Dear AFT Guild Members,
Please see the resources below being made available by our national AFT. Additionally, please see the materials shared by one of our members, Adelle Roe, with respect to the disproportionate impact AI monitoring can have on students of color or students with disabilities in addition to this recent report published in EdSource on this topic.
As AI becomes part of our life at an exponential rate, I strongly urge everyone to consider all sides of this issue and any adverse impacts it may have have with respect to how you decide to utilize this new technology.
In Solidarity,
Jim
Jim Mahler, President
AFT Guild, Local 1931
I’m writing to let you know about two fantastic free resources for AFT members who are interested in media literacy, accurate and truthful information, and maintaining students’ academic integrity. If you’re impatiently scrolling and just want to get to the details about our partnership with NewsGuard and GPTZero, click here.
As educators, we experience the daily challenge of ensuring that our students have access to accurate and truthful information about many crucial subjects, including current events and history, developments in government and society, and the current state of scientific knowledge on questions that range from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change. The internet and social media can be powerful virtual libraries for education, opening up new vistas of learning for our students—but only if students are empowered to be critical, knowledgeable consumers of the vast amount of material that is now available on those media. Now more than ever, media literacy skills are an essential part of becoming an educated person and a responsible and engaged citizen in our democracy. This is where NewsGuard, a leading anti-misinformation tool, will be a helpful resource.
We are also already seeing the first signs of the impact that artificial intelligence will have on teaching and learning. We face new challenges in confirming the academic integrity of the work that students submit as their own. We have seen how AI can accelerate the spread of disinformation and propaganda, which poses real threats to our democracy and to the transmission of knowledge in our classrooms. And those who don’t understand that education rests on the foundation of the teacher-student relationship are already speculating about how teaching could be done by computers using AI. This is where GPTZero, the leading AI identification platform, will be a helpful resource.
All AFT members and their students and families can sign up for free access to NewsGuard and GPTZero, which includes:
• NewsGuard’s media literacy browser extension
• NewsGuard’s “Disinformation Risk Briefings,” a weekly digest of the top misinformation and disinformation trends and narratives
• GPTZero’s AI identification tool platform and pedagogical writing tools
Teachers continue to support incorporating new technology into the classroom, advocating for tools and safeguards like these so educators, parents, legislators and tech companies can better work together to ensure accountability and oversight. But with disinformation and potential abuse of AI running high, educators have identified an increasingly urgent need to propose solutions, including the expansion of media literacy and tools to detect the misuse of AI.
These solutions will encourage critical thinking, enhance the pursuit of knowledge, and sharpen the ability of students to think critically and recognize misinformation—all important skills for students to be successful in college, career and life.
Sign up to take advantage of the free resources from NewsGuard and GPTZero—and please share the link with your colleagues.
Thank you.
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President
Randi Weingarten, President
Fedrick Ingram, Secretary-Treasurer | Evelyn DeJesus, Executive Vice President
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