- Artificial intelligence.

A few years ago, little more than a futuristic vision.

Today, a technology and a tool that's rapidly becoming part of every aspect of our lives, including in our public school classrooms.

- If we're not teaching students how to think with AI, they're gonna let AI think for them.

- Taraneh Karim plays a key role in bringing AI into the classroom at Torrance Unified.

An effort the district began in the 2023-24 school year.

As an educational technology teacher, she helps develop model lessons for students from elementary to high school and holds sessions for teachers, showing them how to use AI responsibly and ethically.

- Torrance Unified is definitely leading the path when it comes to innovation.

With regard to integrating technology into the classroom.

One of the sometimes is just going a little bit too fast and doing too much too quickly.

So we wanted to create the policies and guidelines before actually bringing AI into the classroom.

- Classrooms in Torrance Unified use School AI, an educational platform where teachers can generate learning materials and create spaces for students to chat with an AI assistant.

- We're gonna read and annotate that article, making sure that we understand what's happening.

Then we're gonna jump into our AI conversation.

- Today at North High School, students in Miss Tibbils junior English class are using the chat bot to prepare for standardized tests in the spring.

- With AI, we're trying to find ways to use it to enhance learning.

It's not about just using a tool because it's available.

If we have a skill we wanna work on, like say we wanna work on synthesis or analysis, we're trying to find ways to incorporate AI to help students get at that skill specifically.

- This time it's gonna give you multiple choice questions.

You have 10 multiple choice questions and what we're gonna do is you're gonna give it an option, then it's gonna tell you whether the question's right or wrong.

- The chatbot grades students' responses with answer keys and rubrics provided by the teacher.

The goal is to help each student's interaction with the bot feel more personalized.

- You're gonna type your response, AI's gonna read it, it's gonna grade it based on the rubrics that we use all the time.

It individualizes the instruction for them because it meets the student where they're at.

So if students who are maybe more high achieving or a little bit more engaged in the process, it's gonna push them where they are.

And then those who need that extra support, it's gonna come alongside them and modify the conversation.

- So if there was a consistent pattern of all the students not understanding the concept of rhetoric or persuasive language, AI can focus in on that and give support as needed for students based off of how they demonstrate their understanding.

- I think the chat box that we use in English is very, extremely helpful, especially for studying, practicing for a test.

I think it's fun.

We can all move at our own pace.

- With all this knowledge at their fingertips, many educators remain concerned about students using AI to cheat or plagiarize.

A Pew research study found that a quarter of us teachers say that AI does more harm than good.

Some school districts in California have blocked access to AI on school issued laptops altogether.

Torrance Unified is taking a different approach.

- We've got to model our expectations as educators and show students to use AI as something that can help them, but not do everything for them.

Asking AI to do something for you or prompting AI is a specific skillset.

You have to be intentional, you have to be mindful, you have to think about what your intended outcome is going to be.

And if things don't go right, what do you do?

And so for students, it's maybe asking, I wrote this paper but I need some specific feedback.

Is my thesis statement strong enough?

Do I have a persuasive enough argument?

Those are specific questions that when you ask AI, you've got to use your brain in order to get the output that you want.

- And despite its wealth of knowledge, AI isn't perfect, - This is the glitchy part of today.

Even with the correct answers, sometimes it's telling you that that's not the correct answer and you're like, but I know that it is.

We had that glitch today where you could see students getting frustrated, but then they were then thinking more critically about their responses because they were going into the text.

They're nudging their neighbor going, Hey, wait a minute, I know this is the correct answer.

It says it right here in the text.

And I said, go ahead and push back on it a little bit.

And that's when, when they started engaging more in the conversation beyond what we had planned in the assignment, they started thinking harder.

- It's about progress, not perfection.

Trying to get to an arbitrary finish line doesn't necessarily exist when it comes to AI because we have to be really patient with progress.

And AI changes all the time.

- As AI continues to evolve, educators are looking at ways it can even foster connections beyond the screen.

- If we're able to use something like AI to produce lesson plans or assessment or even grade student handwritten essays for us, it frees up more time for us to be able to build a more welcoming and a more warm classroom environment.

It will never replace a teacher in a classroom 'cause you need that emotional connection.

There are just certain things that no matter how well-rounded a bot can be, it's just not gonna understand the human experience because it, it can't.

But there will be an environment of coexistence.

- More California schools will soon be incorporating artificial intelligence in their curriculum.

A new law signed by Governor Newsom directs a commission to include AI literacy in the curriculum and instructional materials starting in 2025.

This applies to math, science, and social science.

The bill also requires media literacy for those subjects and English.

The goal is to increase students' understanding of how artificial intelligence works and how to use it.

This means knowing its principles, concepts, and applications, as well as its limitations, implications and ethical considerations.