Hawaiʻi private schools adopt varied AI strategies for classroom integration

Most private schools in Hawaiʻi have formed some version of a department that reviews integration of AI in the classroom. But they’re not taking the same approach.

As Punahou School President Michael Latham puts it, it's not a question of yes or no on AI, but a question of how, to what end and under what conditions for what purposes.

At Punahou, teachers and students in the high school have access to Google's Gemini for Education. Departments collaborate with the school's administration to decide how it's used in coursework. Punahou teachers are given in-house AI training and often use it to create rubrics and help with grading.

At Mid-Pacific Institute, teachers decide how much AI to use in their classrooms. That’s the approach most schools are taking.

Mid-Pac's students in the lower grades use SchoolAI, which is monitored and has built-in guardrails. The school's high school students use generative AI through Gemini.

Danelle Landgraf is Mid-Pac’s director of educational technology. She says it's the job of educators to teach students how to use AI tools responsibly without having the training wheels on all the time.

Kamehameha Schools is one of 55 schools to partner with OpenAI to expand the use of ChatGPT for Teachers, which gives teachers access to a customized AI platform with privacy and administrative safeguards.

But while some schools are leaning into the use of AI, others are taking a slower approach. At Hawaii Baptist Academy, the AI strategy for now is focusing on training teachers, but the school does have a digital awareness program that teaches students how AI can and should be used.