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ETHS instructional-technology team outlines AI training, privacy safeguards and a forthcoming playbook
Summary
District instructional-technology staff described teacher professional development, partnerships (including a PlayLab grant) and student AI literacy work; staff said the district favors Google Gemini for students under district accounts because of privacy and compliance assurances and plans a staff/family one-page playbook by year-end.
District instructional-technology director David Chan introduced a three-part presentation on artificial intelligence in classrooms: the district's phased PD and teacher-coaching approach, experiments with classroom uses and a proposed "playbook" of classroom guidance for staff, students and families.
Chan said ETHS launched an AI Innovators group and ran summer and semester workshops to help roughly 40 teachers explore pedagogical uses of AI (assessment creation, differentiated instruction, rubrics and formative work). He described partnerships and pilots with an education-focused nonprofit called PlayLab and said the district obtained a grant from Amazon to support classroom-facing AI projects. Chan and team members emphasized teacher-driven design: tools would be considered only if they met classroom needs.
On safety and privacy, staff told the board the district is promoting Google Gemini for student use because, under the district's Google Workspace for Education agreements, student data used with Gemini "is not used for model training" and Gemini's integrated features are described as aligned with COPPA, FERPA and other student-data protections. The technology team noted that other public models lack the same contractual assurances and that Gemini’s education integration offers additional guardrails for under-18 accounts.
Instructional-technology staff also outlined classroom practices to address academic integrity and critical thinking: using Google Docs revision history, Google Classroom originality reports, locked Google Forms for summative work, monitoring tools (DelaDow) for in-class screens, design of assessments that are "less AI able," and metacognitive activities (students document how they used AI and why they accepted or rejected suggestions). The team said freshmen are currently receiving a common AI-literacy experience and that the playbook and a short classroom "one-pager" are planned for broader rollout in coordination with forthcoming state guidance.
Students and board members asked about student engagement and ethics; staff described pilots with student ambassadors and Girls Who Code to surface student perspectives and to train small bots with student-provided Q&A so students can critique AI behavior. The district said it will continue to evaluate tools and communication strategies as the state issues guidance.
