Brave new classroom: Catholic schools nationwide integrate AI into teaching plans

(OSV News) -- Reading, writing and arithmetic -- and AI.

The modern educational toolkit, of both teachers and students, now includes the use of artificial intelligence. Experts and teachers from coast-to-coast told OSV News AI is poised to transform Catholic education.

"In the Catholic school space, where we're at right now is trying to build AI literacy among our teachers, and our students, and our parents," shared Father Nate Wills, a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross and director of Higher-Powered Learning, an initiative of the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education.

Professional development for teachers -- introducing them to AI tools and their use -- is typically a critical first step.

"I think it's really important for teachers to know what's out there so that they both empower their students and transform their assessments," Wills said. "If a teacher was completely ignorant of the existence of calculators in the 1970s, that would just be silly, right?"

With that paradox firmly in mind, Higher-Powered Learning has hosted user-friendly seminars focusing on AI in the classroom; teacher training; AI policies and guidelines; and more. The initiative's website also features a wealth of resources and guidance.

Still, it can all perhaps seem a bit overwhelming. "This feels," Wills admitted, "like a quantum leap for a lot of people."

RAND Corporation announced in April, 2024, that as of fall 2023, 18% of K-12 teachers reported using AI for teaching and another 15% have tried AI at least once.

A place to start is the articulation of an AI policy -- whether for students, employees, or in the classroom. Higher-Powered Learning offers adaptable policy templates, but also helps dioceses tailor them to their own needs and strategy.

"One of the most important things about a document like this is, it's living," said Brad Snyder, associate superintendent of Educational Programs for Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Orange, California. "Because AI is doing nothing if not changing constantly. As a diocese, we've been meeting for about a year-and-a-half in committees to create a guidance document for our parishes also. So I think we've been trying to get ahead of the wave."

Snyder sees a parallel with another major technological shift -- the advent of the world wide web in the early 1990s.

"I would say it's almost akin to when we first started using the internet," he said. "When we searched for things before, you'd break out the card catalog, right? We don't do that anymore. And I think AI is going to propel us forward in a similar manner."

And rapidly, too.

"It's just taking off," Snyder said. "And the next couple years is going to be really transformational in what it can do -- and therefore, we have to be informed on how we're going to use it."

Educators are keenly aware that AI has the potential to be not just an asset, but a substitute -- the oft-heard suspicion that students will use it to generate an assignment instead of doing it themselves.

"One of the things we really try to work with -- with our teachers and our principals -- is you need to monitor, but you need to make sure you mentor," Snyder said. "We want to make sure we're supporting students using it correctly, and in a way that benefits them."

"Here's the issue: Students are going to use AI," he continued. "You might as well be able to show them how to use it in a manner that's going to support them, and not hurt them. I think that's critical."

Nor is AI meant to "replace" anything, Snyder said.

"Catholic education is what? It's a community, right? It's relationship building. It's the whole child," he emphasized. "Technology can't replace that -- and we don't want it to. But if it can help make me more effective, reach my students at their level more efficiently, and move them forward in their skill development -- that's the mentorship of using AI."

So what can AI do, for teachers and students?

"Like Pope Leo said, this is a sea change," declared Steve Tortorello, director of Partnerships and Special Projects for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Echoing Snyder, he added, "This is not a new app. This is not a new program. This is like when the internet came out -- that's the level of change that this is."

As to its potential, "I talk about how AI can be both the most supercharged teacher's assistant you could ever imagine," explained Tortorello, "and a thought partner, like the teacher across the hall."

He gave a practical example.

"Say you're working with seventh graders on picking out adjectives in a sentence. And you've already done the exercise in the book and you think, 'Wow, my kids need more practice.' Well, guess what," said Tortorello. "AI can make you more practice materials," -- and here Tortorello snapped his fingers -- "that quickly."

He added, "And it can make it on whatever topic your kids are interested in. Do they love Taylor Swift and Minecraft? Well, now you've just made 10 more practice sentences on Taylor Swift and Minecraft, and they're doing that while they're figuring out learning adjectives."

Not only are students more engaged -- teachers save time.

"If I was teaching seventh grade English -- which I've done before -- and I had to make that extra adjective worksheet, it might take me 45 minutes to come up with different ideas," Tortorello said. "Now, I can tell Chat GPT, 'Make me an adjective worksheet at this reading level' -- boom -- and it does it in 10 seconds."

Another example Tortorello cited is AI's ability to customize, or in educational terms "differentiate," student materials.

"If I'm teaching fifth grade Reading, and I know in my fifth grade class I've got 20 kids -- and 10 of them read at fifth grade level, and five read way above the fifth grade level, and five read below the fifth grade level -- I used to give them one article," he explained.

"And the quick kids would be done in five minutes. The average kids would take 10 minutes. The kids who struggle might take 20 minutes. They might not comprehend it. Well, now I can rerun that article at three different reading levels," Tortorello said. "Every kid can read it at the same time, at the level that best challenges them. This unlocks a ton of things I can do, as far as differentiations. And so to me, that's magic."

There's still a human element, however.

"You generate something with AI, you refine it with more questioning, and then you as the human edit it to make sure it's exactly what you want," he added. "And so now that supercharged teacher's assistant can help you save countless hours."

Those hours add up, and impact work-life balance.

"It's not only about efficiency," Tortorello said. "It's about preventing burnout for our teachers."

On July 8, OpenAI and Microsoft announced the bankrolling of new AI training for teachers. The American Federation of Teachers said it would use the $23 million -- including $500,000 from the A.I. start-up Anthropic -- to create a national training center.

At Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Assistant Principal Noreen Andrews -- who, among her other duties, coordinates the school's Advanced Placement courses -- remembers clearly when she realized AI was about to change her world.

In November 2023, Andrews said, a colleague entered her office to announce that AP College Board student exam essay questions would now be written by AI.

"And I'm like, 'Oh my God, you know, I'm an AP teacher," recalled Andrews. "Does everybody recognize what's happening? Do you see what's happening?" She wanted, Andrews said, "to make sure that we were all understanding what had come into our world, and what was never going to leave us."

Andrews quoted a now-favorite maxim: "'AI will not replace you. But people using AI will.'"

"We've talked about it amongst ourselves as educators -- and when I'm talking to parents and educating them about what we're doing with AI in education at our school, that's one of my first cards," she said. "It's mind-boggling, because we're at the beginning of this -- but yet it's moving so fast that we're well past the beginning."

Union Catholic took things step by step, explained Andrews, beginning with a robust program of teacher development.

"First it was the teachers -- then it was making sure that teachers were putting it in the hands of the students and helping them," she explained. "And now this year is very focused on AI literacy."

In January, Union Catholic High School secured the Responsible Artificial Intelligence in Learning (RAIL) endorsement through the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools -- a recognition of its commitment to promote responsible, ethical, and safe use of AI in education.

RAIL-certified schools are a select group.

"We're one of 46 schools in the world," Andrews proudly shared.

"We're not about making rules and trying to enforce rules to lock things down, but rather to teach our students how to be responsible with their devices; with AI; with the internet. That's our focus," Andrews said. "The most important thing we can do -- as teachers, as educators -- is to prepare our students to survive in this new world."