As technology and innovation continually advance forward, many people are seeing an increase in the use of artificial intelligence, especially in the younger generations. However, there may be some concerns with how students use AI in the classroom, including plagiarism and cheating, biased or misleading information, and increased reliance on AI platforms.
Teachers say that they approve of the use of AI platforms in the classrooms, but that it often leads to cheating in the form of assignments being done completely through AI. Some English teachers even mentioned that they have received essays written entirely by ChatGPT or other AI platforms. Students may also use them to generate answers to questions for class assignments or for projects; such answers are often inaccurate and put the student at risk of getting a referral for cheating. To prevent this, teachers should discipline students on technological integrity, laying down boundaries of when AI may or may not be used for assignments.
Students say that using AI has become easier to use and has been their go-to source of basic information. However, this constant reliance on AI hinders the students’ personal creativity and critical thinking skills. While AI can be useful in some aspects, it should not be wholly relied on. Teachers should encourage students to use AI as a tool to help them with developing simple ideas, such as coming up with a prompt for an essay or article, but they should encourage them to rely on themselves for more complex situations.
Furthermore, using AI as a source can often prove unreliable. AI only gives out information that it was given prior, leading to biased, outdated, or straight up incorrect answers. To prevent this, students should be taught to look for plausible sources, such as news forums or historical articles. While this doesn’t prevent bias, it could help students find more reliable—and human—sources.
In this time of increased technological evolution, we cannot prevent the heightened use of AI in schools, but we can try to educate our student population on how to use it responsibly.
Written by Chimdiadi Nwamba