What Do We Counsel About AI?
By Robin Finley, Ed.D. | September 2023
So, school counselors, I’m thinking you have heard at least a little about artificial intelligence (AI) at this point in the school year; some of you have likely been involved in a counseling issue concerning AI. What will your school do about AI? What are classroom teachers doing about AI? Are we planning a complete ban? Or are we going to allow it in our classrooms? Or are we just going to see what happens and roll with it? What is your role as a school counselor when approached with the topic?
Components of AI can take us down a good or bad path. If you attended the ArSCA Summer Conference session I gave on AI, you saw some great ways educators could save time with AI tools. But when we talk about student use, we have to look at the privacy laws that govern the use of whatever AI app we are using. Then, if the app is allowable for students, what are the cautions that need to be communicated to the student? Those of you who have been in education for a while will remember that we educators really struggled initially with allowing students to use the internet. We had great angst about whether or not the internet would be safe for students and how to teach them to use the internet responsibly. We are still striving to teach this responsibility. In fact, isn’t what we do in counseling students helping them look at the good and bad of situations and make decisions to act appropriately? School counselors have been the continued presence in teaching students how to look at the pros and cons of situations.
As you help educators and students decide on the pros and cons of AI, it is important that you have resources to help you learn about AI. You can visit our TeachingTIME AI Resources page at any time to find needed information. If you haven’t encountered any AI concerns yet, just hold on because you will, and I know how awesome our Arkansas counselors are. You will be ready for the challenge.
Contact Robin Finley, Ed.D., a founder of TeachingTIME, at info@tasseltime.com.
Components of AI can take us down a good or bad path. If you attended the ArSCA Summer Conference session I gave on AI, you saw some great ways educators could save time with AI tools. But when we talk about student use, we have to look at the privacy laws that govern the use of whatever AI app we are using. Then, if the app is allowable for students, what are the cautions that need to be communicated to the student? Those of you who have been in education for a while will remember that we educators really struggled initially with allowing students to use the internet. We had great angst about whether or not the internet would be safe for students and how to teach them to use the internet responsibly. We are still striving to teach this responsibility. In fact, isn’t what we do in counseling students helping them look at the good and bad of situations and make decisions to act appropriately? School counselors have been the continued presence in teaching students how to look at the pros and cons of situations.
As you help educators and students decide on the pros and cons of AI, it is important that you have resources to help you learn about AI. You can visit our TeachingTIME AI Resources page at any time to find needed information. If you haven’t encountered any AI concerns yet, just hold on because you will, and I know how awesome our Arkansas counselors are. You will be ready for the challenge.
Contact Robin Finley, Ed.D., a founder of TeachingTIME, at info@tasseltime.com.