A.I. making its way to the classroom

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- With the start of the school year just around the corner some schools in the area are taking steps to implement the use of A.I. technology in school.

ABC57 reached out to many schools across Michiana but were only able to speak with South Bend Academy Schools and the City of Mishawaka Schools. These schools are using A.I. technology both in students' lives as well as the teachers.

Mishawaka Schools will use an A.I. platform named Amira for reading comprehension. This site allows students to read out loud and receive feedback on reading skills and comprehension.

At the high school level students and teachers will use Google Gemini. The use of this technology is completely up to the teachers in Mishawaka Schools.

Alison Parr, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction, states, “Some of our teachers are steering clear and not really playing with it, but some are diving in full force.”

South Bend Career Academy has a different approach. At the start of this upcoming school year use of A.I. will be geared more towards teachers.

Candy Vanbuskirk, Super Intendent of Career Academy Schools says, “Our staff will learn how to use ai safely as well as how to embed it in education as well as their regular lives.”

Educators can use this technology for creating lesson plans, create quizzes, offer feedback on essays, and more.

Career Academy tells ABC57 they will soon roll out a pathway teaching A.I. to students so that when they graduate, they can pursue a career in this field. This district is the first to create a program like this in the state of Indiana.

This technology will not replace the need for human educators.

Parr states, “It's still mainly done by teachers. We still need that human aspect. A.I. is not taking over that piece of this.”

Both districts are still in their early stages of using A.I. in school but feel this is a necessary step to prepare students for the outside world.

Candy Vanbuskirk continued, “We want our students to be prepared for the world when they graduate and if we don't lean into A.I. and we don't provide this opportunity for our students they’re not going to be prepared for what already exists in that business world now.”