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Illinois educators are asking state lawmakers to create guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, as AI-powered tools are becoming a part of our daily lives.
State lawmakers have proposed two bills in the House and Senate that would create an advisory committee to create and distribute guidance on using artificial intelligence. Both bills — HB2503 and SB1556 — would require school districts to include how students, teachers, and districts are using artificial intelligence to the Illinois State Board of Education in their annual report on the use and policies of education technology.
A mandated unit of study for schools already includes teaching students internet safety. The current proposal in the General Assembly would ask schools to add information on how artificial intelligence is used to create and spread false information and images.
Rep. Laura Faver Dias, vice chair of the House’s Education Policy Committee and chief sponsor of the House proposal, said this legislation is important now because of how rapidly AI-powered tools are changing and emerging in classrooms.
“Our teachers are on the front lines and spend hours with our students every day,” said Faver Dias. “We need to equip them to be able to have those conversations and teach students how to use it responsibly and ethically and the same for administrators and teachers.”
Educators and advocates believe it is time for Illinois to put in guardrails around artificial intelligence as it becomes more a part of the classroom. Educators and students are already using AI-powered tools, but advocates want to ensure that those tools will protect students’ data and are ethical.
Twenty-five states have issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence to local schools, according to AI for Education — an organization that provides AI literacy training to education. Some of those states include Indiana, New Jersey, and Colorado.
Chicago Public Schools has created a guidebook for educators to use to help navigate generative AI.
Bill Curtin, policy director at Teacher Plus Illinois, who helped authored the bill, said there has been a lot of attention on students using AI tools to cheat, but the bills are more focused on how to support educators.
“We’re really focused on empowering teachers with the guardrails to know that experimenting is safe,” said Curtin. “Teachers will be able to innovate new ways of learning for students, and that’s where the focus of this bill is, and our intent is to unlock that potential for teachers.”
Joe Brewer, an educator and a fellow with Teacher Plus, testified during the House’s education policy committee last week about his experiences with AI in the classroom. Brewer said while teaching his students about a local poet named Edgar Lee Masters, he used an AI tool to help students to connect with the poet’s words.
“We used AI tools to reimagine the poems in modern teen slang, and suddenly the language clicked,” said Brewer. “Students began exploring deeper things, simulating interviews with the poet and making meaningful connections in their own lives.”
The proposal in the House passed the chamber’s education policy committee on Wednesday with a 9-4 vote. Faver Dias says she is still negotiating the details of the bills with the Illinois State board of Education and plans to bring an amendment back to committee before bringing the bill to the House floor.
Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.
