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classroom but are provided very little guidance on ways to implement AI tools to
meet the needs of education positively. Professional development is an important
part of helping educators manage new skills and challenges in the classroom (Bubou
& Job, 2020). To provide guidance about incorporating AI tools in education, our
team created a short professional development session to increase awareness of the
topic. The session was divided into four sections: (a) an overview of AI, (b) general
concepts to know when using AI in education, (c) the types of AI tools available, and
Dr. Xi Lin is an (d) examples of teacher and student use of AI tools in the classroom.
associate professor The overview included the difference between AI and generative AI, a brief
in the Department
of Interdisciplinary definition of large language models, and an acknowledgment of concerns and
Professions at East considerations to keep in mind when using AI. This portion of the presentation
Carolina University, highlighted some of the negatives of using AI; specifically discussed were built-in
Greenville, North Carolina. bias, hallucinations or information made up by the AI, and privacy issues.
Her research focuses on The second section included an example of how a variety of tools could be used
student engagement and
interaction in online and to prepare a unit overview and lesson quickly. This section also highlighted some
distance learning and best-practice tips for using AI tools. These included guidelines for the engineering
international students and of a prompt; the process for generating material from AI; and the 80/20 rule, which
faculty in higher education reminds educators that the AI will do about 80% of the work, leaving them with the
in the United States.
task of refining the product to make sure it meets the needs of their students—and
linxi18@ecu.edu thus emphasizing the need for reflection after the material is developed.
The third section covered examples of types of AI tools that are available.
Presenters discussed chatbots, image-creation tools, and AI tools designed specifically
for educators. The final portion of the presentation then included specific case studies
of use and real-time demonstrations of such AI tools created specifically for use by
educators. Encouraging the participants to provide topics recently covered in the
classrooms resulted in demonstration of several prompts so that the teachers could
experience the types of solutions created by AI. These included lesson creation,
lesson extensions, and suggestions for behavior management. Additionally, the
presenters provided resources that offered links to the tools that were discussed as
well as websites that provided guidance for further information on best practices and
training for incorporating AI tools in schools.
The team presented the first iteration of the professional development session
designed to introduce AI tools to educators to elementary community school
faculty and staff in eastern North Carolina. They delivered the session after
school in conjunction with a regular faculty meeting. Seventeen participants
included administrators, teachers, assistants, and counselors. An informal survey
completed before the presentation showed that almost 69%
of the participants reported their frequency of use of AI
tools as “never.” As the presentation began, many of the
...AI tools have the participants were listening but not specifically engaging

potential to support with information. However, as our team showed real-time
examples and demonstrated AI tools using information
educators in ways that based on the educators’ current in-class activities, all
participants became interested in learning more about AI.
no other tool can. Among the AI tools demonstrated during the session were
ChatGPT; perplexity.ai; MagicSchool.ai; and crayon.ai. At
the end of the presentation, almost 78% of the participants

40 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators