Editor’s Note
This article explores how the Winnipeg School Division is integrating AI into education through a new thinking framework. It highlights a student’s practical use of AI to simplify complex vocabulary, showcasing the technology’s potential as a learning aid in classrooms.
Denys Kotochihov, a Grade 8 student at General Wolfe School, says AI has helped him learn English.
Denys Kotochihov copies the word “gastrointestinal” into an artificial intelligence platform on a school laptop, then types “easy explanation.” The Grade 8 student is demonstrating one way he uses AI.
Kotochihov’s first language is Ukrainian. He didn’t start learning English until he arrived in Manitoba three years ago. AI is playing a role. For example, if he doesn’t know a word in English, AI helps with the translation.
With the ability to access AI at our fingertips, young people are finding ways to put it to use. As the Winnipeg School Division works to adapt to the technology, CBC spent time at General Wolfe School to find out how they’re doing it.
General Wolfe School teacher Donovan Ponce says he starts introducing conversations around AI after first teaching students traditional ways to research.
Chuol Monybuny, one of five students CBC spoke with, reads a list of facts about cardiac surgeons, part of a project involving the circulatory system. The Grade 8 student said he used AI to help search for professions related to the topic. He makes sure what he’s reading is accurate, he said.
If you ask children about artificial intelligence, they’ve probably heard of it, used it and might already have opinions about it. But how is it being used in the classroom? CBC visited one Winnipeg school to find out.
When students at the school start learning about AI depends on the teacher, said Donovan Ponce, a Grade 7 STEM teacher, as well as a project-based learning support teacher. He thinks with how prevalent AI has become, “students need to learn how to navigate it responsibly.”
Ponce, a Grade 7 STEM teacher and project-based learning support teacher at General Wolfe School, says students need to learn how to use AI responsibly.
Ponce is quick to point out the way he teaches students to use AI is “always student- or human-centred rather than AI led.”
When it comes to working AI into the classroom, Ponce starts the year off teaching his Grade 7 students how to find credible sources using traditional research tools, such as books and the internet. Later in the year, he starts to “open the door on AI,” he said, which includes helping students practice questioning skills and checking information with credible sources.
Ponce knows there are concerns when it comes to information being copied and pasted, something he noticed in certain cases when AI first started to become popular a few years ago. It’s one of the reasons he makes sure students understand how to paraphrase, he said.
The Winnipeg School Division doesn’t have specific policies on AI but worked with senior administration, teachers and families in developing a “thinking framework,” Supt. Matt Henderson said.
The framework, in part, aims to encourage all 6,000 of the division’s staff to consider a number of questions when teaching, such as are they educating students about AI and what drives it, as well as who benefits from the technology and what the ramifications are.
The school division has a number of teacher groups coming together to examine how AI factors into the classroom, including in partnership with Red River College Polytechnic and the University of Winnipeg faculty of education, he said. He points out the framework also calls on educators to consider the late Murray Sinclair’s four questions: Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I?