Dive Brief:
- Artificial intelligence use is becoming commonplace in K-12 schools: 68% of educators report using it at least occasionally, and 73% of parents say the same of their children, according to a survey released Tuesday by Instructure, an ed tech company.
- While educators and parents both had concerns about AI’s impact on learning, most also found at least one reason to be optimistic about the technology in K-12, Instructure said. Parents were the most likely to cite AI’s ability to improve accessibility for diverse student learning needs, while educators were more likely to point to AI’s ability to save time.
- Still, 33% of educators and 30% of parents said they favor restricting AI use, Instructure found. At the same time, respondents ranked teaching responsible AI use and developing AI literacy skills as the highest priorities in their expectations for schools.
Dive Insight:
Despite Instructure’s findings showing that parents and educators who support AI restrictions in schools are seemingly in the minority, calls for AI moratoriums in K-12 have proliferated as more state and district policies seek to curb ed tech use in classrooms.
Last week, Schools Beyond Screens, a national coalition that recently spearheaded the effort to reduce screen time for Los Angeles Unified School District students, called for an AI moratorium in all school districts.
The coalition made the demand a day after Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute released a risk assessment of Google’s AI overview and AI mode, which the report said “repeatedly missed signs of kids in crisis, gave inappropriate advice, and produced answers that were inaccurate and unreliable for young learners.”
The AI moratorium is necessary, Schools Beyond Screens said in a July 16 statement, because Google’s AI search tools are turned on by default for most district-issued devices nationwide, “exposing millions of children to known and lasting harms.” According to Schools Beyond Screens, there are no generative AI products that have demonstrated safe use for children.
Instructure also found in its recent survey that K-12 parents are highly concerned about the use of AI in schools when it comes to academic integrity and plagiarism (62%), loss of critical thinking and deep learning skills (61%) and student overreliance on the technology (59%).
Both parents and educators agree that it’s more acceptable for AI to support tasks like explaining concepts, brainstorming or digging up resources, Instructure said. On the flip side, they were less likely to back AI use for determining final grades or academic decisions.
Another challenge that K-12 experts have cited is the lack of strong professional development to guide teachers in properly and responsibly using AI. In Instructure’s survey findings, for example, 45% of educators said they had no AI training, 38% received some training, and 8% went through comprehensive training.
“The research makes one thing clear: people are not waiting to use AI. They are looking for practical guidance, clearer boundaries and support they can use now,” Instructure said.
Instructure recommends that school leaders launch efforts to teach AI literacy and responsible use, helping students, educators and parents learn to “use AI well, not simply restrict it.” Schools should also support educators with practical, ongoing professional learning on AI use, the company said.
Leaders should also set boundaries for the technology’s role in schools and build evidence over time to show AI’s impacts on teaching and learning.
Instructure’s sample of 1,125 people included K-12 and higher education educators, current or recent higher education students, and current parents of K-12 students surveyed between June 12-15. Instructure owns the K-12 and higher ed learning management system, Canvas.
