Manitoba school division takes cautious approach to AI

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This article was published 24/02/2025 (206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Teachers in the Louis Riel School Division have drafted guidelines to leverage and regulate artificial intelligence in their classrooms.

“Instead of trying to ignore this society-changing technology that’s integrating into everything at lightning speed, as a team we decided to not shy away,” said Matt Stelmack, a Grade 9 teacher at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate.

“If we don’t get ahead of it, our students are going to use it and use it improperly.”

Stelmack often uses chatbots — software applications or web interfaces designed to have textual or spoken conversations — to reduce mundane and time-intensive tasks, such as rewriting texts to be at various levels so all of his students can participate, regardless of their comprehension skills.

He is one of 42 high school teachers who participated in weekly meetings last winter to discuss how AI was changing their teaching methods and assessment practices.

The group’s consensus? AI can be used to personalize student lessons and save time, but teachers have to be co-learners with their students because the tech is ever-changing.

The emergence of “generative tech” — AI that can create content in multiple forms — has allowed Stelmack to provide “on the fly feedback” with quick turnaround replies to student submissions. He said it has also forced him to rethink online homework and assign students handwritten projects to deter AI-related shortcuts.

The November 2022 release of ChatGPT immediately raised concerns among teachers that it could replace their jobs and tempt students to cheat by simply inserting a prompt and clicking a button.

As the platform grew in popularity and other tools appeared online, including Google Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, Melissa Burns began researching the emerging technology’s potential and pitfalls for LRSD.

Within a year, the instructional support teacher was planning “AI cohorts” to hear teachers’ concerns and policy proposals for positive use in local public schools. Educator groups met weekly last year, between February and June.

Burns said she is realistic about her students’ screen-time habits and the fact that they are typically interacting with tech through a “passive lens” at home.

Her hope is that bringing AI into the classroom allows for critical reflections and “uncomfortable conversations around the impact of technology on society, on our planet, etc.,” she said.

Burns and her boss updated school trustees and administrators on their AI-related research at a recent board meeting.

During their presentation, information systems director Clarke Hagan spoke about AI being the latest “major disrupter” in education, arriving long after calculators and computers.

“We’re going to proceed slowly and carefully,” Hagan said.

The manager recalled a society-wide debate over blocking AI in schools when ChatGPT was invented and Supt. Christian Michalik’s “right answer” — the division did not keep students from it.

“This is not something we can hide from and, so, whatever is going to come our way, the only way through it is education,” Hagan, who likens AI to “a helpful assistant with a very smart brain,” told the meeting.

LRSD has invited Katina Papulkas, a Pickering, Ont.-based education strategist at Dell Technologies, to run a professional development session for staff in the spring.

» Winnipeg Free Press

Papulkas is expected to discuss different entry points for teachers to use chatbots and the importance of writing clear and informed prompts so tools generate useful answers.

As division leaders make sense of the new technology, Michalik said issues including academic integrity, equitable access to AI tools and the prospect of using it to better personalize lessons are all top of mind.

“We have to concern ourselves with privacy, because what makes AI work, of course, is data,” he said, noting that users must also be wary of algorithm bias.

Formal guidance for AI use in LRSD classrooms, including necessary safeguards for students and staff, is on track to be finalized before the end of the school year.

The Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders created an informational poster for teachers shortly after ChatGPT was released.

The group urged educators to explore AI tools while prioritizing “actual intelligence” before using them. MAETL endorses reviewing a program’s terms of service and privacy policy and respecting others’ intellectual property.

» Winnipeg Free Press