A new post appeared recently in the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District parents’ online newsletter. It appeared to be a 2024-25 school year welcome letter and video from Brett Geithman, the district superintendent.
Or was it?
“I have to be honest — this really isn’t really me,” a man who looks like Geithman said in a brief video embedded in the post. “It’s my AI-generated avatar. And I can speak over 20 languages.”
The artificial intelligence technology then translated the same message to four other videos, with Geithman-like avatars speaking Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Chinese.
“I guess it worked, because a few days later, a parent came into my office and started speaking to me in Spanish,” Geithman said in an interview this week. “I had to explain to him that I don’t speak Spanish, but AI does.”
The whimsical message appears to be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg of AI possibilities in Marin K-12 schools and at College of Marin. Educators at both the county and the college level are rapidly getting up to speed on AI issues such as legal disclaimers, parental permissions, policies, precautions and potential uses.
“For the most part, we have been focusing on AI as a tool for educators to support their academic content as well as the legal and ethical aspects of this,” said Laura Trahan, assistant superintendent at the Marin County Office of Education. “All this is done in a network format with mostly high school and some middle school educators to work alongside us.”
During the last school year and over the summer, the county has conducted seminars and workshops by AI specialists in the area, Trahan said. She said the office will continue the work in the fall.
“We want to have an understanding about the potential for AI as an educational support or tool so that we can proceed with the best interest of the child at the forefront, and not something that will supplant the educators’ role,” Trahan said. “And as with anything we do, this work is done hand-in-hand with our districts.”
Henry Jin, co-founder of the AI firm Leo, was a speaker in the spring for the Marin County Office of Education and also this summer for the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District.
“AI has the potential to accelerate repetitive tasks in education, allowing more time for student engagement, but it requires a deliberate effort to understand its advantages and limitations for responsible use,” said Jin, a Harvard-trained computer scientist.
At the College of Marin, students in the English writing classes are getting feedback on their essays, not just from teachers and other students, but also from AI.
“It’s not substituting for humans,” said instructor Anna Mills. She said the students are using a teacher-created app called MyEssayFeedback.ai.
“We’re adding in AI essay feedback for students while encouraging them to view it skeptically,” Mills said. “It doesn’t write or rewrite the essay; it gives feedback, and they reflect on the feedback.”
Mills is an investigator, along with three researchers from the University of California at Davis, on an AI grand challenge grant program with the California Learning Lab.
“We have an AI group led byPatrick Ekoue-Totou,” Mills said, referring to the college’s chief information officer. “We are reflecting in how best to teach AI literacy as part of digital literacy.”
Marin schools and the College of Marin appear to be on pace with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to move forward with AI in education. Newsom recently announced a state partnership with the Santa Clara AI software company Nvidia to work with California colleges in advancing AI in the schools.
“Our initial priority is expanding AI tools in the community colleges,” said Alex Stack, a representative of the governor’s office. “We want to get some curriculum and some certifications going.” Stack said the next step will be California State University and University of California campuses.
(c)2024 The Marin Independent Journal. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
