HINGHAM - At its May 19 meeting, the Hingham School Committee approved a new artificial intelligence (AI) policy, establishing general guidelines for how AI can be used within the district by both students and teachers.
The policy, known as IJN, is intentionally broad in scope. Its purpose is to acknowledge the increasing presence of AI tools in education and ensure their use is aligned with educational goals. Rather than specifying particular software or tools, the policy directs the district to develop a separate set of procedures to manage the specifics.
“This is a very general overarching policy, just really focusing on the fact that we understand this is something that students will be using as well as teachers and that we want them to understand how to properly use it and that the school district will develop a procedure related to us,” said Alyson Anderson, School Committee member.
School Committee member Tim Miller-Dempsey explained the reasoning behind keeping the policy general.
“I imagine some people will wonder why it’s not a more robust policy here. The explanation...is that the....robust part of the details [of] this will live in the procedures, not in the school committee policy,” he said.
Chair Jen Benham emphasized the need for flexibility as technology rapidly evolves.
“We don’t specify any programs or websites or anything of that nature just because the technology is changing so fast and evolving. So we don’t want to be that specific in our policies talking about those types of things,” Benham said.
The policy passed unanimously in a roll call vote.
This policy adds to a growing list of district guidelines that are being adjusted to keep pace with technological advancements while maintaining student safety and academic integrity. As the district develops the procedural guidelines, educators and parents can expect more detailed instructions in the coming months.
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