Education Service Center Region 12 hosted its first-ever artificial intelligence conference, addressing integrating the tool into the classroom.
WACO, Texas — The Empower Districts by Growing Experience in Artificial Intelligence-- or E.D.G.E. AI---Conference brought Central Texas educators together to explore how AI technology can be effectively integrated into classrooms. The conference was held by the Education Service Center Region 12. Joshua Essary is the Internal Training Coordinator for the organization. He said the conference was designed to respond to AI's rapid growth and its expanding role in education.
"E.D.G.E AI is a conference that we designed in order to respond to the growth of AI and how it affects our schools and how it will affect our learners and their learning environment overall," said Essary.
The conference took a comprehensive approach, examining how AI will impact not just classroom instruction but every aspect of school operations. Sessions covered creative instruction techniques, technology department workshops, and digital safety protocols.
"AI is a system and a technology that's going to affect everything in our school district from our leadership to our students to our technology departments to our counselors," Essary noted.
For educators hesitant about embracing AI technology, the conference offered a "getting started" track designed to help overcome initial fears and misconceptions.
“We have about this conference today is we do have a getting started route which is to help people kind of take that first step because it is scary," said Essary.
The conference highlighted practical applications of AI for teachers, including assistance with drafting emails, reviewing lesson plans, and generating alternative student assessment methods. However, organizers also addressed the challenge of maintaining academic integrity when students have access to the same AI tools.
“what does assessment look like now in this age of AI because you can't really assess the same anymore if AI is a tool that students have access to, then more than likely the lesson plans and the assessments that we've designed may not work anymore,” said Essary.
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