Broward County Public Schools is collaborating with Microsoft in an initiative to incorporate Microsoft Copilot, the company's chatbot, into teaching, learning and operations. It's is the largest K-12 adoption of Copilot in the world, according to the district.
"As educators, we can't be afraid of the pace of technology," said Manuel Castañeda, executive director of the district's IT Operations. "We have to embrace it and we have to ensure that our students are prepared to embrace it as well."
The district's Innovative Learning Department organized the Artificial Intelligence Task Force for Broward County Public Schools in November 2024 to build a blueprint for integrating AI into teaching and learning. The task force, compiled of 50 people this past school year, came up with resources for administrators, teachers and students on how to responsibly incorporate AI tools.
"In order to be progressive within education, you have to move with the times," said Sherri Wilson, director of the Innovative Learning Department. "Infusing artificial intelligence tools ethically and responsibly is what we have to do as practitioners to make sure that we are not participating in any type of educational malpractice."
WLRN education reporter Natalie La Roche Pietri spoke with Castañeda and Wilson, who have spearheaded the initiative, about the process of integrating AI into Broward schools.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
WLRN: Broward County Public Schools blocked the use of ChatGPT on all district-owned devices in 2023. What changed from then to now for the district to want to explore having AI in classrooms?
Wilson: Infrastructure is what changed. With the establishing of our artificial intelligence task force, we have the opportunity to look at different types of artificial intelligence that are most appropriate for our academic spaces so that we can fortify our classrooms across the board.
Why choose Microsoft Copilot as opposed to other AI models? What considerations went into deciding which model to adopt?
Wilson: We actually went to Cypress Bay High School and we worked with our juniors and seniors, and some freshmen, in a collaborative conversation about artificial intelligence. Students actually had the opportunity to really voice what academic integrity looked like to them with using artificial intelligence tools and they talked about the tools that they used, like ChatGPT. We actually had them rate and do prompt engineering to see what type of results they received by putting in questions that they wanted answers to, research they wanted more information on.
Castañeda: We also approached school administrators, district administrators, administrative assistants and we did something very similar: We provided sample prompts and we provided the opportunity for us to see what the different tools would generate. AI sometimes hallucinates and we got a lot of that. Certain tools and certain prompts tend to create responses that are not as accurate as others — and we saw that and that went into our vetting. One of our decision points also came down to which of the tools aligns best with our current environment. Right now we are ensconced as a Microsoft district in that we have Word, Excel, PowerPoint, we use Outlook. Having Copilot AI automatically connect to all those tools was definitely an advantage.
Students all over the country have taken advantage of AI to cheat on schoolwork. What precautions is the district taking to avoid student cheating?
Wilson: We have encouraged each school to establish an artificial intelligence liaison point of contact at their school that will work in conjunction with the Department of Innovative Learning, where we will go through the AI literacy program for Broward County Public School students. Within this packaging, they will have different resources.
When you talk about a scale, we'll say for argument's sake today that it was a 10 point scale, teachers felt that maybe the level three is plagiarism. But for our students, they were at a level seven as the entry point for what they felt plagiarism looked like. So there's a gap there where, from a generational standpoint, what we know plagiarism to be, but then what research... looked like to the students using artificial intelligence. So the crux and the real heart of the conversation was right there to establish, 'Well, this is why this could be a problem and misconstrued as being plagiarism.
Castañeda: AI is going to change the way that we interact. It's gonna change the way that we obtain information and we synthesize and analyze that information. We need to make sure that we move along with it rather than trying to find ways to stop it.
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Miami-Dade County Public Schools recently adopted Google Gemini for its own AI exploration. The district has a program offering AI courses for teachers like, "Transform Your Lesson Planning with AI" and "Discover How AI Language Models Can Revolutionize Teaching Writing." Can you speak about what training and preparation will look like for Broward teachers?
Wilson: We have currently started our process with revamping and creating from scratch our professional development blueprint that supports artificial intelligence work. That will be available for our teachers starting in August.
Castañeda: We are working closely with Microsoft and with the AI Task Force because we don't want to just roll it out and leave everyone wondering how to use it. So Microsoft is engaging with us establishing centers of excellence and driving instruction into each of the groups that we're gonna roll out in waves.
Will Copilot be introduced by grade level or all at once?
We are planning on starting with high schools, as students there are are closer to graduating and to needing these skills in order to graduate. Then [we're] working our way down where the majority of our users are obviously going to be in the elementary school level.
Given reports that say AI chatbots are hindering critical learning skills, what would you tell parents who are apprehensive about AI coming to their child's classroom, maybe worried that it'll do more damage than good for their learning?
Wilson: We've addressed this through several events. We did a parent night throughout the district at various schools this year introducing different tools for artificial intelligence support and how parents can embrace the process at home. So a part of the conversation is really eradicating fear. When you have parents in a classroom setting with that laptop and actually being walked through how you can help your student by utilizing various tools allays a lot of confusion and then the parents want more.
Castañeda: AI is scary and it's come on very quickly. In the popular culture, a lot of folks just see AI taking your job or taking over the world. And so as a parent — and I'm a parent of three — those are concerns. The only way to to get past that is to engage... to show [parents] what AI really is and how AI is a tool that can be used — and it can be used for good.
