The Creative Classroom with John Spencer
May 24, 2026 · 0 min · 13 segments
This week, I’m doing something different with my blog and my podcast. I’ve compiled a list of the most common questions I get about AI when I’m teaching courses and leading professional development on…
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What would you recommend in terms of a school-wide or district-wide education policy? [lip smack] So I love this question because when ChatGPT first hit the scene, schools scrambled to develop, like, a school-wide AI usage policy with clear boundaries that students could follow.
Um, you can use, uh, AI to get feedback on your work, but not to solve problems, or you can use it to edit, but not to write.
You might have a science course where an AI video editing tool saves time on jump cuts, but a film class where proper editing is a key skill you want students to master.
This means that we need to move away from this, like, one-size-fits-all model for AI integration and into something much more contextual, where we move along a sliding scale.
And that's part of why I created this in-- uh, AI integration continuum from AI resistance into a place of being more AI informed, AI integrated, and then into a place that's AI driven.
As educators, we can then be clear about when and how students can use AI in our classrooms.
Some teachers use, like, a stoplight approach, where green means you can use it, yellow means use it cautiously, red u- means you can't use it at all.
But even that doesn't capture the nuanced reality that you will need to m- move back and forth on this continuum.
Um, a single project is gonna often move a- all across, you know, red, yellow, green, back and forth, and same is true in, in some cases of assignments.
So the goal is to be clear and explicit, and in some cases, if you're using some kind of a stoplight system, you're gonna have to do that within the assignment itself, i- in your directions.
I also think it's really important that you follow state or provincial policies wherever you live, if you're in US, Canada, Australia, whatever you call that, those locales.
Um, in the US, where I live, uh, it means following COPPA, CIPA, FERPA, any data privacy policies as well.
What would you recommend in terms of a school-wide or district-wide education policy? [lip smack] So I love this question because when ChatGPT first hit the scene, schools scrambled to develop, like, a school-wide AI usage policy with clear boundaries that students could follow.
Um, you can use, uh, AI to get feedback on your work, but not to solve problems, or you can use it to edit, but not to write.
You might have a science course where an AI video editing tool saves time on jump cuts, but a film class where proper editing is a key skill you want students to master.
This means that we need to move away from this, like, one-size-fits-all model for AI integration and into something much more contextual, where we move along a sliding scale.
And that's part of why I created this in-- uh, AI integration continuum from AI resistance into a place of being more AI informed, AI integrated, and then into a place that's AI driven.
As educators, we can then be clear about when and how students can use AI in our classrooms.
Some teachers use, like, a stoplight approach, where green means you can use it, yellow means use it cautiously, red u- means you can't use it at all.
But even that doesn't capture the nuanced reality that you will need to m- move back and forth on this continuum.
Um, a single project is gonna often move a- all across, you know, red, yellow, green, back and forth, and same is true in, in some cases of assignments.
So the goal is to be clear and explicit, and in some cases, if you're using some kind of a stoplight system, you're gonna have to do that within the assignment itself, i- in your directions.
I also think it's really important that you follow state or provincial policies wherever you live, if you're in US, Canada, Australia, whatever you call that, those locales.
Um, in the US, where I live, uh, it means following COPPA, CIPA, FERPA, any data privacy policies as well.
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