Key Takeaways:
- The 1EdTech community has resources to help educational institutions lay the groundwork for safe and effective AI use.
- By leveraging interoperability standards like Edu-API™, LTI®, and Caliper Analytics®, and fostering cross-sector collaboration through task forces and community groups, 1EdTech ensures that AI adoption enhances learning outcomes while maintaining security and trust.
There is an increased push to integrate artificial intelligence into learning environments, both to support educators in everyday tasks, increase insights to support student success, and teach learners how to use AI effectively, efficiently and responsibly.
While the call for AI in education is coming from both the government and business leaders, educators around the globe, including the 1EdTech community, have been grappling with how to implement AI for years, and we have resources to help others move forward.
Establishing Policies and Best Practices
From the start, 1EdTech members considered the need for learners of all ages to learn about AI through experience, but also recognized the multiple risks educators needed to consider before using AI in their classrooms. To help answer some of the biggest questions, 1EdTech’s Emerging Digital Pedagogies Innovation Leadership Network created the AI Preparedness Checklist, which provides guiding questions to help establish protocols, policies and best practices for using AI in teaching and learning that meet the needs of individual institutions.
Data Privacy and Security
In every responsible conversation around the benefits of AI to teachers and learners, there is also discussion about potential risks to student data privacy, bias and ethical use of the AI-generated content. This is where 1EdTech’s supplier self-assessment rubrics can be helpful, particularly the Generative AI Data rubric, which considers how AI tools are used, asks for opt-in or opt-out clauses for AI use, considers third-party access, and asks for transparency around how the AI model was trained. The rubric allows edtech providers to be transparent about their AI data practices in one location that they can point potential customers to, and educational organizations are using it to inform what they ask providers during the procurement process.
Accurate Data
One advantage of AI for educators is that it supports advising and signaling the need for additional support for learners. To advise those AI tools, it is imperative that they are informed with accurate and timely data. 1EdTech’s Edu-API™, LTI® and Caliper Analytics® standards create a cohesive data pipeline that provides contextualized insights about learner engagement so educators can take meaningful and timely action.
Following interoperability standards also allows for more secure data exchanges between edtech tools, including those that use AI.
Public and Private Collaboration on Next Steps
1EdTech has several groups considering how to integrate Generative AI into educational systems responsibly. In each case, 1EdTech members and partners from primary and K-12 districts to postsecondary, higher education, non-profit organizations and EdTech providers are working together to ensure concerns around AI are addressed responsibly and implemented in ways that benefit students while still encouraging innovation.
The AI-Generated Content Task Force is considering transparency in AI-generated content being used in classrooms, and how to best identify when content, including assessment questions, was created entirely or in part by AI. This knowledge is needed so educational organizations can decide if further investigation is needed when using the content in classrooms.
Get Involved
1EdTech Consortium’s members include representatives from primary and K-12 districts to postsecondary, higher education, non-profit organizations and EdTech providers. Organizations interested in joining our efforts around responsible AI implementation should contact 1EdTech.
You can also learn more about our AI work at 1EdTech’s Annual Learning Impact Conference.
About the Author
Michael Feldstein
As 1EdTech’s Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Feldstein helps drive the strategic vision and implementation of an open, trusted and innovative ecosystem of interoperable edtech products and digital credentials by identifying needs and collaboratively developing solutions to increase the 1EdTech community’s learning impact.
Michael brings more than 30 years of educational technology experience to the organization, most recently as CEO of the Empirical Educator Project, Co-Founder of Argos Education, and Publisher of the e-Literate weblog.
