Lake Ridge Academy Pioneers Ethical AI Integration in Education
“AI is the next frontier of education that will lead us to do more than we ever could, but only if we use it right,” says Donald Bittala, director of the Lake Ridge Academy upper school.
Last year, Bittala spearheaded an artificial intelligence policy, and this summer the school will host an AI summer intensive with educators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University. The program exemplifies Lake Ridge Academy’s commitment to thoughtfully integrating AI into its curriculum.
Defining the ‘Right Way’ for AI in Schools
Bittala and the team at Lake Ridge Academy are actively exploring how the school, and other educational institutions, can ethically and responsibly harness the power of AI.
“AI is pretty much ubiquitous — it’s everywhere,” Bittala points out, highlighting its pervasive nature.
Setting AI Ground Rules
Acknowledging the rapid advancements in AI, Lake Ridge Academy has established a forward-thinking AI policy. “There’s no foolproof method for implementing an AI policy or going down the road of AI because it changes so fast,” Bittala says.
Lake Ridge’s AI policy focuses on preventing plagiarism, preventing copyright infringement, and underscoring the importance of original student work. This policy provides a clear framework for educating students, parents, and teachers on permissible AI usage.
One key section of the policy states: “The use of AI programs should supplement and enhance students’ learning experiences, not substitute for their own critical thinking, analysis and original work.” The policy also stipulates that students are not permitted to use AI without explicit permission from their teachers.
The policy further clarifies that “Teachers shall provide students with guidance and instruction on the responsible use of AI programs.”
Distinguishing AI-Generated Content
A key challenge for schools is to ensure that student work is original and not generated by AI tools like ChatGPT. Bittala emphasizes the critical role of teachers in this process.
“Understand the words they typically use,” he says, explaining how teachers can identify AI-generated content. Bittala noted that AI’s writing style can be very different from what’s expected from a ninth or tenth grader. “When AI writes a paper, it’s not at ninth- or tenth-grade level. AI writes like a dissertation or at a super-low level depending on the prompt. But this is changing, so our methods will need to change also.”
AI as a Resource for Teachers
Some Lake Ridge teachers are actively incorporating AI into their teaching practices. “It depends on their comfort level,” Bittala says. “Some use it as a tool for writing lesson plans, study guides or designing slides. This gives teachers back a lot of time so they can plan different activities in the classroom and focus on interfacing with students.”
Advancing AI for All Students
Lake Ridge Academy offers the Inspirit AI intensive to its high school students, taught by instructors from MIT and Stanford. Participants in the AI Scholar program will work on research and programming projects from June 16-27.
“The two-week boot camp teaches how to use AI productively and constructively,” Bittala says. “It covers the very basics of ‘What is AI?’ along with how it applies to the classroom and in real-world applications so AI doesn’t feel so pie-in-the-sky.’”
