The most popular student award goes to . . . Artificial Intelligence! Everyone knows AI and as time continues, lots of people are starting to use AI.
From using it to get homework answers to asking for lesson plans, AI has started to take over many aspects of the classroom.
AI, if used correctly, can be beneficial to students, but it can also become very harmful if used incorrectly.
Some benefits of AI include the ability to save time, more personalized learning, the ability to spark ideas and creativity, and the ability to provide answers to students who don’t want to talk to teachers about their struggles.
On the other hand, some drawbacks of AI are encouraged cheating, causing laziness, accuracy issues, access to AI websites and possible punishments for students.
Due to the large quantity of students who have been using or have started to use AI, teachers have had to adapt and find ways to handle situations where students aren’t turning in their original work. Some students may think that their teacher won’t notice the difference between AI’s work and their own, but normally this isn’t true. It isn’t difficult to see the difference between assignments students used their own words for compared to one they used AI for.
English teacher Anne Carlson said, “Yes, I can tell it’s coming from ChatGPT a lot of the time vs. something they wrote themselves. What really gives it away is when they do have to
write something on their own and they feel frozen and it’s hard to proceed with the writing process.”
Most teachers have their own way to handle students who have used AI on an assignment. Carlson said, “I write a note saying this work doesn’t sound like your words and then I hope that next time they’ll think twice.” Chiming in on the topic, English teacher Krystal Johnson said, “I bring it to their attention and have them redo it in their own words.”
While teachers don’t prefer students to use AI, some do have a second view where they find that AI can be beneficial. “When they try to present it as their own work, then I don’t support it, but if they’re using it more as a helpful tool, then yes, it’s fine,” Carlson said.
AI can be such a helpful tool, but only to a certain point. Students need to be aware of what the boundaries are so they can still get a good education through their teachers and assignments, not through a robot. One of the subjects that is struggling the worst with AI is English because students don’t want to spend their time reading or writing, but those two skills are very important in life. “What worries me the most about AI in the classroom is just students not thinking for themselves and not having the stamina to think critically,” Carlson said. Johnson added, “And a lot of processes look different in the classroom just in order to monitor and having them prove it’s their work.”
With all that said, figure out the boundaries when it comes to the use of AI and follow them. And don’t forget that teachers know when AI is being used.