Michael Rulli Asks School Superintendent About AI’s Potential ‘To Help Students With Disabilities’

1 hour ago

During a House Education Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) questioned Chris Chism, the Superintendent for the Pearl Public School District, about how artificial intelligence could aid students with disabilities.

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Transcript

00:00Now, recognize Mr. Rooley for five minutes, the representative from Ohio.

00:04Thank you so much, Chairman.

00:05I appreciate that.

00:06Mr. Chisholm, I think everyone's a little nervous about AI, just in general, but also

00:11optimistic for what the future could possibly hold.

00:15Could you share some of your stories with you about students and this tool and the ability

00:19to excel them as a student in America?

00:22Absolutely.

00:24I'm happy to do that.

00:25It really begins with the teacher, you know, and again, I don't want you to think that

00:29I'm saying that we need to teach elementary and middle school students how to use AI.

00:32That's not what we're doing.

00:33We're really focused on kids that are in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade.

00:37And again, the idea is to teach them to use this, but also to teach them to use this in

00:41an ethical way.

00:42And in our trainings and the things that we do with teachers in training students, what

00:46we talk about are really two things.

00:48And that is, if you can use this as the perfect assistant and the perfect search engine, you

00:53know, you're using it in an ethical way.

00:55There's a big difference between having an AI program right for you and an AI program

01:00right with you.

01:01Those are two completely different things.

01:03And what we've seen, especially in the writing, I just gave you that example from that teacher,

01:07right?

01:08You know, she can now do these things.

01:10What I wasn't paying attention to at the time, I was helping her.

01:13But what we're now doing, instead of writing a paper every 10 days, we're writing a paper

01:17almost every day.

01:19So again, and then this opens up other things, you know, in some of our tech classes as well.

01:23It gives them new ideas and new ways to take this.

01:26And I think that is the power of AI, is the idea that it can give you ideas that you haven't

01:31thought of, because it's got access to the full internet.

01:35So again, there are a thousand stories that I could share, but that just gives you an

01:39overview of the direction that we're going and the way that we're using it.

01:42But I will tell you, it starts with the teacher.

01:43It starts with administrators and teachers.

01:46If they're not on board first, our kids are not going to use it in the right way.

01:49I really appreciate that.

01:50And you know, being a parent and also looking back in my own mind's eye, when you look at

01:55a subject like AI, it's a little contradictory in my own mind about the love and the hate

02:00and the scariness of it.

02:01I think, you know, the idea that it could cure cancer with AI and you could have these

02:04kids learn in ways they never possibly could.

02:06But do you have a little quick piece of advice for mom and dad that maybe are a little bit

02:10worried about the guardrails?

02:11You know, some of us were raised, you know, watching the Terminator.

02:14And I mean, that's obviously hopefully not going to ever happen.

02:17But do you have anything to calm down mom and dad?

02:20You know, I get that a lot in every presentation I give.

02:24There is a healthy fear, and I think we should have a healthy fear of it.

02:27You know, I think for parents, it is the communication piece with their own kid, and it is making

02:31sure that they are also teaching good habits to kids with this.

02:35You know, I think one of the scary things is, and there are models out there that are

02:39completely open that have no guardrails.

02:41And I think that's one thing that scares me a little bit.

02:43You know, you can actually go to olama.com and you can download any model that you want.

02:47Some have the guardrails taken off.

02:48If a kid is in the tech world and knows how to do this, that can be a scary proposition

02:53for a child.

02:54So I think, again, monitoring what your kids do and having good conversations on what good

03:01behavior on this looks like is no different than social media or using the internet in

03:04general.

03:05I appreciate that also.

03:07And finally, probably my most passionate question I have for you, I was on the school board

03:11for eight years, and I worked with students very closely.

03:13I was very hands-on approach, especially when I was the president of the school board.

03:18But I want to take focus on AI, and I want to concentrate on IEP or 504 plans are probably

03:25my top priority that I've always been in school, and I know a lot of moms out there and dads

03:28are worried about this.

03:30Can you talk about AI and the potential to help our students with disabilities and how

03:33exciting that could be for their future in learning?

03:36Oh, my goodness, that's fabulous.

03:38My wife is actually a special education director in the district, so I've created several things

03:42for our teachers to use.

03:44And I think the best part of this is you can take a student's data, and again, this

03:48is something we may bring out at some point.

03:50We have our own AI server in the district, so we don't have to worry about FERPA laws.

03:53Okay, so we could take the student's assessment scores, and we can match those to state assessments,

03:59and then we can use the power of these AIs to actually script an individual plan for

04:04that kid with a path to proficiency.

04:07So I think that's the exciting part about this.

04:09And literally that is done in 20 or 30 seconds.

04:12We upload a couple of PDFs.

04:14We tell it what we want it to do.

04:15I've already pre-trained this in the background to do what I want it to do, and in the end,

04:20it gives that kid a short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans that are developed around

04:25that individual child as opposed to just the entire classroom.

04:29So again, that's one of the things that excites me the most about this.

04:31And that could probably be even flipped on to like higher ed if you go to the university

04:35or whatever because it's so individualized for that particular student.

04:38It could be a growing tool that that child grows into adulthood with that, correct?

04:44Yes, sir, 100%.

04:46I don't think this stops at K-12.

04:47Honestly, I don't think this stops at college.

04:50I think we're going to see this moving into the business world.

04:53Knowledge is going to be something for everybody now, and I think that's what's changing in

04:56the world of AI.

04:57You know, we used to pay, we pay doctors lots of money, right?

05:00But now everybody's going to have access to this specialized training that they've had

05:04for years.

05:05So again, I think, I don't think it stops in K-12 and college.

05:08I think that rolls right into adulthood as well.

05:10How exciting.

05:12I yield my time back, Chair.

Michael Rulli Asks School Superintendent About AI’s Potential ‘To Help Students With Disabilities’

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