Artificial intelligence, or AI, has recently become more and more relevant in the school environment. Whether it helps students come up with creative ideas when stuck or to cheat and copy and paste and do zero work.
While it could just be helpful in getting ideas, AI’s reputation is seen in a negative light due to students abusing the technology. Teachers usually avoid or discourage the use of AI, and if they do allow AI, there are usually heavy limitations.
I’ve had teachers say if I use AI on a writing assignment, I have to write a page paper about why I used it. This will usually make students not even bother using AI to avoid the extra work.
I don’t think students should feel as if AI is more of a liability than a tool. AI can be one of the most useful tools anyone can use.
Eric Mortensen, a teacher for 25 years, discussed his methods of counteracting digital distractions by having his classes outdoors.
“Other people like me have brought my courses entirely outdoors to get away from the digital world,” Mortensen said. “Because as wonderful a tool as it is, particularly between classes, during class, I think it’s nice to not have the wormhole magnetic distractions of the digital world.”
Mortensen said AI will keep growing. Instead of trying to push away, Mortensen wants students to use AI’s strongest features.
”It’s just that it’s so new that we’re all figuring that out. We’ve reached a certain point where the newness is happening in a way that we haven’t adapted to yet,” Mortensen explained.
“If it’s not there yet, it will be. So why fight it instead? Get ahead of it.”
Some professors believe that AI should stay away from learning facilities and some believe that it fits right in.
As a new Guilford professor, part-time English lecturer Abigail Fitzpatrick said she avoids the topic of AI.
“I spent the year of teaching ignoring it and pretending like it wasn’t going to be a issue, until I started getting papers handed in that were entirely AI and obviously so,” Fitzpatrick said.
As I said earlier about people using AI for writing papers, teachers find themselves having to ban AI.
“Because I’m teaching writing, I have to, in my opinion, have a pretty strict policy on not using AI.” Fitspatrick said. “I think it’s good if you’re struggling to come up with a topic or an idea to write about or ruminate on.”
I believe that we shouldn’t be discouraged by AI. That we should try and find the best ways for us to use it. AI will only grow stronger and stronger, just like computers when they were becoming a big thing. Some people wanted to stick with just using paper, but despite resistance, computers still became the norm.
AI could be used for the greater good, but if we just use it for the purpose of getting a good grade, then not so much. Reading a textbook is the same as reading what AI tells you where to read. You are still getting the same information, just less work. That’s the overall goal, right? To still learn and make it easier on ourselves.
Overall, AI is a tool that can easily be overused. But, if we only try to limit the use of AI, then we would be ruining the value. I do think in the future we will be seeing more use of AI in classrooms. It will completely change the way students learn and how teachers teach for good. I don’t think AI will get to a point where we need to be afraid of taking jobs, just making them easier.
