Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Artificial Intelligence topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
ACPS outlines AI guardrails and classroom guidance, adopts Google Gemini as district tool
Summary
District technology staff presented ACPS’ AI policy framework, an AI syllabus statement and a four-level student usage scale; presenters emphasized data protection, recommended Google Gemini under the district enterprise contract, and demonstrated prompting best practices for teachers and administrators.
Albemarle County Public Schools technology staff and learning technology integrators presented a work session on artificial intelligence that combined a policy overview, instructional guidance and hands‑on prompting advice for school leaders.
Clay Todd, assistant director for technology integration, framed technology in schools as a tool that can accelerate or hinder learning and described the EdTech triangle (transformative/supportive/restrictive/disruptive) used to evaluate instructional technology.
Monica Kabarkas, the secondary English language arts coordinator, outlined a student syllabus statement and a four‑level usage scale for AI: (1) no AI, (2) AI for planning (brainstorming, citations), (3) AI collaboration (editing, data analysis), and (4) full AI (open creation). She said the default is no AI unless a teacher specifies permitted uses and asked students to cite the platform and describe how they used outputs.
Presenters emphasized four guardrails: existing ACPS policies continue to apply to AI; protect student data and avoid tools that harvest PII; anonymize or pseudonymize data before processing; and rely on approved district tools. They identified Google Gemini as the division‑adopted AI tool because the district’s enterprise Google contract includes data protections that keep the district in control of its data. "We own our data," a presenter said, explaining the rationale for an approved, enterprise tool.
Staff also introduced practical prompting guidance for staff (the "3 P's": perspective, purpose, parameters), showed classroom examples (student broadcasts, VR experiences, Arduino projects) and highlighted implementation supports: 13–14 LTIs deployed across schools to provide in‑building support, a digital citizenship curriculum, Lightspeed classroom management for monitoring student screens, and plans to revise resources annually as AI evolves.
Presenters said they are collecting more feedback from students, staff and families and will refine the tool list and curriculum in the coming months; they warned that some pending legislation could affect future availability or curriculum requirements.
