(TNS) – Each day, the classroom of Professor of Richland High School Jacob St. Clair could be decorated for courses of medieval ship, with a sail and wooden walls, or adorned with ancient Egyptian pyramids or Gothic cathedral windows.
The world history teacher often transports his students over time with accessories to strengthen the subject, but sometimes he turns to tools of generative artificial intelligence, such as the creator of image Midjourney, to provide another layer to the lesson.
It is perhaps the philosopher John Locke and his rival Thomas Hobbes seeming to come to the punches, he joked or give life to the famous paintings.
“Seeing a historical figure in any kind of new situation or dynamic posture is something that is interesting,” said St. Clair. “It's nice (for students).”
Although he adopts a practical approach in his class, St. Clair said that he sees the value of the appropriate use of AI by teachers and students. This is why he demonstrates potential positive implementations of technology in his lessons.
“We must demonstrate to children that there are skills that they can use with this,” said St. Clair.
A warning, he said, is that it is important that whoever uses the tools already knows the material to avoid errors.
In addition to the generation of images, St. Clair uses AI to search for programs to see if he has missed something, and for the Table Roles of the Secondary Table Road Club that he advises. He uses Midjourney to create scenes, backgrounds and tokens for games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
These additions help to provide depth to experience to students, said St. Clair.
St. Clair is not alone in its use of AI. Several teachers and local administrators have adopted some form of technology in their work since the last versions were introduced three years ago.
Mark Dimauro
The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Professor Mark Dimauro, talks to the teachers of the Grand Johnstown on artificial intelligence and its impact in class on Friday January 12, 2025.
Mark Dimauro, a Pittsburgh academic at Johnstown, deputy professor of digital human sciences, specializing in AI studies, said that educators consider artificial intelligence as “inevitable reluctance”. They realized that it is not a fashion and not to disappear, so now it's time to learn to use it, he said.
Dimauro travels the region which organizes seminars in schools on the appropriate use of artificial intelligence and the possibilities that technology has, such as providing executives for course plans or helping tutor students.
Several IA -based educational websites, such as Magicschool IA, have been launched in recent years as tools to help teachers.
“Polarizing subject”
Since the start of his presentations, Dimauro has said that he had found that teachers are often distributed in three schools of thought: those who plead for AI and use it; Those who hesitate to start; And those who swear to never touch him.
“This is the most polarizing subject of all time,” said Dimauro.
The rise of the AI logo
When Chatgpt, a generative text model developed by Openai, released in November 2022, he created a splash in educational communities, with many more and more alarms that the large language model could be used by students to cheat in writing.
A report by Pew Research Center in November 2025 showed about one in five teenagers whom they interviewed, aged 13 to 17, “who heard of Chatgpt said they used it to help them do their school work.” But St. Clair said that he had not had this problem in his class to date.
Despite any potential negative use, teachers also implement artificial intelligence to help students write.
The Superintendent of the Central Cambria School District, Jason Moore, said that his staff in the English language uses AI to give students comments, who have succeeded.
“When students do state tests in the spring, assessors almost certainly use AI tools to make their summive evaluations of students' responses,” he said. “Therefore, teaching students how to use AI formatively to improve their writing, not only will help them spend testing time, but it will also help them in the next stage of life – be it college, labor, and this.”
According to a MAY 2025 Pew Research Center survey, a majority of children's garden to 12th year teachers was shy on AI in education. The results show that 35% were not sure of its use; 32 percent were mixed if they were good or harmful; 25% said there was more harm than advantages; And 6% have seen more advantages than damage.
A study by the National Education Association provided a different result. The teachers' union reported that the members said that they “overflowed with excitement during the time they had saved planning lessons with artificial intelligence, the starting start IA jump provided their music lessons during the composition of a new song, and the stage reader who helps their visually impaired students to obtain a mental layout of the playground or the class that prevents them.”
Richland High School director Timothy Rejea said that one of the best uses of AI was to check the work. He will sometimes use the tool to examine an email before sending it, and this is a point that the district impresses on students.
“We want children to use it to advance their intelligence,” he said.
Richland is a first adopter of the new technology. Not only does the high school offer a course “Exploration of the AI” taught by the computer teacher Becky Piscella, but the district also brought the Guru Matt Miller for the national series of speakers of this year for educators in the region.
“This is really an area if we do not expose children to what exists, so we do not prepare them for the jobs that we do not even know how to exist,” said Piscella.
His class explores a variety of artificial intelligence models and how to train them correctly and badly, while diving into coding aspects.
“The course in general … is built to expose them to the fundamental knowledge of AI so that they can understand clearly,” said Piscella. “The course covers all sides – good, bad, ethical problems with AI.”
The students responded well to the first offer, said Piscella. However, she highlights students that they should not be too dependent on technology.
Piscella said that “research repeatedly shows that AI is the most effective when improving human capacities rather than replacing them”.
“The best analysis of the AI I heard was that we have to worry less about taking our jobs and more of someone who knows how to use the more efficient AI to take our job,” said Moore.
Dimauro encourages his students to explore artificial intelligence, he said, but not to become a delegate and never to trust any technology. He does so by deleting their fear, teaching them to use it correctly and motivate them to play with these tools, he said.
“I try to promote curiosity,” said Dimauro.
Political progress
In response to the implementation of AI in schools, many regional districts, such as Central Cambria and North Star, have adopted policies to regulate its use. The article is filed in the section of district manual operations and generally numbered 815.1.
Politicians note the “potential that generative artificial intelligence offers to improve educational opportunities” while describing the “directives for appropriate management and responsible use” of the tool.
This use is limited to approved educational purposes and must comply with the applicable state and federal laws, depending on the policies.
In addition, “the tools and resources used in district schools and programs must be evaluated and continuously authorized at the Age-Appropriation, biases, privacy protections, accessibility standards and data security,” said the document.
Glenn Gaye, director of education at the Windber Area school district, said it was important to maintain a policies -oriented approach when it comes to AI.
“We constantly assess the potential advantages of staff, students and families,” he added.
Gaye has said that his point of view is that of prudent optimism when it comes to artificial intelligence in education.
However, there is the possibility of disciplinary problems linked to AI technology. Richland was the first local district to approach this situation in November when high school students would have used the tool to create and distribute obscene images of peers. An investigation into cooperation with the local authorities was launched and the case was processed internally.
REGAN said that with new technologies of new territory, and that disciplinary issues are examples of this intersection. For administrators, this means finding a transversal cut of precedents and new directives to approach the situation correctly, he said. This is another example of the need to educate students on the appropriate use of AI, added Ress.
“My biggest point to remember is to learn to live with this as educators so that we can transmit it correctly to our students,” said Ress.
Dimauro said that if educators and students are ready to put work and be trained to properly use AI, real learning can begin.
Large language models, such as Chatgpt, are the beginning of this, said St. Clair, not the end.
Dimauro has agreed, claiming that the development of quantum IT – advanced IT using quantum mechanics – and AI agents, which are autonomous intelligent systems to perform tasks, will revolutionize the field in the future.
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