By: Sofi Shlepakov
On January 5, 2024, the Florida House of Representatives filed the first draft of the Education Bill, discussing awarding grants to school districts to introduce artificial intelligence (“AI”) for students. AI has been a helpful tool for increasing inclusiveness for students with disabilities and teachers. Beyond schools, AI also helps individuals with disabilities participate more fully in work, and even social media environments.
AI’s first use in the classroom was at Stanford University in 1965 with the introduction of the Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations (“PLATO”) computer program. PLATO was designed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was one of the first computer-based learning systems. It was implemented for organizing material, researching and quizzes, and gaming. Since then, AI has expanded and has been used in a variety of educational settings. Resources such as Google Classroom, Duolingo, and Microsoft Teams utilize AI algorithms to organize, collaborate, and personalize learning lessons.
The classroom is not the only place that AI has been introduced. As it evolves, AI has been prevalent in the workforce and social media. In the workforce, implementing AI technologies, like, speech-recognition software helps individuals with “mobility impairments” increase job accessibility and productivity. Speech-recognition software allows employees to speak into a computer, generating their speech to text on different platforms ranging from email to work documents.
Social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, have integrated AI into their algorithms making these visual-apps more accessible. TikTok has introduced text-to-speech technology to read video text aloud, enhancing accessibility for those with visual difficulties. By implementing AI in these platforms, individuals with disabilities can build a platform and create a community that they otherwise would not have been able to build. Having these communities can bring educational efforts forward, opening a discussion forum to break stereotypes.
Conversations around AI normally revolve around its restrictions, but the Universal Design for Learning (“UDL”) is an approach that takes learning abilities and takes away the challenges of the learning experiences some students may face. Generative AI helps to create more accessible content and provides technological aid to students who may need the assistance of screen-readers or speech-recognition software. Allowing school districts to accept awarded grants to further their use of AI opens new doors of opportunity for teachers and students. AI can personalize feedback, help with lesson-plans, and prepare students for the continuously growing world of AI. This approach enables students to engage in classroom activities in ways they were unable to before.
Although AI should still be regulated, this Bill does not position AI as a crutch in the school systems. It introduces AI as a tool to open the classroom up to further opportunities for students. Without the approval of accepting grants, school districts, specifically public schools, would not have the opportunity to access certain AI programs because of the cost. Now, with the allowance of accepting grants, Florida schools will be able to implement the learning tools and strategies that AI provides.
By expanding this type of bill to other states, they could implement inclusive classroom initiatives through AI. This includes alt text for images, navigable keyboards, and screen readers. Using these AI tools will require teachers to be more vigilant to ensure that individuals do not misuse AI and submit work that is not their own. The positive aspects will benefit teachers, and while this extra vigilance may incur a cost, it does not necessarily outweigh the positive implications of introducing AI to the classroom.
To prevent students using AI as a crutch, school districts can implement their own policies as to how AI will be used in the classroom. This may trickle down to teachers’ personal decisions, but allowing school districts to access AI can decrease the learning curve that students may have. AI increases individual student support by providing explanations on problems that a teacher may not be able to offer when teaching a larger class of students.
This Bill will advance the resources that classrooms have in assisting teachers and their students in day-to-day classroom activities. This type of assistance will help all students gain access to technological aid that they may not otherwise receive. Students and teachers with disabilities may now be able to participate in ways they otherwise may not have been unable to.
Student Bio: Sofi Shlepakov is a second-year law student at Suffolk University Law School. She is a staff writer for the Journal of High Technology Law. Sofi graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) with a double major in Economics and Journalism in 2022.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
