Workshop helps rural Ozarks educators harness AI tools

Educators from 25 school districts in the Ozarks signed up for a free workshop on how to responsibly harness the power of artificial intelligence in their work.

The June 5 training for rural educators was presented by the Greater Ozarks Cooperating School Districts, Missouri State University’s Center for Rural Education and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks Inc.

Four higher education institutions and a nonprofit were also part of the four-hour program. 

“We are preparing kids for their futures, not our past,” said David Schmitz, superintendent of Lebanon R-III School District. “If we as educators don’t understand AI better and leverage it, then we’re really going to miss out on taking advantage of these opportunities.”

Schmitz, the 2025 Missouri Superintendent of the Year, said teaching and learning must evolve as new tools emerge.

“I’ve always sought to have an adaptive mindset, and I think, from an education standpoint, public education has to really emulate adaptability because we’re preparing students for a world that is fundamentally different,” he said. “Five years ago, we did not have AI as a functional tool for the typical person, and today it is everywhere.”

The workshop focused on making AI work for any team in the educational setting, from administrators to special education teachers, was facilitated by Christian Jackson and Nathan Critchett of the Edapt Schools Inc.

Jackson, CEO of the company based in Los Angeles, said there is a lot of noise about AI that is preventing educators from learning about how this tool works.

“I’m sure you’ve had a lot of board meetings or sessions recently where the temperature seems to get higher and higher and higher especially as this year goes on around data centers, energy usage and just AI’s perception in general,” he said during the event at the Darr Agricultural Center. 

He said others often cite concern about cheating, inaccurate information and the impact on critical thinking skills. 

There was no cost to attend the workshop, and organizers said the goal was to how rural educators how to effectively implement AI tools in an ethical way.

In a wide-ranging keynote speech, Jackson said once educators achieve a level of comfort with AI, it can be used to differentiate student assignments, produce detailed meeting notes, grade certain assignments, create graphics, generate sample email messages and develop class schedules.

Jackson also outlined common pitfalls to using AI, such as relying on summaries rather than original source material, not providing enough context during prompts and not applying critical thinking.

“You should not just take the result from one of these AI systems as fact,” he said.

In the first part of the workshop, Jackson provided an overview of different AI tools and how they can be used in a school setting. One example was to survey students about their interest and then use that to personalize worksheets based on the results.

He also downloaded the entire high school course catalog for Springfield Public Schools – which is available online – and then asked Google’s Gemini to analyze the alignment of the curriculum to the area’s workforce needs. He said the result, generated in 15 minutes, was a 23-page report.

Jackson said the report was a starting point, but information must be verified. He added it would be irresponsible to use AI results without context or critical thinking. 

“That is malpractice with this technology,” he said. “It’s the same as going on ChatGPT and asking it to do an essay and copy and pasting it.”

Craig Carson, assistant superintendent of learning in the Ozark School District, said many educators are afraid of AI, but the tool is here to stay.

“AI is our future, but we have to figure out how...  to not shortchange thinking,” he said. “So, how do we use AI in a way that supports kids’ thinking, but they still have that foundation?”

Carson said he has embraced AI, and while some districts are implementing the tool more than others, any integration into the learning environment must first consider the impact to classroom teachers.

“How do I move them without messing up what works already and without it being overwhelming and too much?” he said. “This helps me hear what everybody else is thinking in the region.”