What are your school and/or History Department policies and practices regarding AI?

It's a brave new world, indeed, Laura Massa  

Truth be told I do not believe we have any particular policy or new/innovative practices that go beyond the general "plagiarism is not allowed" kinda thing... but our school did recently form a committee to explore these issues and hope to stay in touch about it. Thanks for getting the conversation going. 

Like Adam, my school/department does not have a formal AI policy beyond prohibiting its use to bypass learning. However, artificial intelligence—like many technological advances—is here to stay.

In my classroom, I allow students to use Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM). It’s the only AI product permitted, and students must access it through their school accounts. This requirement addresses privacy concerns regarding LLMs using student data to train models, but it also ensures students use a tool that requires intentional thinking and source selection to work effectively.

As a rule of thumb, paper assignments are AI-prohibited, while digital assignments are open to AI assistance unless explicitly stated otherwise. Any submitted work that violates these guidelines must be redone for credit. While these general guidelines aren't a rigid policy, they’ve worked well in my classes and are heavily inspired by the AP Capstone Policy on Generative AI, which I also use in AP Research.

We are trying a new format where teachers provide a level of AI that students are allowed to use. The Honor Pledge scale (with a graphic) is added right into the assignment. It ranges from Level 0 (students are not allowed to use AI at all) to Level 5 where students can use AI as a co-creator of an artifact.  For the most part, I kept my assignments around the lower levels, but so far it seems like students are honestly recording the level of AI they are using.

April Williams thank you so much for detailing your school's policy and the precautions you take to protect student data. I didn't know about the AP Research and Capstone Diploma. My school does not offer the program. 

My department has decided to allow the use of AI to generate study guides in preparation for assessments and to proofread written work by identifying typos, spelling and syntax errors, or gaps in reasoning. However, any revisions must be made by the student. We also allow students to use AI to generate a list of leading publications in a field they are exploring for a presentation.

AI use is unacceptable for anything related to the development of critical skills, including historical thinking, reading, and writing. For example, students may not ask AI to assess a source's origin, purpose, value, or limitations; engage in historical thinking skills such as causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time; or write a thesis statement.

Laura Massa  This seems to be inline with College Board's policy. The idea is that AI should function as a tool to strengthen student work and understanding, but not a replacement for original thought, creativity, or reasoning. Thank you for sharing and I hope you have a great start to the year. :) 

Jim Jaeger I see that schools are getting ready to set boundaries with the use of these tools. Technology is moving fast and the pace of collective learning is truly accelerating. 

 Adam Esrig I appreciate your comments about how your school is responding to the use of AI. Keep us posted.