BILLINGS — As artificial intelligence becomes more common in Montana classrooms, the Billings Education Association is working to make sure the technology supplements teachers rather than replaces them.
Contract negotiations are underway, and Billings teachers are fighting to ensure that future teaching jobs are protected from AI.
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Billings Education Association President Lance Edward said the goal is to make sure that the technology is available while keeping teachers in the classroom.
"We're not trying to get in the way of innovation or anything like that," Edward said Thursday morning. "What we're saying is there needs to be a human component or there always needs to be a human component."
The technology is getting more popular in Montana classrooms. In Laurel, second-grade teacher Colton Arneson uses AI daily to cut down on administrative work and free up time for his students.
"AI is an incredibly powerful tool," Arneson said. "It's really a way to gain back a lot of the time that teachers lose through administrative work, through lesson planning."
Arneson said that while it's a helpful tool, he is clear about AI's role in his classroom.
"It needs to be a tool, not a replacement," Arneson said. "It can't replace good teaching. It can't replace good prep."
Edward said that perspective is the driving force behind the contract negotiations in Billings.
"I would never want to outsource my parents' education to a computer," Edward said. "So, the goal for our negotiations team is to put a proposal forward that the district was also fully interested in."
Edward said the proposal has a straightforward goal.
"To insure that jobs historically and traditionally done by teachers continue to be historically and traditionally done by teachers," Edward said.
The move is preemptive, and Edward pointed to other districts around the country where AI has been discussed as a replacement for teachers and staffing shortages have created pressure to lean on technology.
"It's not a functional, stable model for the development of the whole child," Edward said.
Arneson agreed, stating that no technology can replicate what happens between a teacher and a student.
"It's not going to replace good teaching," Arneson said. "It's not going to replace the relationships that good teachers form with students."
Arneson expects that all districts will likely have to find their own answer as to how to use the technology to enhance traditional education.
"Every district is going to have to figure out where that balance lies," Arneson said.
