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While teachers and administrators have qualms about artificial intelligence and its impact on the nation’s classrooms, communications professionals are finding ways to embrace the technology as they work to be more efficient in an always “on” world.

The approach of Dirk Tedmon, executive director of marketing and communications for Minnesota’s Eden Prairie Schools, is to “let AI do what it does well,” which is to help generate ideas that can be refined and personalized. He is using the technology to help synthesize and analyze large pieces of data and help in “first drafts” of communications to principals, staff, and parents in his 9,000-student suburban district.

“The key,” Tedmon says, “is to make sure you’re using it for idea generation and not your only method of communication.”

ChatGPT and other AI tools have “endless uses” for school communicators and educators, says Barbara Hunter, executive director of the National School Public Relations Association. Among them: Writing polite rejection emails, early drafts for speeches, brainstorming domain names and interview questions, and summarizing meeting notes.

“Using a tool like ChatGPT saves so much time and can really help spark the creative process,” she says, noting the tools can help draft and refine policies and write job descriptions, among other functions. “Boards need to understand the power it holds for staff functions like communications. It can allow you to reapportion time and remove the grunt work that sometimes prevents us from spending thoughtful time on larger projects.”

‘Interesting challenges’

While communications staff have largely embraced AI tools such as ChatGPT, the districts they work for have been slower to develop policies around their use for students and staff, according to a recent survey by NSPRA. More than 60% of communications staff surveyed see the value of the tools, with 45% saying they use them daily or weekly in their work. However, only 19% of those surveyed reported their district has or is working on a formal AI policy.

“One of the things that’s fascinating is this far-reaching technology has landed, and yet there are not a lot of policies or guardrails around its use,” Hunter says. “And you have to think that will be the next step, because AI is almost like the internet was in its infancy, when you knew it would eventually be used in classrooms, offices, and all sorts of function areas, but the majority of schools didn’t have a policy on how to use it.”

After Chat GPT launched in late 2022, Tedmon says his district formed an AI task force to study how it can be used to provide “authentic learning for students.” Eden Prairie, located southwest of the Twin Cities, was one of the first districts in the state to move to one-to-one devices and operates an online school that opened before the pandemic.

“When ChatGPT came out, there was a lot of excitement and fear and wondering, ‘What does this mean for us?’” Tedmon says. “We knew we were not going to ban it outright, but we could see where it could create a lot of interesting challenges in our schools and classrooms.”

The district has since developed detailed guidelines about the use of AI tools that were included in the 2024-25 school handbooks. And Eden Prairie also has developed a simple mantra when it comes to its approach to the tools.

“Artificial assessment leads to artificial intelligence,” Tedmon says. “Authentic assessment leads to authentic learning.”

‘AI can’t check itself’

Tedmon’s department is constantly looking for best practices and providing advice to staff and the board. But he has been hesitant to use the technology for issues that are “more tricky, nuanced or sensitive.

“Emotional intelligence comes into play when you want to connect with someone,” he says. “I look at it this way: AI is a tool. If incorrect facts are input, then the output will not provide factual or correct information because AI can’t check itself.”

Where he sees AI as most effective is in the district’s new website, which has a question-and-answer structure that lends itself to automated responses that are current and relevant.

“AI can be very helpful when people ask questions like, ‘What is for lunch today?’ And I think it will eventually be very helpful in guiding parents through the enrollment process,” he says, noting that will be extremely helpful in an open enrollment state.

In the end, he believes AI will help improve the “customer experience,” which he says has been a “weird thing” for school districts to think about.

“Generally speaking, in the past, we were not thinking of an experience in which everyone interacts with you,” he says. “But as we think of AI in that realm, there are many ways it can be so helpful, and that’s why we have to think about how we can use it in different ways. For those of us in communications, the ‘how might we’ question is so critical, because this tool is so powerful.

“It’s sticking around,” Tedmon says of the technology. “It’s not going to be a fad. We need to constantly look at how it will influence our work.”

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Glenn Cook (glenncook117@gmail.com), a contributing editor to American School Board Journal, is a freelance writer and photographer in Northern Virginia. He also spent five years as a communications director for a North Carolina school district.