Responsible, Ethical, and Effective Acceptable Use GenAI and Emerging Technology Policies (Poster 6)

• In Event: Advancing Methods, Theories, and Conceptualizations of Infrastructuring in the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Objectives:
The increased use of GenAI has created the need for school districts to determine the implications of GenAI for students, educators, administrators, and families. District leaders also have to assess their ability to access, understand, and implement GenAI with consideration to their communities’ unique needs and contexts. The project focused on the responsible, ethical, and effective components of integrating generative AI in school districts' acceptable use policies. This was done in collaboration with ten school districts to co-design their policies and guidance documents. This poster will highlight takeaways from our process of developing sample and exemplar responsible use policies and sample language for GenAI and additional emerging technologies.

Theoretical Framework:
This project implemented a participatory approach by engaging diverse stakeholders democratically throughout the research process (Abma et al., 2019; Cvitanovic, et al., 2019). This allowed for the collective creation of new knowledge and produced actions and deliverables relevant to policy and guidance around GenAI in education (Abma, et al., 2019). The GenAI Working Group and its associated project was based on school district leaders’ interest in the challenges and benefits of incorporating AI and other emerging technologies into teaching and learning and responding to their school and community stakeholders’ concerns. The GenAI Working Group used a research-practitioner participatory process (Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995; Vaughn & Jacquez, 2020) that centered the knowledge of district leaders, their community, and researchers. Working group members played key roles in decision-making, mutual learning and knowledge sharing, and deciding forms of dissemination.

Methods and Data Sources:
The Working Group met monthly during the 2023-24 school year to discuss incorporating emerging technologies into existing AUPs, with focuses on equity, ethics, responsibility, and protecting the school ecosystem and its members. District leaders developed and implemented engagement activities within their communities to learn stakeholders’ perspectives on GenAI and create processes and policies responsive to their community. Specific qualitative data sources included:
Focus groups facilitated with district leaders at the beginning and end of the school year
Empathy interviews (Ruiz, et al., 2021) facilitated by district leaders with teachers, students, families, and community members
Policy and process documents on acceptable AI use produced by district leaders and their community stakeholders

Results:
Findings shared in this poster session will include:
District leaders’ approach to working with their district and community stakeholders
Methods researchers used to generate and analyze qualitative data with district leaders
Insight from school district stakeholders about how emerging technologies may perpetuate previous and existing inequities
Knowledge sharing practices between researchers and practitioners
Strategies for improving and adapting policies for future and emerging technologies

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:
Attendees of this poster session will learn how this researcher-practitioner, participatory approach can lead to project deliverables that are relevant and applicable to the field. Making sense of emerging technologies will be an ongoing task as technology evolves and users adapt to those changes. This work can inform current district-level responses to GenAI and support their adoption of future emerging technologies.

Authors

• Amanda L. Armstrong, Self

• Pati Ruiz, Digital Promise

• Sana Karim, Digital Promise