CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Artificial intelligence is becoming a new norm for classrooms across the district.
The Director for Blended Learning for the Corpus Christi school district Cary Perales was excited to be at the districts 10th year of Tech 2 Teach, where teachers get a chance to learn from other teachers about what's working for them and what's not.
"We are always on the cusp for what is next," said Perales.
She said that they want to make use of the applications that the school district pays for.
"CCISD spends money on certain technology applications and we want to make sure we use our investments," she said.
Perales said its important teachers understand how to utilize all of the technology applications that are available to them, so they can feel confident about teaching those skills in the classroom. The newest to roll out this year is the integration of AI.
"We started last year, really researching how we were going to roll it out to teachers," Perales said.
According to Perales, they believe the use of AI or artificial intelligence has helped make teachers more productive.
"Save them time because that's something we all need. And then how to slowly introduce AI to students and make it appropriate," she said.
Instruction tech specialist with 20 years of experience with the district Denis Wisner said technology can be scary for some but they are now proud to be a 1-1 campus meaning every student has access to a device they can take home.
"Artificial intelligence is something we got ahold of right away, we saw the writing on the wall" Denis said.
According to Wisner, training up teachers will help to level the playing field when it comes to students who are already learning about it. He said they received positive feedback from teachers who plan on using it in their classrooms this year but there is guidelines that come along with it.
"Because even though teachers may be very excited you have some parents who are kind of in the unknown and we want to make sure that they are aware of how its being utilized in the classroom," Wisner said.
Two teachers from out of town in attendance at the conference who use AI in their classrooms already said the options for learning are endless.
"Whether its talking to someone who died 100 years ago and learning their perspective or generating images to match something you've already learned," educator Kristin Merill said.
For those who are still hesitant and believe that AI can be used for the wrong reasons...
"Be real, there's been Google out forever, there's been ways for kids to cheat for years. We need to teach kids how to use technology responsibly and that's why we are all here," educator Joe Merill said.