CIDDL Talks How AI Will Change Special Education at TED
Author: Samantha Goldman; info@ciddl.org
This past week, the CIDDL team joined teacher educators throughout the country at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Teacher Education Division’s conference in Long Beach, California. The topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), its impact on policy, teacher education, special education, university students and courses, and our everyday lives was a common theme throughout presentations, keynotes, and conversations.
Implications of AI in Special Education
CIDDL team members led two sessions on implications for AI within special education, related services, leadership, and personnel preparation. During both sessions, the CIDDL team provided background information on AI, including examples and definitions, and some big ideas regarding implications and considerations for AI and the future of special education. AI has the potential to (1) support greater accessibility, (2) greater personalization, and (3) support educators, students, and parents, to name a few (check out the slide deck for more, specifically slide 7). And, there are some real issues we need to consider with AI including (1) AI does not understand good, bad, or neutral, (2) they are only as good as the data they are fed, and (3) we don’t really know how they make decisions (there is a lack of transparency), among others (see slide 9). In an article released by several CIDDL team members and other researchers in the field, seven key considerations were released regarding what we should think about when discussing preparing educators for the use of AI including (see Marino et al, 2023):
- Prepare educators with the knowledge and skills to understand and use AI in the classroom.
- Provide educators with the opportunity to explore how AI can be used to support personalized instruction and how AI can be used to identify student learning needs.
- Prepare educators on the implications of using AI in the classroom, such as potential privacy concerns, data security, and bias in AI systems.
- Provide educators and special educators with resources on AI-based learning and assessment tools, and how to integrate them into their teaching and assessment practices.
- Develop guidelines and protocols for the use of AI in the classroom and for the ethical use of AI by educators and special educators.
- Prepare educators to understand the potential risks of AI and the ways in which AI can be managed, monitored, and regulated.
- Encourage educators to collaborate with experts in AI to ensure that AI is used to its fullest potential in the classroom.
What Can I Do Tomorrow with AI?
In both sessions, we highlighted five things our participants (and our readers) can do tomorrow, bring back to their campuses, and further their knowledge and understanding of the impact of AI on education.
- Learn about AI yourself. How? There are several reports on the impact of AI and teaching/ learning, with more being released regularly. These include the Office of Educational Technology’s Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning, the European Commission's “Ethical Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data in Teaching and Learning for Educators”, The White House’s “AI Bill of Rights”, and UNESCO’s “Guidance of AI and Education”(check out our blog post summaries on our CIDDL website of these reports and more).
- Talk to educators about AI. How are teachers in our early childhood - 12 teachers using AI? How are your colleagues on campus using AI? Share what you have learned and how you are using it with them (and with us in our community!).
- Explore AI tools and resources. New resources are coming out daily (if not more frequently). There are tools that are good, great, amazing, and everything in between. The best way to learn about AI and its uses is to play with it. In our session, we shared a few tools and resources to find new tools. These include There’s an AI for That (a database collecting and categorizing AIs), Magic School AI (help lesson plan, differentiate, write assessments, write IEPS, communicate clearly, and more), Trellis (a one-on-one AI for reading comprehension), SLAIT (online education platform lets you learn American Sign Language in a fun way and get live feedback on your signing), and Curipod (plan and deliver interactive lessons on any topic - with help from AI).
- Experiment with AI in your own teaching. Try it. Try these tools or others (check out our CIDDL Tech Tool Resource for more!). Check out our blog posts that discuss ways to use AI to further your teacher education courses, like
- Share your experiences with others. We want to know what you are doing. As we said, new tools and uses are constantly emerging. Share the great things you are doing. Talk to your colleagues in your department, your greater campus, professional organizations, and our CIDDL community. We want to know!
Join the Conversation
If you want to learn more about CIDDL’s work on AI, check out CIDDL’s AI homepage and the extended form post we had at the beginning of the fall semester on Navigating the Landscape of AI in the 2023-2024 Academic Year.
The conversation on AI’s impact on teacher preparation, special education, and the world is continuing to develop and your voice is needed and necessary. We’re excited to learn from you.