Future-Ready Teaching: How IBM SkillsBuild is Empowering Educators in the Age of AI

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping every industry, and education is no exception. It’s no longer a matter of if AI will be in the classroom, but how we integrate it responsibly and effectively. Educators and school leaders need resources to help them better understand AI and how it can be used to create powerful learning experiences in the classroom.

IBM SkillsBuild is one such resource—a free platform where both teachers and students can learn alongside each other and earn badges for exploring technical and workplace skills. Keep reading to hear how three educators are using SkillsBuild to get themselves and their students future-ready.

Building the Skills to Integrate AI

Carol-Ann Winans, the executive director of curriculum and instruction at Wantagh Union Free School District (New York), is leading the charge in her district to integrate AI literacy into their educational framework. To help her district be future-ready, Carol-Ann and her team are using IBM SkillsBuild to deepen their knowledge around AI and technology.

With the knowledge gained from learning on SkillsBuild, Carol-Ann and her team are actively incorporating various AI tools—chatbots, co-editors, conversational spaces, and lesson planning generators—to optimize student learning and enhance teacher efficiency.

Understanding the Impact of AI

Ethical and practical adoption of AI in education requires a well-prepared and well-informed human network, including educators, district staff, and crucial support teams. Librarians are an essential part of this support structure; they are the frontline experts in finding reliable resources, a task that has become significantly more complex with the rise of AI.

Ashley Holtmeyer, a library media specialist at the Jefferson City School District (Missouri), understood the critical need for a foundational AI understanding, both to answer students’ and teachers’ questions and to curate reliable resources. To meet this need, Ashley turned to SkillsBuild to expand her knowledge and put time toward her professional learning hours.

Personalizing Professional Development

Great teachers are always on the lookout for reliable resources to help their students, whether to improve their pedagogy, deepen their content knowledge, or uncover strategies that move them beyond traditional methods. On SkillsBuild, students and educators can earn badges for exploring everything from technical skills like AI literacy and UX design, to workplace skills like communication and design thinking.

Choosing from hundreds of free modules, Chantal Edmonds from Phenix City Schools (Alabama) used SkillsBuild to personalize her professional development journey and model lifelong learning for her students.