Dumb Question Maybe – Why Does My Rural Board Have Zero AI Guidance When TDSB Has a 20-Page Policy?
ok so maybe this is obvious to everyone but me but: I’m first year teaching math at a small rural Ontario school and I found out last week that TDSB has a detailed AI use policy with grade-level breakdowns. we have nothing. literally nothing in writing.
i asked my principal. she said “use your judgment.” i asked my department head. he said “just make sure students aren’t cheating.” i looked up our board website. nothing updated since 2022.
meanwhile TDSB teachers are working with actual frameworks. same province, same curriculum, completely different situation.
is this just how it is? is there anything a first-year teacher is supposed to do when the board hasn’t figured it out yet? or do I just keep using my judgment indefinitely?
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this is not a dumb question. this is a systemic equity failure. why should a student's experience of AI policy depend on the funding level and administrative capacity of their board? it shouldn't. but it does.
Not a dumb question at all - this is a real structural problem in how education governance works in Canada. Provincial curriculum is standardized. School boards are autonomous. The result is exactly what you're describing: sophisticated urban boards with resources to develop policy, rural and smaller boards without capacity to do the same.
My advice for a first-year teacher in that situation: document your own approach in writing, share it with students on your course outline, keep it consistent, and review it each term as the situation evolves. You can't wait for the board to figure it out - build your own framework and stick to it.
this is exactly the practical framework I needed. been waiting for someone to tell me I can just build my own approach without waiting for board sign-off.
quick question - when you say share it on your course outline, do you mean a literal AI policy section in the outline, or something more informal like a verbal explanation at the start of term?
first year rural Ontario teacher here too. same situation. the forum has been more useful than anything my faculty of education program gave me. TDSB vs everywhere else is not talked about enough.