How the Waterloo Catholic District School Board is embracing AI

While some have banned artificial intelligence, a school in Kitchener, Ont. is embracing it.

One of the teachers at St. Mary’s High School, part of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB), has been spearheading the AI integration.

"I immediately looked at how I could use it in the classroom," John Schneider Jr. explained. "The reality is, whether I'm assigning a project or using it in the classroom, students are using AI at home."

Teachers at St. Mary’s say it can help students develop critical thinking skills by using it for research and to generate ideas.

Students, of course, have to show their work and the prompts they've asked the AI to ensure it's not just doing the work for them.

"We've provided guidelines for both teachers and students and we have approved [Microsoft] Copilot as the approved GenAI that we can use in the classroom," Schneider said.

Those guidelines are readily available on the board's website and it breaks down safety, security and privacy considerations.

The use of AI has also helped Schneider as a teacher.

"I can use it to check assignments. When I'm doing projects I can actually have it check to make sure I've thought of everything," he said.

Georgia Luke, a Grade 11 student, sees AI as simply part of her life now.

"For as long as I can remember, I've used it as a learning tool. A teaching assistant, if you will," she explained.

She uses it to expand her notes and for brainstorming purposes as well. Not having it as a tool to do her research, she said, would now feel weird.

"It's kind of engraved into all of our lives," Luke said.

Recording of the Deep Learning Dialogues podcast. (Spencer Turcotte/CTV News)

To help with proper integration of AI, the school board has also created a podcast called Deep Learning Dialogues. 

Led by Whitney McKinley and Katrina Gouett, the podcast dives into the transformative world of generative AI and provides insights for staff, students and parents.

McKinley and Gouett, student achievement consultants for learning innovation at the school board, have now begun the second season of the podcast.

"There really aren't any experts in the world of AI. It's just moving too quickly, so we need to lean on each other and that's what we're trying to do with this podcast," said McKinley.

Everyone involved in the project feels the learning opportunities are endless when you pair student intelligence with artificial intelligence.