The Next Phase of AI in Education at the U.S. Department of Education
Why are we doing this work?
Over the past two years, the U.S. Department of Education has been committed to maintaining an ongoing conversation with educators, students, researchers, developers — and the educational community at large — related to the continuous progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and its implications for teaching and learning.
Many educators are seeking resources clarifying what AI is and how it will impact their work and their students. Similarly, developers of educational technology (“edtech”) products seek guidance on what guardrails exist that can support their efforts. After the release of our May 2023 report Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning, we heard the desire for more.
In October 2023, President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to ensure America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of AI. In response to the Executive Order, the U.S. Department of Education is committed to developing new resources, policies, and guidance regarding AI. We’re particularly focused on addressing safe, responsible, and accessible uses of AI in education.
To support the implementation of our report’s recommendations, we are developing two toolkits that will support educators and edtech developers with AI adoption and procurement decisions, designing AI systems to enhance trust and safety and align with privacy-related laws and regulations in the educational context, and developing education-specific guidelines and guardrails.
Toolkit for Educational Leaders
The Office of Educational Technology, with support from Digital Promise, is developing educational modules to support teachers and school staff, each of which builds upon one recommendation within our AI Report. These modules include resources and recommendations to guide educational leaders in making the report actionable in their unique context. For example: Leaders might have an activity which guides them to make commitments to put “humans in the loop” into practice in their local context, thus combining our first recommendation with a tangible way that their community can engage in the work of ensuring safe and responsible uses of AI in education. This toolkit is being co-designed, alongside various groups of educators from across the United States, following up on the listening and feedback sessions we’ve hosted over the past year.
Toolkit for Edtech Product Developers
Throughout 2023, we hosted multiple listening sessions with developers of various sizes and working on products across multiple stages of development, as well as industry associations and non-profit organizations, to hear their ideas for how the report’s seven recommendations could be translated into practical guidelines. We aim to produce a guidebook supporting developers with recommendations and resources regarding what they can do to build trust in the market, as well as questions they can ask as they develop products. For example: developers can build AI-enabled products from a strong base of existing scientific evidence about how students learn best. Hearing the thoughts from those actively working in the field has been essential for us to create guidance that actively supports the creation of safe, equitable, and effective products.
Stay tuned in coming months for the release of these toolkits! If you have any interest in contributing your thoughts and/or ideas, please email ed.tech@ed.gov with the subject “AI in Education”.
