Students will learn about AI use as part of digital literacy and, as they get older, may have opportunities to use approved AI tools for specific learning purposes. The approach to AI use is age-appropriate, educator-guided, and grounded in LDSB’s 5 guiding principles.
Limestone’s 5 Guiding Principles
- Ethical Use: AI use should be responsible, transparent, accountable, and connected to clear learning expectations.
- Accessibility and Equity: AI may support some learners in some contexts, but it is not automatically the right tool for every student or situation.
- Teaching and Learning: AI use is considered based on whether it supports the learning goal, student understanding, and the teaching/learning process.
- Enhancement and Improvement: Limestone supports thoughtful exploration, reflection, and ongoing learning as technologies continue to change.
- Protection and Privacy: Personal information, student data, and safe technology use remain central to decisions about AI.
In the Limestone District School Board, our approach to AI use is balanced, cautious, responsible, and focused on supporting instruction and student learning. With guidance, educators decide whether an AI tool is appropriate for a particular age, task, and learning goal. Our priority is helping students understand AI, recognize its limitations, and make thoughtful, responsible decisions when introducing technology tools as part of their learning.
AI literacy is part of digital literacy. Students learn to ask good questions, check information, protect privacy, recognize bias, and use technology in ways that support, rather than replace, their own thinking, creativity, relationships, and learning.
AI in the Classroom and K–12 Continuum of Learning
K–8: Building Digital Literacy Foundations
In Kindergarten to Grade 8, students learn about AI as part of a broader digital literacy foundation. This may include online safety, privacy, digital citizenship, media literacy, misinformation, bias, data, algorithms, and how technology can influence what people see and believe.
Any use of AI tools in K–8 is guided by age, learning goals, privacy considerations, and educator direction.
Grades 9–12: Guided Use of Generative AI Tools
In Grades 9–12, students may have opportunities to use generative AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot through Limestone’s protected Microsoft environment. Use is guided by educator direction, course expectations, learning goals, privacy requirements, and the nature of the task.
AI tools used for school purposes must be transparent, meet Board requirements and are used only with educator direction.
Digital Media Literacy Modules: A Continuum of Learning
In Limestone, Digital Media Literacy Modules help students build safe, kind, thoughtful, and responsible online habits from Kindergarten through Grade 12.
The modules provide flexible, classroom-ready resources that can be woven into different subject areas, including digital citizenship, online safety, privacy, data, security, media literacy, and emerging technologies such as AI.
- Primary: Students begin with guided conversations about being safe, kind, and responsible online.
- Junior: Students develop greater independence by learning about digital identity, media credibility, privacy, online decision-making, misinformation, bias, data, and algorithms.
- Intermediate and Secondary: Students apply these skills in more complex, real-world contexts connected to learning, work, citizenship, and life beyond school.
For families, this means students build connected skills over time to support critical thinking, well-being, privacy, communication, and responsible technology use.
Strengths, Limitations, Safety, and Privacy
AI may be useful for exploring ideas, organizing information, receiving feedback, creating study supports, generating examples, or approaching a task in a different way when it is used with guidance and a clear learning purpose.
AI-generated responses can also contain errors, reflect bias, disregard context, or sound confident when the information is inaccurate.
Students are supported in checking AI-generated content against trusted sources, protecting personal information, and applying their own knowledge, judgment, and voice.
Academic Integrity and Authentic Student Work
When AI use is part of a learning task, students are expected to follow the educator’s instructions, be clear about whether and how the tool was used, and show their own thinking. AI should not be used to complete work that students are expected to do independently or submitted as if it were entirely their own work.
Educators may ask students to explain their process, share drafts or notes, describe how AI supported their work, or complete follow-up conversations to demonstrate understanding.
Student evaluation continues to rely on educator professional judgment, classroom observation, learning conversations, student process, and multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and can do.
Educators focus on evidence of learning, student explanations, and assessments gathered over time.
Frequently Asked Questions and Supporting Learning at Home
Question: Why are students learning about AI?
Students may encounter AI in many places, including search tools, social media, digital assistants, educational technologies, and future workplaces. Learning about AI helps students think critically, ask better questions, protect privacy, and understand when human judgment matters.
Question: How is AI used in Limestone classrooms?
AI use will look different depending on the grade, subject, learning goal, and task. In some activities, AI may be used as a support. In others, students may be expected to complete work independently so educators can assess their own thinking, skills, and understanding.
Question: How can AI support different learners?
For some students, and in some contexts, AI tools may provide additional ways to access information, organize ideas, practise skills, or communicate learning. AI tools are not a replacement for individualized support, professional judgment, or inclusive teaching practices. Educators continue to consider each student’s strengths, needs, learning goals, privacy, and well-being when deciding which tools and strategies may support learning.
Question: Can my child use Copilot or another AI tool to do homework?
It depends on the assignment. Educators will communicate when AI use is permitted, expected, limited, or not permitted. Students are responsible for following those directions and demonstrating their own learning.
When AI is permitted, students may be expected to explain how they used it and how they checked or evaluated its output. AI should not be used to complete work that students are expected to do independently or submitted as if it were entirely their own work.
Question: How can families support responsible AI use at home?
Parents and caregivers do not need to be AI experts. Open conversations and thoughtful questions can help children pause, think critically, and make responsible choices with technology. Families are encouraged to reach out to their child’s teacher if you have questions about the use of AI in their child’s classroom.