A once shunned practice, AI use is making its way into classrooms across America. AI or artificial intelligence had a big boom in the 2000’s for a plethora of different reasons. People use it to generate photos, writing concepts, and, unfortunately, to cheat on their school work. As of late 2023, a small percentage of schools have begun to accept AI into their classrooms. The big discussion, however, is if this will be a positive change as the AI acceptance begins to spread.
The obvious largest fear is the amount of cheating possibilities. Teachers have already been on high alert for students using AI applications such as Chat GPT and Photo Math to solve their work, so they can only imagine what students would do with an AI readily available in their school computer.
AI, however, also has a plethora of benefits to student and academic life. Research that once could have taken hours or even days can be collected in the matter of a minute. Students can ask their chat bot a simple question, whether it be history, English, Science, or any other topic, and receive a clear, organized answer that includes sources for students to dive deeper into their topic. AI bots can be asked to expand or re-explain a topic for easier understanding. Teachers can’t be everywhere all at once, so having a chat bot to explain while there is not a teacher available can be incredibly beneficial for student productivity.
AI can also aid students in studying. Students can put their notes into AI to generate flashcards, practice questions, and more. AI can even generate entire quizzes and tests. Teachers can put information into AI to formulate true or false, matching, multiple choice, and essay questions to create a test in a matter of minutes when the process could normally take days to perfect. From lesson plans, to discussion topics, even teachers can benefit from the use of AI.
There are bound to be a few disadvantages of a bunch of teenagers having AI at their fingertips. Some students will be tempted to ask their chat bot to answer questions on their work that they should be doing such as things to memorize and homework. An alternative to simply asking AI to answer a math question, students could ask it to explain how to solve a problem. AI generated content should always be fact checked by verifying the sources it has used are reliable and up to date. On top of this, it is also a student’s responsibility not to plagiarize content. Students must use their own words and have an understanding on the topic at hand.
AI could greatly benefit the school environment, but are students mature enough to handle its power?
