AI in education: Leadership, oversight and do schools need an AI officer?

The increasing use of AI in schools requires leadership and oversight to ensure that the benefits and opportunities of AI are realised, whilst avoiding the risks and harms. But who should do this in schools? At what level, and in what department? Should it be an AI Officer? This article takes a closer look at the requirements for leadership and oversight in schools and how this is being approached.

This article is part of a series of insights from 9ine exploring the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. From the opportunities it can bring, to the potential risks and challenges it creates where not implemented appropriately, this series will bring you up to speed and provide practical tips to remain compliant and ethical when using AI in education. 

In our previous article, we looked at the impact of AI on privacy, data protection and ethics in education, looking at how the use of AI in education exacerbates existing ethical issues as well as creating new ones. In this article, we look at the leadership and oversight that schools need when it comes to governing AI, including the question of whether an AI Officer is required. 

What is the role of leadership and oversight in schools?

The purpose of leadership within a school is to monitor and guide team member’s and teacher’s work, to ensure that they meet the school’s established goals and standards. It includes setting objectives, providing detailed instructions and regularly reviewing the progress of the school against these.

The use of AI in schools is a relatively new phenomenon, meaning that the need to provide leadership and oversight on it is also a new concept to schools. Schools have already had experience of integrating, leading on, and providing oversight of traditional Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) (such as computers and the world wide web) but with technology leaders like Bill Gates describing AI as the most important technical advance in decades, previous leadership and oversight approaches to traditional ICT are not necessarily fit for purpose. 

Everyone has a role to play in the responsible use of AI, as all stakeholders within a school are part of the AI ecosystem and lifecycle, whether it is their data being used by an AI system, that they are impacted by its decisions, or because they have a responsibility for how AI is used within a school. When it comes to leadership and oversight, the key questions for schools are: Who should have responsibility, accountability and oversight of AI use in our school? Where should they sit in terms of seniority, hierarchy and department? What responsibilities do they have? Is this one person or multiple? 

How are schools doing this currently? 

Despite AI’s broad range of applications, the responsibility for the successful integration of AI has largely been placed on IT departments. This has mainly been because AI is seen as an ICT Tool, that the AI tools which a school uses are often provided by EdTech vendors (meaning that IT can manage the engagement with these vendors) and because IT departments are capable of managing the technical aspects of AI systems, including security. 

But leaving the leadership and oversight of AI use in a school to just the IT department misses out on a lot of value which can be gained from good AI leadership and oversight, and also exposes a school to a lot of risks where the responsible use of AI may need input from other areas and departments. 

Having IT lead on AI leadership and governance will not necessarily involve looking at the strategic deployment of AI systems, to benefit the school as a whole, and the offering it gives to current and potential students. AI has the opportunity to revolutionise how schools operate, and to make them pioneering schools when used responsibly and appropriately. A school may strategically want to be seen as a place where AI is a key part of the schools day-to-day, or where it gains a reputation for having specialist teachers in AI, with AI as a key part of the curriculum. Keeping the leadership and oversight of AI just to one department may limit the ability to have this strategic oversight and forward thinking. 

Another area where some schools have looked at placing the responsibility for AI leadership and oversight is where the responsibilities lie for data protection and privacy. Due to the ethical issues which AI raises, as an area of ethics and the fact that AI often involves processing personal data, it somewhat makes sense to give the individual(s) responsible for this at a school the responsibility for leadership and oversight of AI too. However, this still misses out on this strategic view depending on the level at which the person (or people) with this role operates. Additionally, the issues and risks which AI raises are broader than just privacy concerns and the policies and procedures which will be required to govern AI will go beyond its use of personal data, involving a technical, ethical, legal and pedagogical element, meaning that this would expand the role of the privacy and data protection lead in your school substantially. 

What is an AI Officer and do I need one? 

In trying to overcome this issue of who, what and how when it comes to AI leadership and oversight, a new role has emerged, that of an ‘AI Officer’. The role of an AI Officer is to ensure accountability, leadership and oversight of AI to ensure that it is safe, ethical, unbiased and non-discriminatory. 

The introduction of the concept of AI Officer has been likened to the introduction some countries have made for the mandatory requirement of a Data Protection Officer to provide oversight on privacy and data protection. Some countries are choosing to simply require certain governance controls to be in place for AI, being less prescriptive about the specific roles that have responsibility for them, whereas others are introducing mandatory requirements for them in certain areas, such as the White House in the US requiring federal agencies to designate AI Officers earlier in 2024. The reference to the need for designation of an AI Officer has also been made in various proposed legislation. 

Having someone designated as an AI Officer can overcome these issues of fragmented leadership and oversight by giving someone overall accountability and oversight of the school’s use of AI, meaning that even where it is not currently legally required, it is something that schools may want to consider. An AI Officer can provide: 

• Strategic Leadership: They can drive the AI strategy, to align with a school’s broader roadmap and goals, identifying opportunities where AI can add value and create efficiencies. By working closely with teachers and students, the role can understand their individual needs, as well as the schools as a whole to obtain buy-in and integrate AI into the school 
• Technology Oversight: An AI Officer can ensure the correct AI solutions are developed and deployed to meet the strategy of the school on AI, in the broader context of their digital transformation strategy 
• Team Management: An AI Officer can lead and build teams, and networks of teachers in schools with responsibilities for AI, to ensure that the school has the necessary resources and support to execute AI initiatives successfully. They can also help manage the relationship with EdTech vendors using AI. 
• Ethics, Governance and Compliance: An AI Officer can ensure all uses of AI comply with the ethical, privacy and security standards and policies the school has, and is subject to. They can play the key role in the development and communication of these policies to teachers, parents and students. 
• Advocacy and Education: An AI Officer will be responsible for educating the rest of the school and the broader community of external stakeholders on the school’s approach and vision for AI. This can help make the school have excellence in AI use and governance, a peaceful thought for concerned parents and students and an attractive prospect to future students (as well as potential financial backers) in the positioning of the school. 

Our view is that the role of an AI Officer is not restricted to a single person. The decisions that need to be made by the ‘role’ span different skill sets. The responsibilities consider pedagogy, safeguarding, privacy and cyber security expertise. Additionally the role requires subjective analysis of each of these considerations when determining how AI should be deployed and then how it will be managed. Creating a team that has oversight for all the responsibilities of the AI Officer is likely the first best step. Second to that is creating a policy for the evaluation and use of AI in school, and thirdly, identifying the training that is required for all staff to support their understanding of AI and the implications of the schools AI policy.

What do schools need to do? 

Whether schools decide to designate an AI Officer or allocate roles and responsibilities for AI across the school, schools need to ensure that they have leadership and oversight of AI in place. They need to: 

• Understand and integrate AI into strategic planning and decision-making processes:  This ensures that the impact that AI can have on a school’s long-term goals and their competitive edge is considered.
• Ensure that responsible AI practices are in place: This includes security, privacy and data protection, human oversight and ethical decision-making, and helps to safeguard your school’s reputation, and build trust with students, parents, teachers, governors and trustees. These practices need to be demonstrated and championed by leaders within schools on AI. 
• Foster collaboration across departments on AI: Schools need to break down silos and bring diverse perspectives to conversations about AI. There should be forums for discussion and knowledge sharing, regular workshops, training sessions and webinars to keep everyone in the school informed about the latest AI tools and best practices.  
• Build a network of AI leads: Identify potential leaders on AI within the school and provide them with opportunities to develop their AI skills, through formal training and/or hands-on experience.

At 9ine we offer a number of products and services that can help schools with the challenges that AI presents, specific solutions to support schools with their leadership and oversight of AI include: 

• 9ine Academy LMS: Our AI Pathway is your school's learning partner for AI ethics and governance. With differentiated course levels you can enrol staff in an Introductory course to AI, then for those staff with a greater responsibility, enrol them in Intermediate and Advanced courses. There’s also specialist courses for Ai in Safeguarding, Child Protection and technology.
• Application Library: A solution that enables all staff to access a central searchable library of all EdTech in the school. The library contains all information staff need to know about the AI in use (if there is), privacy risks, safeguarding risks and cyber risks. With easy to add ‘How to’ and ‘Help’ guides, Application Library becomes a single, central digital resource. Through implementing Application Library your school will identify duplication in EdTech, reduce contract subscription costs and have a workflow for the request of new EdTech for staff to follow.
• Vendor Management: Removes the pain, and time, from evaluating and vetting third party vendor contracts, privacy notices, information security policies and other compliance documents. Vendor Management provides a thorough, ‘traffic light’ based approach to inform you of vendor privacy, cyber, AI, and safeguarding risks. Vendor Management supports you to demonstrate to parents, staff and regulators how you effectively evaluate and manage technology you choose to deploy.
• Privacy Academy: A virtual, in-person 6 month monthly training and professional development to manage privacy law, AI, cybersecurity and safeguarding risks of harm at your school. Following a project based methodology we train and coach you on implementing a Privacy Management Programme, considering AI, cyber and safeguarding risks of harm.

In our next article, we will take a practical look at helping schools in finding your AI systems and categorising them. 

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9ine equips schools to stay safe, secure and compliant. We give schools access to all the expertise they need to meet their technology, cyber, data privacy, governance, risk & compliance needs - in one simple to use platform. For additional information, please visit www.9ine.com or follow us on LinkedIn @9ine.