Over the past few years, setting the boundaries for AI usage in classrooms has become a challenge for teachers and students in many different scenarios. Teachers are figuring out when it is okay to incorporate it, while students are learning how to use it as a tool to benefit their learning rather than stunting it.
Amidst the change in AI handbook rules, which allows teachers to incorporate AI into their assignments, students and teachers have been making a lot of progress with setting limits on when it is appropriate to use.
According to the new AI guidelines, “staff are encouraged to explore Generative AI systems for themselves. Generative AI tools can assist teachers in their work, and an understanding of these systems is crucial to supporting students as they learn to work in an evolving social and technology environment.”
Students use AI to help them with various topics in ways beyond what teachers might consider cheating. For example, senior Katelyn Brown has been finding it very useful, not to write her college essay for her, but instead to help her with word choice and vocabulary enhancements.
“Teachers do not always explain things in a way that makes sense to me so I think AI can give students a little extra help when they are stuck,” Brown said.
A challenge that is continuously being reevaluated is the appropriate time to use AI. Students are forbidden to use AI when it comes to having it write or complete an assignment. On the flip side, teachers have been bringing AI into classroom discussions and finding ways for students to use it.
German teacher Tim Welch uses AI in his classroom almost every single day. When it comes to completing assignments, he makes it clear to his students whether they are allowed to use AI resources or not. During classroom discussions, if one of his students does not know how to respond in German, Welch will suggest that they type the question into an AI application so they are able to respond quickly and discuss how to remember the response in the future.
“Before ChatGPT it was so hard to just throw out a random question that pops into my head that is super relevant to continuing the discussion,” Welch said. “[The question was] how are the kids going to find answers to it quick enough to respond to me? And that is where ChatGPT is perfect.”
AI has benefited Welch immensely when it comes to teaching his students German. However, the specific class that AI is being used in has a large impact on when and how it should be allowed.
“I think it is particularly useful for more tasks in language because of the nature of the program. [ChatGPT] is a language-based program and it is built to communicate with you like a person would communicate with you,” Welch said.
For instance, English teacher Brian Mahoney has been very cautious about bringing AI into the picture. As much as he and many other administrators prohibit using AI resources when it comes to writing, he does like the concept of using AI for ideas.
“It can be a useful tool if the teacher uses it correctly, just like Google Classroom is a useful tool, but it can also become a distraction. I find right now, it has impacted me because I feel like I am working around cheating and I am working around students relying on AI to replace their critical thinking capabilities, and that makes me nervous,” Mahoney said. “I am still trying to navigate those waters of when should we be using AI, when would it benefit the student and when is it replacing their critical thinking capabilities and therefore not benefiting them.”
However, Mahoney does believe that AI can benefit his lessons when it comes to getting background information on a novel quickly or finding sample thesis statements to learn from. He also thinks that it would be useful to have AI edit students’ work after it is graded so they can see what could have been improved upon. He finds it a good tool to use to build skills, but not to replace a thought process or originality.
Mahoney has also been giving out more paperwork to do in class as opposed to sending worksheets with students as homework to control where AI is used. He likes to have clarification that what his students started in class was their original work, not work done with the use of AI.
Mahoney also explained how our school system is working to prevent assigning busy work to students. He has noticed that simple busy work makes students feel the need to go to AI just to get it done faster. If the assignment is more authentic, then the students will have more motivation to put in their best effort and use their own voice.
“I worry that out of convenience and out of what seems like a progressive idea, students are going to sacrifice their intellectual integrity for the sake of a grade or for the sake of being able to facilitate work so they can just get it done,” Mahoney said.
Commonly, many students will jump to AI when they are feeling like they are unable to do an assignment or do not have the time, but Mahoney thinks that if a student is struggling to find an idea, they should step back.
“I think that [students] should get away from that desk for a second, take a breath, really give themselves a chance to process whether or not they are actually stuck or whether or not they are not getting the immediate gratification of an idea,” Mahoney said. “Then, if [students] cannot come up with the idea, I honestly think that [they] should struggle with failing with a bad idea because that is how you grow […]. [You] do not grow by cheating that and passing or getting a good grade on something that [you] didn’t put any work into. I would tell students to be courageous and be patient, and be willing to mess up because [you] will grow from those experiences. ”
AI can be biased and out of date which is why it is made clear that students can not just take the direct information that it provides, which often becomes the case if they are just trying to get an assignment done.
“When you get a good class and a good teacher, you learn […] and I think that feels good for most people […],” Welch said. “If you can make that happen in a way that does not really even open the possibility to cheating then that is the root to go.”
