'I use AI for nearly everything': Teachers discuss the promise and challenges of AI education
Some teachers say they use AI every day, but others are looking for guidance.
Artificial intelligence is shaping the technological boom in education and it's impacting K-12 classrooms across the country, according to educators who have spoken to ABC News.
Teachers tell ABC News that they are using AI to develop lesson plans, organize data and give students feedback on assignments. Melissa Collins, the 2023 Tennessee Teacher of the Year, called AI "a tool to spark creativity" that inspires educators to "think differently."
Lori Garrett, who teaches elementary school science in Texas, listed several tasks she uses AI for, including creating study guides.
"I use AI for nearly everything in the classroom right now," Garrett said. "I use it to learn anything that I don't know how to do," she added.
Julia Casey in Missouri said AI is pushed in her school -- from applications like Brisk AI to SchoolAI, which are tools for educators -- but stressed that more guidance is needed to ensure teachers use AI to support learning outcomes and offload tasks without sacrificing instructional quality.
AI push from the White House
The Trump administration has encouraged school districts and teachers to use AI, arguing that leveraging it would "revolutionize" education.
First lady Melania Trump has made it a core principle of her tenure and she honored America's "brightest young innovators" at the Presidential AI Challenge National Champion Awards Ceremony at the White House on Tuesday. Thousands of students and educators across the country participated in the challenge, according to the first lady's office.
"AI inspires," the first lady told students. "Use this chapter of your life to sail away with your dreams -- to continue to build boldly, and importantly, to safeguard America's leading position in the world of technology."
But while some districts offer AI guidance, many teachers are having to train themselves, according to a new Gallup poll that found only 18% of teachers have received formal AI training.
Eric Jenkins, the 2024 Indiana Teacher of the Year, emphasized that both teachers and students must absorb AI skills in the classroom to be prepared for a future "saturated" in AI.
Garrett told ABC News that she's also having her students use AI in class to "help themselves learn."
Education advocates say AI must have guardrails and formal guidance for educators to use in developing future generations of America's students.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said that kids are "drowning" in technology and she issued a 10-point strategy for student learning at a national education address in May. It includes screen-banning in the classroom through second grade and terminating student-facing AI at elementary schools.
"Intentional or not, all this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong," Weingarten said in the address at the National Press Club in Washington.
"We need to take stock so we can do what we know is right," she said.
Weingarten is supportive of teachers using AI to enhance their work but condemned students using it themselves while they're in class. She said all of the "relevant research" about student attention supports restricting AI functions on classroom screens.
Tech-fluent students of tomorrow
Meanwhile, MacKenzie Price's Alpha School has run on a daily two-hour AI-enhanced instruction model for more than a decade.
Students are helped by adults, or "guides," for the AI-based period and then they learn life skills and explore their own interests over the rest of the day.
On a recent episode of her "Future of Education" podcast, Price said becoming "AI-first" is key for today's students.
"Schools should absolutely be a place that is preparing kids for the future and -- as part of that -- we have to develop the skill of learning how to learn, including new technology," she said.
Similar to Price, National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues contended that stakeholders must heed parents' calls for their children to be tech-fluent students of tomorrow.
"Are we preparing our kids for the jobs in the future, where they know how to use these things responsibly [and] have healthy relationships with technology? That's what we should be preparing kids for," she said.
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