While some have banned artificial intelligence, a school in Kitchener, Ont. is embracing it.
One of the teachers at St. Mary’s High School, part of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB), has been spearheading the AI integration.
“I immediately looked at how I could use it in the classroom,” John Schneider Jr. explained. “The reality is, whether I’m assigning a project or using it in the classroom, students are using AI at home.”
Teachers at St. Mary’s say it can help students develop critical thinking skills by using it for research and to generate ideas.
Students, of course, have to show their work and the prompts they’ve asked the AI to ensure it’s not just doing the work for them.
“We’ve provided guidelines for both teachers and students and we have approved [Microsoft] Copilot as the approved GenAI that we can use in the classroom,” Schneider said.
Those guidelines are readily available on the board’s website and it breaks down safety, security and privacy considerations.
The use …