Summary: Developing AI Ethics Guidelines for K-12 Teachers and Librarians

Introduction

California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) has developed AI ethics guidelines to support K-12 teachers and librarians navigate the complexities of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. With AI's growing role in content creation, assessment, and personalized learning, these guidelines emphasize ethical literacy's importance in addressing challenges like misinformation, privacy concerns, and bias. This summary outlines the key points from a presentation discussing these guidelines' rationale, development, and application.

The Importance of AI Ethics in Education

AI's transformative potential in education comes with significant risks. While it can streamline content development, improve assessments, and foster creativity, it also raises ethical concerns, including:

Misinformation: Generative AI can produce inaccurate or misleading content.
Privacy Risks: Data collection processes often compromise user privacy.
Bias and Fairness: AI algorithms may reflect societal biases.
Accountability: Determining responsibility for AI-generated outcomes is challenging.

These risks highlight the need for educators and librarians to be equipped with tools and strategies for using AI responsibly while teaching students ethical AI practices.

The Development of AI Ethics Guidelines

CSULB's College of Education formed a technology committee and a specialized subcommittee to address AI ethics. The interdisciplinary team included representatives from teacher education, instructional design, and school librarian programs. Their goal was to create actionable guidelines for:

Pre-service Teachers and Librarians: To prepare them for ethical AI use in classrooms.
College Faculty: To establish AI policies and procedures for instructional purposes.

The guidelines were informed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) framework and included topics such as bias, privacy, copyright, digital citizenship, and societal impacts of AI.

Core Components of the Guidelines

The guidelines focus on the following areas:
Ethical Foundations:
Emphasizing transparency, accountability, and fairness in AI use.
Encouraging educators to model ethical AI practices.

Practical Applications:

Identifying unethical practices, including plagiarism and misinformation.
Offering strategies for counteracting unethical AI use in classrooms.

Contextual Considerations:

Adapting AI use based on subject matter, student learning outcomes, and educational stages.
Addressing unique challenges for linguistically diverse students and varying instructional goals.

Resources for Educators:

Providing tools and templates to integrate ethical AI into teaching practices.
Sharing instructional materials on critical thinking and digital literacy.

Role of Librarians in Promoting AI Ethics

Librarians are positioned as essential advocates for ethical AI use. Their responsibilities include:

Resource Curation: Identifying and recommending ethically viable AI tools for school communities.
Instructional Collaboration: Supporting teachers in designing lessons that incorporate ethical AI practices.
Student Engagement: Guiding students in ethical research practices, including prompt engineering and source evaluation.
Professional Development: Educating administrators, parents, and teachers on AI's ethical implications.

Research and Learning Considerations

The guidelines align AI ethics with established research practices, emphasizing:

Search Strategies and Prompt Engineering: Ensuring ethical phrasing and reducing biases.
Source Evaluation: Verifying the accuracy and validity of AI-generated content.
Transparency: Encouraging students to document their AI use and reflect on its impact.

These practices aim to cultivate educators' and students' critical thinking skills and ethical awareness.