Artificial Intelligence Continues to Take Over Life in the Classroom
The campus has many varying views on how AI usage should be regulated in education.
By Davis Jones
The campus has many varying views on how AI usage should be regulated in education.
By Davis Jones
Ever since the introduction of artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT, many students have relied on AI to do their schoolwork for them.
Now that AI is here and its usage continues to increase, students and teachers have to adapt and find ways to ensure that AI won’t negatively impact education. Many teachers have had to adjust their assignments to make it harder for students to plug them into AI programs.
This year, many teachers are trying to limit the opportunity for AI to be used in classrooms by modifying assignments.
“This semester I am much more focused on controlling the assignments and having students do more in class and not take the assignments home because the students take them home and they come back completed and the assignment seems like it wasn’t written in their voice. It’s problematic,” said English teacher Ryan Alpers.
Recently, teachers have gained access to tools that can help combat the use of plagiarism in the classroom. One of these tools is a program added to teachers’ Canvas page called Turnitin.com, which is able to detect if a student has plagiarized, including by using AI programs.
While many tend to focus on the negatives AI brings to the classroom, English teacher Megan Brown feels that AI has potential for good as an academic resource.
“If regulated properly, AI can be used as a superb source of information for simple questions that don’t require a ton of analysis. I use AI to generate questions for several assignments. I know students benefited from using AI to spark ideas for creative writing last year, and it helped,” said Brown.
On the other hand, English teacher Beth Stafford believes that AI is detrimental to students’ education.
“Personally, I don’t think AI has a place in the classroom. The point of our high school classes is for students to learn and grow, and become independent, critical thinkers. AI limits that and takes away from the student voice and experience,” Stafford said. “It takes away from the whole experience of creating and thinking and students essentially are not doing the coursework as assigned. It also makes the teachers’ jobs increasingly even more difficult to manage the use of AI.”
Azra Emekci, 10, and Selma Emekci, 9, founded the AI4ALL Club with the purpose of encouraging the use of artificial intelligence in day to day life. Members like Andrea Martinez, 10, have learned how to utilize it efficiently and effectively.
“I believe the purpose of this club is to expose students to artificial intelligence and its use in a variety of day to day things. It exposes us students to machine learning and neural networks and many cool things like that,” Martinez said.
The main concern about AI in education is whether or not students are actually reliant on AI to help them plagiarize and cheat their classes.
“A study by Stanford Graduate Researchers, however, disproves this theory. It seems a whopping 60% to 70% of students have reported that they cheat in school, even before ChatGPT was publicly available. The number has barely changed during the 2023 surveys which were modified to accommodate questions about how students use AI,” said Selma Emekci.
While AI continues to grow, becoming a larger part of life, it’s important that students and teachers learn to understand the positives and negatives AI can bring to life in the classroom.
“The truth is models such as ChatGPT are producing outputs with minimal inaccuracy and are expanding their datasets at an exponential speed,” said Azra Emekci. “A couple years ago, such things were deemed nearly impossible. In summary it is important to recognize that the potential for misuse of AI doesn’t overshadow its vast potential for positive impacts in our society.”
Now that AI is here and its usage continues to increase, students and teachers have to adapt and find ways to ensure that AI won’t negatively impact education. Many teachers have had to adjust their assignments to make it harder for students to plug them into AI programs.
This year, many teachers are trying to limit the opportunity for AI to be used in classrooms by modifying assignments.
“This semester I am much more focused on controlling the assignments and having students do more in class and not take the assignments home because the students take them home and they come back completed and the assignment seems like it wasn’t written in their voice. It’s problematic,” said English teacher Ryan Alpers.
Recently, teachers have gained access to tools that can help combat the use of plagiarism in the classroom. One of these tools is a program added to teachers’ Canvas page called Turnitin.com, which is able to detect if a student has plagiarized, including by using AI programs.
While many tend to focus on the negatives AI brings to the classroom, English teacher Megan Brown feels that AI has potential for good as an academic resource.
“If regulated properly, AI can be used as a superb source of information for simple questions that don’t require a ton of analysis. I use AI to generate questions for several assignments. I know students benefited from using AI to spark ideas for creative writing last year, and it helped,” said Brown.
On the other hand, English teacher Beth Stafford believes that AI is detrimental to students’ education.
“Personally, I don’t think AI has a place in the classroom. The point of our high school classes is for students to learn and grow, and become independent, critical thinkers. AI limits that and takes away from the student voice and experience,” Stafford said. “It takes away from the whole experience of creating and thinking and students essentially are not doing the coursework as assigned. It also makes the teachers’ jobs increasingly even more difficult to manage the use of AI.”
Azra Emekci, 10, and Selma Emekci, 9, founded the AI4ALL Club with the purpose of encouraging the use of artificial intelligence in day to day life. Members like Andrea Martinez, 10, have learned how to utilize it efficiently and effectively.
“I believe the purpose of this club is to expose students to artificial intelligence and its use in a variety of day to day things. It exposes us students to machine learning and neural networks and many cool things like that,” Martinez said.
The main concern about AI in education is whether or not students are actually reliant on AI to help them plagiarize and cheat their classes.
“A study by Stanford Graduate Researchers, however, disproves this theory. It seems a whopping 60% to 70% of students have reported that they cheat in school, even before ChatGPT was publicly available. The number has barely changed during the 2023 surveys which were modified to accommodate questions about how students use AI,” said Selma Emekci.
While AI continues to grow, becoming a larger part of life, it’s important that students and teachers learn to understand the positives and negatives AI can bring to life in the classroom.
“The truth is models such as ChatGPT are producing outputs with minimal inaccuracy and are expanding their datasets at an exponential speed,” said Azra Emekci. “A couple years ago, such things were deemed nearly impossible. In summary it is important to recognize that the potential for misuse of AI doesn’t overshadow its vast potential for positive impacts in our society.”