The road to hell, as the saying goes, is paved with good intentions, and never more so than in the venerable halls of the Vermont State House. That’s not to say we don’t appreciate our citizen legislators and the hard work they put in every year, because we do. But sometimes the desire to do something or fix something results in hastily thought-out language that could benefit from nuance.
Respected education professionals from the Vermont Superintendents Association, the Vermont School Boards Association, the Vermont Principals’ Association and the Vermont-NEA are weighing in on proposed legislation, H.650, Draft 2.1 that has moved quickly through the legislative process.
The intent is to protect student privacy in an ever-expanding digital landscape, but also students’ integrity when it comes to original thinking, learning and writing when faced with ChatGPT, Claude and the many other AI platforms available to anyone with WIFI or even cell service.
This week, Harwood Unified Union School District superintendent Dr. Mike Leichliter sent a letter to the Senate Education Committee urging its members to pause and take a breath and ultimately to reject this version of the bill because its one-size-fits-all approach to chatbots.
In his letter, Leichliter wrote that the language before the committee is rushed and disconnected from the realities in schools and likely to create more problems. Improving student privacy protections and responsible use of technology are laudable goals, he pointed out, but noted that overly broad use of terms (such as chatbot) could impact “tutoring tools, translation services, speech-to-text supports, assessment platforms, and other legitimate educational resources already used in schools every day.”
And here is where we really agree with Leichliter. He writes “Students are growing up in a world shaped by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Schools need to help students learn how to use these tools critically, ethically, safely, and productively rather than pretending they do not exist.”
There it is in a nutshell. Students need to learn to use these tools. They are here to stay. Technology never goes backwards – although some might argue that it should.
