Blake Ellis/The Independent

Artificial intelligence can transform education, giving teachers another tool so they can better meet the needs of students.

This was the message conveyed to trustees of the St. Clair Catholic School Board on Jan. 28, as Catholic Curriculum Consultant Courtney Mellow gave an update on the organization’s artificial intelligence in education implementation strategy.

Mellow said in many cases teachers are burned out and artificial intelligence can help to streamline a lot of tasks for staff.

The use of artificial intelligence also helps promote equity, as the education system can better meet the needs of all of its students, she believes.

Other school boards like Ottawa Catholic and Waterloo Catholic have created educator guidelines, but all of these documents are still in draft form because things are moving so fast with the technology.

Mellow encourages staff to look at artificial intelligence as a teaching assistant. She stressed this new technology is not meant to replace teachers. At the end of the day, teachers are the ones that matter to the kids, said Mellow.

In order to see the full potential of artificial intelligence, there needs to be professional development among the school board’s staff.

“We can’t put 100 per cent blind trust into artificial intelligence,” said Mellow, admitting there are some drawbacks to the new technology.

Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, but only became widely known in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT.

The presentation was made to trustees to outline the school board’s approach to support the introduction of artificial intelligence in schools.