Hawaiʻi · AI Literacy & Creation Pilot
Students are going to use AI anyway. The question is whether Hawaiʻi schools teach them to use it well.
An AI literacy and creation pilot where students build real things — projects, prototypes, media, portfolio work — with teacher oversight and clear assessment. It slots into structures schools already run: senior projects and capstones, career academies, Early College, and responsible-AI expectations. CTE alignment (HIDOE lists Artificial Intelligence under Information Technology & Digital Transformation) is one lane — not the whole identity. The first goal is a fit conversation, not a full implementation decision.
Not “they learned about AI.” By the end, a student can make, explain, and defend something real.
1 Where it fits at a school like Waimea
- Senior Project / PTP — a built artifact + documented process (what the student tried, what AI contributed, what changed, why) that supports capstone-style assessment
- Tech & Design Academy — AI-assisted work fits its Digital Design, Engineering & Programming programs of study
- Early College / college-career readiness — portfolio evidence students carry into Kauaʻi CC dual credit and beyond
- Digital citizenship / responsible AI use — the judgment side of HIDOE’s responsible-use expectations
- Freshman Academy / advisory — a lighter or later exposure version
2 What students can do by the end
- Build an AI-assisted project, prototype, or media piece
- Evaluate AI outputs for accuracy, bias, and limits
- Document their process — capstone-ready evidence of what AI did and what they changed
- Use AI responsibly — privacy, consent, attribution, honesty
- Present portfolio-ready work they can show and defend
3 Who teaches it & what it costs
- One teacher — no CS department, no coding prerequisite
- Teacher keeps oversight — managed accounts, no student PII in prompts
- Existing devices — browser-based; no new hardware to start
- Low entry cost — mainly teacher time + a short PD institute
4 Equity first — not pay-to-play
A family-pay camp would gate access by income and widen the gap it should close. For Waimea, the preferred model should be school-, grant-, partner-, or scholarship-funded — not family-pay.
- Less “parents buy an AI summer camp”
- More “a school or community partner brings in a funded AI literacy & creation pilot”
5 Funding lanes to explore — if there’s fit
Plausible lanes worth mapping — not guaranteed funding:
- Perkins V / CTE — as a career pathway (via Hawaiʻi P-20 / State CTE Office)
- Title IV-A — digital literacy & effective use of technology
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers — out-of-school / summer
- HIDOE summer learning — run inside existing summer structures
- Credentials, honestly — assessed capstone + portfolio now; CTE pathway progress and AI-900 prep are adoption lanes, not claims
6 The smallest first step
The first goal is not a full implementation decision — it’s to identify where this naturally fits and whether a tailored follow-up / demo makes sense. If it does:
- One teacher, one cohort, a few weeks — in-school, after-school, or summer
- Funded from the start, on existing devices — not family-pay
- One real artifact per student, documented and presented — the on-ramp to Course 1
School specifics (Senior Project, academies, Early College) come from Waimea High School’s published materials; fit is offered as a conversation starter, and no school or HIDOE endorsement is implied. This pilot is designed to complement HIDOE’s AI guidance on responsible, ethical use. Funding references describe alignment and fit, not guaranteed funding; eligibility and purchasing rest with HIDOE CTE leadership, Hawaiʻi P-20 / the State CTE Office, UH partners, federal-program coordinators, and procurement officials. Microsoft AI-900 is offered as national exam preparation only; Hawaiʻi-specific credential recognition was not verified and is not claimed. No Hawaiʻi CTE-specific Weighted Student Formula weight was verified, so none is claimed.