Aspen School District board makes clear AI not to replace teachers

Artificial Intelligence will not replace teachers, but lesson plans will never be the same.

That’s according to the Aspen School Board’s April 23 meeting, as staff discussed how to continue to implement AI into their curriculum, over two years after the technology’s most recent popularization. 

“AI will never replace teachers,” Aspen School Board member Cassie Harrelson said. “… (I)t is to help us be better teachers and to help our kids get experiences they didn’t get before.”

The district currently uses various AI models for lesson planning and teaching aids, including Toddle AI, Khanmigo, and Google Gemini, according to Kimberly Zimmer, ASD instructional director of Learning and Innovation, who presented about the technology on Wednesday.

Though still recently implemented, the district has put the models to valuable use. Toddle AI, in particular, has been an asset to the school, as one of the only International Baccalaureate-oriented educational models in existence, which aligns with the district’s curriculum. For example, when lesson planning, Toddle will give suggestions to teachers about how to design an upcoming class.

“And so it understands the IB concepts and the IB teaching, which is unique to Toddle, right now,” Zimmer said.

The Toddle tutor function has also been a resource for students, as they can ask the model questions about a concept. Rather than give them an outright answer, the model will give them inquiry-based responses, prompting them to dig deeper into the topic, according to Zimmer.

She added that Toddle is a carbon-neutral company.

But with AI’s benefits comes a need to be cautious. 

“This whole idea of AI and schools, AI permeating our world, it’s running at the speed of light,” she said.

Zimmer advocated for a careful, human-driven approach to AI, saying the district must understand where AI models get data from and how the data has been validated to meet students’ diverse needs.

“AI has the potential to challenge systemic barriers in education, but if not designed carefully, it will simply automate and reinforce existing inequities,” she wrote in the presentation. 

She said it’s important for the district to understand if the model they use will keep district data private. It should pay attention to the motivation behind the companies running the models they use. 

“If a company has financial ties to standardized testing providers, private education firms, or organizations with a stake in education policy, their AI may be designed to align with those interests,” Zimmer wrote.

All of the models the district currently uses, however, keep its data private, she noted.

The district should also be cautious of the extent to which AI helps write lesson plans, complete assignments, and grade assignments. 

“It becomes this vicious cycle of inauthentic brain power, inauthentic work, and we really want to be careful with that, I think, as a society,” she said. 

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.