FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
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Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
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Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. We're talking with Dr. Matt McKinley, um, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Instruction, which would be grades 7-12, and Sean VanScoyoc, Information Technology Director for Seneca Valley. Thanks for joining us, both of you.
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Matt McKinley: Thank you. Good morning. Thanks for having me.
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Jeff Krakoff: We have a fun topic. AI, artificial intelligence. I think everybody's talking about it. And in almost every walk of life. You know, it's got some some positive and negative. It's great for creating things, for finding information. But if I can, Sean, let's define, you know, what's your definition of artificial intelligence?
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Sean VanScoyoc: I'm going to go old school. It's, um, from Merriam-Webster dictionary, the branch of computer science. And essentially it's the capability of a machine to imitate human behavior. So in general, that's how I would define artificial intelligence.
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Jeff Krakoff: So just to get the terminology right, so we've got AI. We've been hearing a lot of generative AI. What is that. And how is that different spin than I guess normal AI.
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Sean VanScoyoc: Yeah. So um, so normal AI, just to give you a couple examples of that because I think, you know, generative AI just like - there's just a bit of AI boom, like, you know, from 2023 ever since ChatGPT came out. But I think some people would, would find it interesting that AI has really been around since like the 50s. Um, there is a lot of foundational work done in the 50s and some examples, like there was a famous computer scientist named Alan Turing, and he came out with an AI test, um, to basically determine, you know, if, uh, something met the requirement, you know, constituted AI. Um, there were AI checkers. There's, you know, in the 70s, you had autopilot on airplanes. Um, we had Deep Blue beat, the best chess player in the world in the 90s. We have Tesla driving cars in 2010s. Uh ChatGPT came out, and, uh, I just read recently that the Air Force just staged dogfights with AI flown fighter jets. So it's pretty amazing.
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Jeff Krakoff: It's incredible. I never would have thought it had roots in the 50s, but yeah, when you explain those examples, makes perfect sense. So let's talk about schools. Um, how has AI generative AI made its way into the schools and what are you seeing?
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Sean VanScoyoc: Uh, I think it's coming to the schools a couple ways. Uh, one is is through new products. Um, and another way is through existing products. So I'll give you an example of that. We're using Zoom right now for this call. Uh, Zoom added eye features to the product, and you could be or you could use Zoom to record a meeting - it would, it would, uh, transcribe it. It would turn everything in the meeting notes. Uh, you could run AI against it. So if you had other people join the call, they could ask questions about the meeting, and the AI would answer the questions of all the meetings occurring in real time. Uh, so there's one quick example. Um, we provided a pilot or a, um, product called copilot to our teachers, and, uh, it's generative AI. And, um, you can ask it prompts and I'll give you an example of that, like, um, you could say, give me a second or, you know, wright a second grade lesson, uh, make it about rockets and math, uh, incorporate technology into that lesson, and, um, let's keep it, like 30 minutes. So it's like having a conversation, and it's just amazing. It'll it'll spit and then you could even say, you know, differentiate this lesson or, you know, our students have 1 to 1 laptops. Um, you know, differentiate the lesson for a kid with this hearing impaired or visually impaired and, uh, you know, it'll make modifications to it. There's a lot of things that, that it can do. I mean, it's really pretty amazing and pretty exciting and just some of the other ways that it can be used in education, like, um, AI tutoring, AI assistant, you can write draft emails. Um, you could describe a picture and it could draw a picture for you. Um, so those are some of some other examples of like how generative AI can be used. Um, and I don't think I define generative AI, but basically it's the ability to create images, audio, video, text based on prompts.
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Jeff Krakoff: So you mentioned you can use it in curriculum development. You can use it. I'm sure students are using it quite a bit. Um, on assignments and things like that. We can talk about that a little bit later. But Dr. McKinley, so how long have students at Seneca Valley, you know, and are they already studying AI and learning about AI? And I'm sure this is evolving so quickly. Talk to us about some of the plans for the future.
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Matt McKinley: It is. And, you know, it's we're taking it from different angles. And like you said later we may talk about, um, how they're using it, but, you know, how are they learning it right now? We have, uh, K-12 been working on digital citizenship lessons, and, um, AI is definitely going to be a part of that. And as soon as next year, we've been also working on creating a curriculum for eighth graders. And it's not the whole course isn't going to be about AI, but it will be incorporated into a course that every eighth grader is going to take, um, for a semester. And, and so that, uh, that's exciting for us and our teachers-some of our teachers - many of our teachers are excited to go that direction and, and begin to teach, um, AI to our students.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Let's let's focus on teachers a little bit more. What what are the I'm sure there's a lot of professional development and education of educators with AI. Talk about what's happening at Seneca Valley.
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Matt McKinley: So we've had some building by building to date. And, um, we are in the midst of planning this upcoming year. And, and one of the things Mr. VanScoyoc and his team offer, we call it a summer academy. And there's always a technology component to that. So this year we're definitely going to be adding some AI, um, review and uh, just how how teachers can use it for themselves, for their students, even for their personal use. And, um, also, we've been talking about professional development days for the upcoming school year, and we are setting aside some time for that as well. Um, so today we're in the midst of planning, um, you know, what we're going to be offering, uh, in the near future for teachers.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay, so either one of you can answer this one, but, you know, AI's not going anywhere. It's just going to develop further and further. You know, so in your opinion, I can't think of any field that won't be impacted. You know, if a student goes into a trade, they go into a profession. Um, this is really a must for today, right? And it's important to get ahead of this and stay stay with it, right?
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Sean VanScoyoc: Uh, absolutely. And, uh, I mean, Dr. McKinley was talking about, like, some of the, uh, the upcoming school year. AI literacy and knowing what AI is and knowing how you can use it and knowing how it can benefit you. And, you know, your, your future. Um, we're going to begin teaching that to students next school year.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So it's like any other technology, there's there's good and bad, right? Um, we're seeing that just on the web and social media. So with AI let's talk I won't say the darker side, but, you know, there's so much information and so much that AI can do for educators and students. But there is an ethical, you know, are people using it ethically or are they using it with integrity? Um, does the district have any guidelines in place as far as that's concerned?
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Sean VanScoyoc: Well, we're in the process of creating those and we've put some guidance out to the staff already. Some of the big things, like not to put, um, confidential information into AI prompts to be able to keep, you know, student information or staff information private. Um, we really have a lot of different things going on right now. Um, we know everything's changing really quick and that, you know, it's one of the challenges as well. Um, we did put together core principles for AI, and that will be shared out in professional development. And just to touch on a few of those, um, like, guiding principles. Um, so I'll just go through a couple. Um, we use AI to help all students achieve their educational goals. But we reaffirm adherence to existing policies and regulations. We educate our staff and students about AI. We explore the opportunities of AI and address the risks. We use AI to advance academic integrity. We maintain human decision making when using AI. And we commit to monitoring and evaluating our school's use of AI. So those principles are going to guide everything that we do in this area to prepare kids for their future.
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Matt McKinley: Now I would just I would just add to that. And he mentioned it a little bit that, um, we've been working on policies and we are going to be presenting four different policies to the school board here in June, at the upcoming June meetings, and then for their review and also solicitor review, um, and hopefully finalizing those in August. So we're prepared for the upcoming year. Um. Three of those, well, I'm sorry, two out of the four are existing policy and how AI is affecting existing policy and then two will be new as well.
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Sean VanScoyoc: I would mention, um, we did put guidance out to the staff. Our Superintendent had sent information out to the staff, and I had sent information out as well. Uh, we did provide the staff with a with a generative AI tool that ensures some privacy and data protection. Um. Trying to think of the things that we have done. We've been we've been preparing our educational environment for AI and our technological environment for AI. I mean, we even put supports and stuff in place where we can, um. Block a program from getting installed, for example.
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Jeff Krakoff: Oh, interesting. Interesting. So, Dr. McKinley, like, as with any school district, you've got students, different backgrounds, different levels of ability. Um, what's being done to ensure that every student at Seneca Valley has access to AI and can benefit from AI in education?
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Matt McKinley: Yeah. Thank you for asking that. The equity is always at the forefront of what we're trying to do with our students. And as we make decisions as a school district and, with Mr. VanScoyoc's team, you know, we've been able and he's already mentioned offering 1 to 1 capability with the laptops for students and even some students who may not have internet access at home that we've been, uh, we've been able to get them that access. So, um. That's always at the forefront. And, you know, we're trying to get the training to every student as well. And I mentioned earlier digital citizenship training, and we even found this year there were a couple holes in what we were trying to do. We were trying to reach the masses, but there were certain specific groups we weren't reaching. So we've corrected that. And, and um, just trying to reach out to every student. Um, and you mentioned it earlier also, Jeff that AI is just another piece of technology. And the way we treat technology is it's a resource. It's a resource for our students, for our staff, uh, to hopefully aid in the learning aid and the teaching and the work we do. So, um, but we want to make sure everybody has that access to it.
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Jeff Krakoff: That's awesome. So I know anytime there's new technology. Sean as you know, IT Director, I guess two concerns are always privacy and security. There's going to be a lot of data. There's going to be a lot of student data out there. How do you ensure that, you know you're keeping things private and secure?
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Sean VanScoyoc: Absolutely. And, uh, it's an ongoing process to do that. Um, and some of the strategies or some of the things that you do or can do, uh, you can evaluate the products, make sure that there's privacy or security assurances with the product, you know, what's the product doing with your data? Like what's your your, um, end user license agreement? Are they going to advertise or are they going to sell your data? So I mean, there's you have to make sure for every product that you're using that that's not occurring or you don't use that product, um, you provide ongoing education to your staff and students. Um, you know, don't put personal, personal, identifiable information into prompts. For example, um, you limit the amount of student data that the products have access to and what you're, what data you're sharing with it. You're blocking products that you don't want to use. You're blocking websites and stuff that that you know you don't that aren't safe, right? You have you just have an ongoing focus on security. And, you know, with with AI, I mean, adding to that, you're going to be reviewing the use of AI on going as well.
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Jeff Krakoff: I imagine, you know, again, you've already got some AI education taking place. But as you keep implementing, you know, for K-12, what are some of the biggest challenges that you see and how are you going to handle those?
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Sean VanScoyoc: Well, I think there's several. Um, and we also feel that the educational benefits, you know, are far gonna outweigh the challenges. And we'll work our way through challenges. Um, but some of them, um, teacher training, I mean, that's that's that's big. It's time. I mean, time is limited in school systems. Uh, and it's hard to to find time to do one more thing. Um, but we, you know, we're going to be doing professional development with all of the staff, like at the schools. Um, teaching students AI literacy, developing the curriculum. Making it age appropriate for the kids at the different grade levels, uh, assessing their understanding, um, you know, teaching them about awareness and misinformation and bias that can exist in or not awareness, uh, misinformation and bias. It can exist and I. Uh, Matt, Dr. McKinlay touched on, you know, providing equitable access to technology. We're fortunate at Seneca that we can do that. We already have those pieces in place that makes it easier. Every kid has a laptop. We have the same technology in every one of our schools. Other challenges include like, uh, ethical implications and biases. But in the models, the AI models that people are using and teaching people an awareness about that. Yeah. Um, working our way through and our teachers working their way through their classrooms and, and what their like classroom rules are going to be for AI and understanding it themselves. Um, and working with their kids and areas of academic integrity or cheating and so forth. Uh, there's a lot of there's a lot of challenges, even budgeting for new AI products, uh, there's a lot.
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Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, I, I imagine so. I guess bottom line, you know, Dr. McKinley, we know this is going to be good. We know it's where the world is going, is using AI. But you know, what are the main benefits and opportunities you see for Seneca Valley students? By learning more about AI and how it can be used and the power of AI.
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Matt McKinley: It's funny because I kind of I kind of liken this to, um, student use of cell phones and, and I know that can be a controversial item. And, and we did take steps this year with cell phones and that technology. But I think our role is how to teach them to use it appropriately in what situations to use it appropriately. One idea we've shared with teachers, and I think some are using it is a is a green light, yellow light red light system. And it's a simple communication with their students on this assignment. It's a red light. That means there will be no use of AI on this other assignment. It's a yellow. And so you can use it for this portion of the assignment, but not the whole project or not the whole assignment. And then green. It's wide open. You can use it throughout in whatever you do. Um, you know, Mr. VanScoyoc was talking about the challenges, and I do think curriculum development is a big one, but I would also add that with teachers, their assignments need to change. Because you know the simple answer to this question. Students can just put that. And they've been able to do that with Google as well. And Google the answer now they can they can AI the answer. And um, so there need to be multiple dimensions to assessments that teachers do. And that's why we have a big movement towards student centered assignments and and work and, um. Really giving students agency and what they do so they're interested in it. But we feel like the AI can be a tool that can assist them in their learning, but not do the learning or give the answers for them.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So what what's the famous adage? Um. Change is the only constant in life. That's certainly the case with technology and AI. So either one of you, is there anything additionally you'd like to share with listeners about what's happening at the Seneca Valley School District in terms of artificial intelligence?
00:18:52:04 - 00:19:32:09
Matt McKinley: I'd just like to add that I'm I'm proud of the team and our effort to date. There's a long way to go. Uh, but but, uh, Mr. VanScoyoc going his team have been spending a lot of time and effort into researching and reading and reviewing and other podcasts listening. And, uh, we've gone to conferences, state and national conferences to to learn more about it. And just you're never ahead of it. But we're trying to be as close to it as we can. So, um, and I think that was part of Dr. Vitale's message to the teachers is that, you know, we're aware and we're working on it, and, and we'll be, um, incorporating more and more of it sooner than later.
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Sean VanScoyoc: I would agree. I'd just like to thank everybody that's been working together on all of this. It's, uh, certainly very, uh. I find it to be very exciting. And, uh, it's a very exciting time in education. And it'll be, uh, I think it'll be pretty amazing, like, you know, 10 years from now, like where things are at. Or maybe even 2 or 1. I was going to.
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Jeff Krakoff: Say, you can see with, uh, some capabilities they change in months at some point. So it was a great conversation. Thank you both for joining us again. This was Dr. Matt McKinley, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Instruction, and Sean VanScoyoc, Information Director. Thanks a lot, guys.
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Matt McKinley: Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Take care.
