Case Study: Empowering Alaska’s Educators with AI Literacy

Partner: Alaska Staff Development Network (ASDN)

Challenge:

Preparing Educators for AI’s Role in the Classroom

As Generative AI rapidly transforms education, Alaska’s educators needed guidance on how to engage with AI ethically, effectively, and with a human-centered approach. The Alaska Staff Development Network (ASDN) recognized the urgency to equip teachers and administrators with practical, research-backed strategies for integrating AI into their schools.

Solution:

A Five-Part AI Training Series with Shifting Schools

In Fall 2024, Shifting Schools partnered with ASDN to deliver a five-part professional development series focused on AI literacy, classroom integration, and ethical decision-making. Designed to be accessible, interactive, and immediately applicable, the training series covered:

1️⃣ The educator’s AI toolkit: Key concepts, and three tools for differentiated instruction

2️⃣ Prompt Craft Essentials: Advanced skills for making the most of generative AI

3️⃣ AI Hackathon: Bring one unit, lesson or activity

4️⃣ A new era of fact-checking: What does it mean to be a critical consumer of information in the era of AI?

5️⃣ Elevating executive function: Ways to help students learn to be better organized and self-regulators with AI.

The series was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback, with over 50 educators from across Alaska praising the human-centered approach, actionable insights, and real-world application of AI in education.

Impact:

Expanding AI Literacy Across Alaska

Due to the success of the Fall 2024 training, ASDN is brought the series back in Spring 2025, with another 30+ educators engaging in the trainings. ASDN also added the next phase of the trainings with two additional advanced sessions focused on deepening AI literacy for educators and administrators who attended the first set of trainings and want to continue to go further.

These sessions are:

✅ Reimagining Assessment

Practical ways to weave AI literacy into your existing units and lessons.

Considerations for conversations to have with students about emerging ways to sustain academic integrity.

✅ Thinking outside of the Bot

An introduction to what the research says about learning with bots as well as insights into ways to design them for better learning.

Why This Matters

This collaboration exemplifies Shifting Schools’ commitment to supporting Local Educational Agencies (LEA) as well as school districts and educational networks in navigating AI’s impact on teaching and learning. By using a human-centered approach, we ensure AI is not just another tech trend—but a powerful tool for enhancing education.

Looking Ahead

Shifting Schools continues to partner with LEAs, districts, and state organizations to design custom AI professional development programs tailored to the needs of teachers, administrators, and district leaders.