AI systems of today are deeply-rooted into nearly every piece of new digital technology and figuring out how students will adopt it is not a matter of if, but when.
Both RCDSB and the Renfrew County Catholic School Board (RCCDSB) have been developing plans for a couple years to prevent artificial intelligence from running unchecked in the classrooms.
RCCDSB’s experiential learning and technology coordinator, Tyson Holly, has been working with other members of the Catholic board and other boards as well to prepare for this inevitable technology.
Holly said while AI can be a useful companion under the correct circumstances they must approach its application thoughtfully.
Both boards have incorporated Google’s Gemini, an AI similar to Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Copilot, Gemini was selected because the school boards can integrate it more homogenously because they already use the rest of the Google Suite.
These discussions have been happening province-wide, Holly said RCCDSB has been closely working with the Ottawa Catholic School Board as well as some other boards in Southern Ontario to determine exactly what to do.
In regards to how this technology is utilized in each classroom depends on how individual educators roll it out; some are big advocates for AI while others not so much.
RCDSB’s Scott Nichol said the board ran an internal survey to see what teachers think, and there were mixed results.
Despite concerns, Nichol said it is key to ensure educators are comfortable and knowledgeable with the technology for an effective education plan.
However, the boards and the teachers have been left to their own devices to enforce these regulations because as of writing, Ontario’s Ministry of Education has not put out any mandate regarding artificial intelligence in the classroom.
myFM reached out to the ministry to gain some clarification.
Emma Testani, the press secretary for the Minister of Education, Paul Calandra, said they recognize that the technology has made landfall in Ontario classrooms.
“The Minister recognizes both the opportunities and challenges AI presents and is exploring ways to support Ontario’s education system through responsible use, stronger digital literacy, and other key considerations,” Testani said in an email statement.
When myFM asked to specify on what those key considerations were, there was no response.
(Written by Mik Horvath)
