Common Sense Media Releases Free AI Toolkit, AI Readiness & Implementation Guides
Common Sense Media has developed an AI Toolkit for School Districts, available to educators free of charge, that provides guidelines and resources for implementing AI in education. The resource is focused on utilizing AI "safely, responsibly, and effectively," providing tools, templates, and other resources to support districts of all sizes at various stages of AI adoption.
"As more and more kids use AI for everything from math homework to essays, they're often doing so without clear expectations, safeguards, or support from educators," explained Yvette Renteria, chief program officer of Common Sense Media, in a statement. "Our research shows that schools are struggling to keep up with the rise of AI β six in 10 kids say their schools either lack clear AI rules or are unsure what those rules are. But schools shouldn't have to navigate the AI paradigm shift on their own. Our AI Toolkit for School Districts will make sure every district has the guidance it needs to implement AI in a way that works best for its schools."
To help districts determine the state of their AI journey, the guide is presented in conjunction with an AI readiness assessment checklist and implementation roadmap designed to help identify strengths, gaps, and areas of opportunity as well as define an AI timeline and goals. The AI readiness assessment checklist covers domains such as leadership, policy, infrastructure, staff capacity, and community engagement, providing reflection prompts in each area to help districts rate their readiness on a scale from "not started" to "established." The AI implementation roadmap then provides a series of activities, tools, and resources to move districts from the strategy phase to procurement, implementation, evaluation, and scaling. And the AI toolkit provides a deeper dive into resources supporting each implementation phase.
"We developed this resource in response to real needs we are seeing across our network. District leaders have asked for practical, easy-to-use tools that support thoughtful AI planning, decision-making, and implementation. Informed by the needs we've observed in the field, we created these resources to support districts working through similar questions β and we're making them freely available for anyone to use," the guide states, adding, "This toolkit isn't just a theoretical framework β it's a strategic guide that helps districts evaluate AI considerations, explore potential benefits, and address challenges in alignment with their unique mission, vision, goals, and priorities."
The full toolkit can be found here on the Common Sense Media site.
About the Author
Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].