How is my school handling such a crucial and turbulent time of change?
This is the burning question on the mind of every student at Mid-Pacific as the school maneuvers its way through the ever changing landscape of Generative AI (GenAI).
Ever since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the steady rise of GenAI usage has been a point of great contention among the various voices of the media. Here at Mid-Pacific, it’s no different. Students, administrators, and teachers are all scrambling to get ahead of this emerging technology.
Let’s get this out of the way: AI is here at Mid-Pacific and it is here to stay. Students have already seen AI integrated into their curriculum. Educational speakers talk about AI and tech regularly. AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini are being used every day in the classroom. Much thought and care has already been put into how Mid-Pacific will use and teach AI responsibly and effectively.
“I think it was a simple decision for us … kids were going to use it,” Brian Grantham, the director of educational technology.
Grantham has been at the forefront of the push to integrate more AI and technology into the learning curriculums at Mid-Pacific.
“It's our responsibility to help teach them how to use it and so that was [our attitude] sort of from the very beginning,” Grantham said.
“One of the things that we're probably going to be doing is we're going to be scaling back the different levels of access. More than likely the (Chat) GPT app is going to be removed from the iPad at some point and we're only going to support Gemini because that's the Enterprise account and the data is protected,” Grantham said.
Data privacy is a great issue that highlights the unstable nature of the AI industry at the present moment. As the AI bubble grows there are and will be a lot of predatory companies and services looking to steal data from unsuspecting users, which is why Mid-Pacific provides its students with enterprise-level accounts–which protect user’s data security–for all of the AI services it provides.
“A lot of students don't really think when they use AI, about the data safety aspect of it. GPT is based on history, so now it’s tracking your history, of everything you put in there,” Grantham said.
Mid-Pacific has always been on the forefront of educational technology, notably being the first school to introduce Ipads as learning tools just 2 years after their debut on the market. Nowadays Mid-Pacific continues its forward thinking, hopeful attitude about technological advancements. At the forefront of this initiative is Jon Pennington. Pennington is a member of Mid-Pacific’s AI council and the resident educational technologist.
“I'm really excited. I'm energized by [AI] , by the capabilities, and so I'm in charge of a lot of the professional development, and I help people to use some of these tools,” Pennington said.
The AI council, made up of various administrators and representatives from corporations like Microsoft and NVIDIA, helps make big decisions involving the use of AI throughout the school, including use cases where it could help relieve some of the mundane and menial work that goes on behind the scenes in various administrative settings.
“I just put out a survey across like the directors of academic admissions and athletics and human resources to see what processes could be automated. What are their pain points? What could AI take care of? What are their wishes, and then, what's their comfort level, so that we can work across our school to implement AI in order to automate certain things,” Pennington said.
Administration is far from the only thing that Mid-Pacific is making advancements with regarding AI. Responsible education is of course, as a school, the number one priority
“We're collaborating right now with MPX social studies and English to create an AI literacy curriculum for all ninth graders. Starting next year there is going to be a mandatory four or five, five lessons that specifically focus on AI for information gathering, AI for analysis, AI for writing,” Pennington said.
As AI becomes more and more commonplace in professional and learning environments, Mid-Pacific will continue to educate its students on this new technology. This all may seem very far into the future, but in reality AI has already been implemented into some teachers' curriculums
“Mr. Darnell does highlight AI as like a tool and as something that we should not be afraid to use,” sophomore Emma Chang said.
AI is also used in language learning classes.
“AI in is my Spanish class…my teacher encouraged us to use chat GPT to generate some ideas, because he wanted very specific topics, So we were able to use chat GPT to generate some ideas, as well as plan out like an infographic,” sophomore Carter Yang said.
However AI is used in the future, whether it be for unintended schemes or for good causes, the path forward is not entirely clear. Students at Mid-Pacific, however, can be assured that the school is doing everything in its power to guide them towards a future that is bright.
“In the evolving landscape of AI, our measure of success will not only be technological advancement alone, but also the character, compassion, and wisdom with which we will shape the future,” said Elizabeth Cleary, Vice President of Academic Affairs.
