Students may spend a lot of their time in and out of school online, but is it really possible to weave digital citizenship into nearly every class, from chemistry to physical education—and should schools even try?
Buddy Berry, who has served as the superintendent of Kentucky’s Eminence Independent School district for about 16 years, thinks so.
Back in 2012, Eminence was among the first to create a “portrait of a graduate”—a guide to the attributes and skills students should embody by the time they leave 12th grade. (These portraits are much more common now, with about 20 states having adopted them).
The roughly 1,000-student rural district developed its own grade-level standards for what’s come to be known as soft skills, such as perseverance and communication. And the district, located about an hour from Louisville, has worked to incorporate digital citizenship skills throughout the curriculum over the past decade-plus.
Enter generative artificial intelligence.
Berry knew that his district would need to rethink what it means to be digitally fluent in the age of AI, so he applied for a roughly $7,000 yearlong grant offered in partnership by ISTE+ASCD, a nonprofit professional development organization, and Pinterest, a social media company. The district is using the grant in part to update its digital citizenship work for the AI era and help teachers better understand the technology.
What does it look like when a district strives to embrace digital citizenship in nearly every classroom—and how might that work shift with AI? Education Week spoke with Berry to delve into the answers to those questions. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Technology looked really different when you first rolled out your “portrait of a graduate” initiative in 2012. What did you emphasize then?
We started out with some skills that seemed silly at the time, that proved to be pretty beneficial down the road. We were making kids in 2012 do video conferencing as a skill. And back then, the only platform was Skype. There was no FaceTime, there was no Zoom. Nobody else had devices to do it with us. We would have kids in neighboring classrooms Skyping back and forth as a reading buddy type thing.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, every kid in our district knew how to video conference. We went home on March 13 for COVID, and on March 16, school was fully online. I’m not saying it’s as good as in person, but we literally never missed a beat because of these skills.
I see what we’re doing now as similar. We’re trying to decide, what are the things they need for the future, even if they don’t need them right now?
Where do you see this digital citizenship work going next, in the AI era?
Our whole motto is about using devices to accelerate learning. If computers are getting smarter, then we need to be smarter about how we use them, and using them ethically, right?
What we’re finding is the kids were already naturally using a lot of it, just not always ethically. And then the staff was scared to death of it. So, this year, we’re spending almost every waking moment of our common training time getting teachers using AI to improve their instruction, and to demystify it.
Another piece we want to address right now is social and emotional. I don’t want to use the word addiction, … but the need to just scroll, that constant need for technology.
We also want to consider: What makes a good citizen? Well, you want them to be involved. You want them to be informed of the issues. You want them to be collaborating with each other.
How do you take those same ideas and transform it to the digital world? Well, we want them to be advocates, and we want them to be leading the charge with their families of saying, “Hey, Mom, don’t click on that link.”
What does it look for students to get digital citizenship across the curriculum and grade levels?
Instead of it being a rotation that a kid gets in middle school, from the library, it’s in math class, English class, social studies. Some of those skills may be creating a TED Talk to present in front of 100 people.
One of our standards for kindergarten is that every kindergartner will present publicly three times to over 100 people. We want them to be great presenters and speakers. In order to do that, you need to know, how do you create a slide show? How do you make it engaging?
There are math apps that will not only solve a problem for you, they’ll show you the steps they took to get to the answer. We don’t act like that app doesn’t exist. We want to show you the way to use it ethically. It helps you see the steps when you’re stuck. You don’t just copy what it says down on a piece of paper and turn it in.
What would be your advice to other district leaders as they consider AI?
You need to realize, the world has changed overnight. Don’t wait six years to do something about it.
Start somewhere, try something. Even if it’s a small little baby step, at least it’s a step.
Sticking your head under a rock and acting like the app that will cheat to solve the math doesn’t exist is not going to work anymore. The kids know it’s there. They’re using it.
