Williamson County Schools officials discuss AI guidelines, plagiarism concerns

Williamson County Schools officials discussed new district guidelines governing the use of artificial intelligence programs at Thursday’s Board of Education work session.

According to a draft of the guidelines available on the board’s website, students and staff should only use AI programs that are approved by district leadership for instruction or completing student work. In addition, policy committee officials noted that IT staff will be tasked with overseeing the implementation and adoption of AI programs to ensure compliance with district policies, such as those relating to academic dishonesty. The guidelines also state that district employees shall not “place personally identifiable information, financial information, intellectual property or other confidential information into an AI system.”

The district’s moves to regulate AI use come shortly after lawmakers passed legislation in February requiring school districts to establish district policies governing AI use ahead of the 2024-25 school year.

David Allen, the district’s assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said professional development to train teachers on how to use AI effectively will play a critical role in adopting AI, as more and more educators look to adopt generative AI programs like ChatGPT to enhance instruction and lesson planning.

“That training is involving a lot of conversation so that we're listening to how our teachers want to use it,” he said. “There will be some teacher autonomy.”

Board member Jay Galbreath said he believes AI has its place in instruction and that students should be exposed to the emerging technology to learn how to use it ethically and responsibly. He said that while AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for studying and brainstorming, students must be reminded of the difference between those types of uses and “AI plagiarism.”

“We got to get ahead of this because it’s going to be a real problem,” he said.“

I like the fact that they are going to be encouraged to use it when it's appropriate because there are lots of great uses of [generative AI programs like ChatGPT],” he said. “You can also say, ‘Just write my paper for me.’”

According to board policy documents, the district's AI guidelines will be monitored and reviewed annually. The board is expected to continue discussions about decisions on AI guidelines at its next meeting on Aug. 19.