In a movement aimed at bringing artificial intelligence to the heart of American classrooms, the American teachers' Federation (AFT) launched the National Academy for IA Instruction, a joint initiative of $ 23 million with Microsoft, Openai, Anthropic and the Federation of United Teachers (UFT).
The initiative, unveiled in New York, aims to provide free and complete AI training at all 1.8 million AFT members – to start with kindergarten teachers to the 12th year – via a new physical and digital center hosted in Manhattan.
It marks the first major partnership between a union of American teachers and the technology sector on this scale, offering a national model as educators worldwide to adapt to the rapid rise of AI in classrooms.
The announcement comes in the midst of growing global concerns concerning the pace of the adoption of AI in education, with governments and unions in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore which all launch variable forms of AI literacy programs for teachers.
In the United Kingdom, The Ministry of Education Funded pilot projects to integrate AI tools into school leadership and lessons planning. In South KoreaThe government has committed to providing AI education in all schools by 2027. But the American initiative is distinguished by its structure led by the Union and its strong public-private coalition.
“Educators are overwhelmed by the speed of change in AI,” said AFT president Randi Weingarten. “This academy places them in the driver's seat. It is not a question of replacing teachers – it is a question of giving them the tools and ethical frames to use AI to improve what they already do best. ”
The Academy will operate from a center specially designed in New York, with plans nationwide. In five years, it aims to train 400,000 educators-about 10% of the educational workforce in the United States and to reach more than 7 million students.
The program will offer accredited ways and current professional development, with components in person and virtual.
Educators as IA architects
Brad Smith, vice-president and president of Microsoft, described the project as an “integration model responsible for AI” in schools. “This partnership will not only help teachers learn to use AI, which gives them a voice to shape how we build it,” he said.
Microsoft and AFT began to lay the foundations for the initiative two years ago in collaboration with the AFL-CIOThanks to the summer symposiums aimed at exploring the role of AI in work and education.
OPENAI, whose technology underpins popular tools like Chatgpt, has echoed teachers to take the lead. “The AI should be a coach, not critical,” said Chris Lehane, director of world affairs. “This academy will ensure that AI is deployed to support the educator's mission – not disturbing it.”
Anthropic, known for its model of AI Claude, said that the partnership reflects the urgency of the adoption responsible for AI in schools. “We are at a pivotal time,” said co-founder Jack Clark. “The way we teach AI now will shape the next generation relationship with it.”
The program will cover the literacy of AI, ethics, class applications and workflow improvements – the classification and planning of lessons to the generation of differentiated teaching materials. Innovation Labs will allow educators to co-conceive of tools with AI developers, and comments from the use of the class will shed light on future updates.
For some teachers, the initiative recalls previous technological changes. “It's like when we have obtained text processing for the first time, but ten times bigger,” said Vincent Plato, a kindergarten educator in the 8th year in New York. “The AI can become the partner of a teacher's thought, especially when you plan the courses at midnight.”
Marlee Katz, a teacher for deaf and hard of hearing students, noted how IA tools are already improving communication. “Sometimes you have trouble finding the right tone or the right sentence – these tools do not replace your voice, they help you to express it better.”
The roots of the resident initiative with Roy Bahat, a venture capital and a member of AFT who proposed the idea after having helped to facilitate early dialogues between Microsoft and the workers' movement. Bahat, who directs Bloomberg Beta, will join the board of directors of the Academy.
The launch underlines an increasing awareness that educational AI cannot only be left to the technological sector. The union led by the union offers a counterweight to descending government mandates or unregulated Edtech deployments seen elsewhere.
Fremantle is associated with the AI Multi-Vesse training platform
Throughout Europe, AI directives for schools were largely published by the Ministries of Education with a limited consultation of teachers. On the other hand, the AFT initiative positions educators not as adopters but as co-concerters.
“Too often, new technologies are armed against teachers,” said UFT president Michael Mulgrew. “This time we build something that works For educators. “”
The Academy should start instruction this fall. With the bipartite support of political decision -makers and a wave of demand from schools already experimenting with generative AI, its success could serve as a plan for the way unions and industry could collaborate more widely on the future of work.
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