A New AI Policy At ROCORI Schools Aims To Guide Teachers And Students

COLD SPRING (WJON News) -- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting used more and more in everyday life. One area school district is laying down guidelines for AI use for students, teachers, and staff. ROCORI Area Schools is in the process of adopting a policy for using AI.

The policy aims to establish clear and actionable rules for responsible, ethical, and transparent use. Superintendent Kevin Enerson says everybody had a hand in developing the policy:

"We had students at the table, we had teachers, we had parents, we also had, of course, administrators and school board members that were talking about this policy. It was developed by the Minnesota School Board Association. They have model policies, and so we kind of refine and make it work for what our district needs."

Enerson says the policy is really about how to use AI to learn and be more efficient, not to cut corners.

He says it's just like when calculators and computers were new; schools need to adapt to technology:

"Times change, and in education we need to look at how we use these tools. Sometimes they should be prohibited, but other times we can use them responsibly in our classrooms and in learning. Every school's going through this. We're learning about this new tool that there is out there and how we help kids use it in the right way."

Enerson says the policy outlines what everyone can and can't do and how to use AI. ROCORI aims to have the policy in place by the time the school year starts and will review it every two years.