The Leon County School Board has approved a new artificial intelligence policy for students and faculty to follow as AI grows in popularity in the education sector.
Prior to the approval June 17, students did not have access to AI chatbots on school district networks or devices, but teachers have used AI for lesson planning.
With the green light from the board, district staff can now explore software options for implementation and to train teachers ahead of the start of the 2025-26 school year.
Accompanying the new rule is a companion policy to ensure students don’t use the technology to cheat. An academic honesty policy lays out ethical uses of AI and consequences for any violations. The policy makes clear to students that cheating and harassment are direct violations and consequences can be as severe as expulsion.
The academic honesty policy safeguard prohibits cheating in any form, including using AI to “create content and then submitting the content as one’s own.”
AI usage in the district will only be used on “closed systems,” meaning the software won’t store any memories or “learn” from uploaded material. Most mainstream chatbots, like ChatGPT, retain information – a concern for the district when protecting student data.
Here are the identified authorized uses of AI:
- Research assistance to quickly and efficiently find information relevant to school assignments.
- Analyze large amounts of data for assignments.
- Translate languages in documents.
- Provide grammar and spelling corrections.
- Assistance for students with disabilities to understand materials
Source: https://www.tallahassee.com/
