WHS and Generative AI
"Don't be a bot!" - Wayland High School and Generative AI
Wayland High School teachers and administrators spent the last few years thoughtfully considering the role generative AI plays in secondary education. During the 2026-2027 school year, in part due to compliance with existing data privacy agreements, Google Gemini will be made available to students to use as part of our educational technology offerings.
The Campaign
The “Don’t be a Bot” campaign is an intentional student-focused, generative AI literacy campaign. The objective of this campaign is to highlight why WHS will be enabling generative AI for students, demystify some of the technology, and generally educate about the intersection of generative AI and society. The campaign kicks off with the video series you can see linked below. This page will update as our plans unfold.
We believe...
As part of the decision to eventually make generative AI services available to students, the Technology Commitee developed a series of statements to frame our thinking and approach. As a Technology Committee, we believe...:
- ...that the power of a secondary, liberal arts education lies in its emphasis on making us more full, well-rounded human beings.
- ...that education technology has the potential to both positively and negatively impact our work as teachers and learners.
- ...that educators and students have the responsibility to discern and be purposeful about how using technology can diminish and enhance our individual capacities.
- ...it is important to be wary of the ways generative artificial intelligence can be detrimental to our core mission as it is designed to think for us and create dependency on the technology.
- ...that companies providing generative AI services are more interested in profit than helping people learn.
- ...that with intention and effort, educators can design ways to use generative AI to enhance student learning through personalization and greater metacognitive awareness.
- ...that educators have a responsibility to help students draw boundaries around their use of generative AI - knowing when to avoid its use and when and how it can be used to aid the learning process.