Artificial Intelligence (AI) is something that has sparked a lot of controversy and discussion when it comes to its use in various situations. The education system is no exception to this. There are mixed opinions on the topic of if and how AI should be used in a classroom setting.
According to the New York Times, when referring to the increasing revenue of Open AI, the parent company of Chat GPT, “The documents show a spike in growth after ChatGPT began allowing people to use the service without creating an account or logging in.”
Recently AI has become more accessible, specifically within students. With the open use of tools like ChatGPT, it has become easier than ever to access the capabilities of AI. AI can answer almost any question you might have, ranging from AP calculus to writing you an essay in Spanish within seconds, which has sparked discussion on its ethics when used in a classroom setting.
According to Forbes, when teachers were asked about their concerns when it comes to using AI in the classroom, 65% expressed concern about academic honesty and plagiarism, and about 23% showed concern for the automation of manual tasks.
According to a National Education Association taskforce evaluating AI in school, “Recognizing the seismic potential of this technology led the Task Force to believe that, like the internet, access to safe and effective AI-enhanced technology should be viewed much like a modern-day utility and made available (equitably) to every student of every economic status.”
Through the doors of AFS, AI has been a subject that has been widely talked about.
For some students at AFS, AI has been a part of their everyday education.
We decided to interview a student from each grade at AFS. We kept their names anonymous, for the sake of honesty and confidentiality.
In response to the question “How often do you use AI for assignments and big projects?” a ninth grade student said, “Everyday, 100% of the time.”
This statement from a freshman supports the existence of the concerns expressed by the teachers in the Forbes study. The student from the newest class of high school students is already using AI almost religiously to complete their assignments. Does this spell a decline in attention and learning in upcoming students?
They did not, however, find that AI was helping them with comprehension (even though it does provide explanation) but rather helps with completing assignments in a timely manner that may have otherwise taken massive amounts of time.
The ninth grade student said, “It’s not necessarily beneficial to my learning but it helps me get my work done in a timely manner.”
What was interesting from our interviews is the difference in responses from the senior we interviewed and the freshman.
The twelfth grade student answered that they “rarely use AI, (and only use AI) for small assignments that have questions about historical events.”
The senior said that they used AI the most in history, whereas the freshman said, “math or english.”
All four students we interviewed, who were all in different grades, agreed that AI will change education in the future.
The ninth grade student said, “Students will become less focused in class, (therefore) learning will have to be revolutionized to keep up.”
The tenth grade student believes that AI will “benefit education, because it is constantly developing.”
If you are using AI it is important to have an understanding of what good it can be used for but also how it can impact learning and comprehension in a negative way. It is important to create a balance between the two.
Serafina Kubersky • Dec 3, 2024 at 11:05 am
I found this article very interesting. I myself am not very well versed in how to use AI, so I found it intriguing how others are able to use AI to guide them in their work. I definitely agree that AI will change education, for good or for worse. I think that teachers will need to begin to structure assignments with the knowledge that students may use AI, and students need to know how to use AI effectively without sacrificing actual comprehension and learning. I think that all of these things will come in time. This is a relatively new topic of discussion, and with AI still evolving, it is impossible to say with 100% certainty what will happen.
Hannah • Dec 3, 2024 at 7:21 am
There is definitely a fine line between where the use of AI is appropriate and where it is not. As said by the 9th-grade student, using AI to complete all of your assignments is not only academic dishonesty but prevents you from using those assignments and opportunities to learn. Nevertheless, AI can definitely be helpful when used honestly and with good intentions. I and many students I know use it to help organize themselves and help explain complex topics to them. Overall, this article gave me better insight into the way the general student body uses AI and people’s concerns about it.
Sam • Dec 2, 2024 at 6:11 pm
ChatGPT can be very useful when used responsibly. It’s not good when you use it to write entire essays, but to explain an answer or summarize a historical event I think can be beneficial. This summer, I had to study for a test to get into AP chem and I used ChatGPT to answer questions, check answers, and teach things I didn’t understand. I haven’t used it since then, but for that time it was a very good tool for leaning, when used correctly. I know teachers who use ChatGPT to write questions or make tests. I think this can also be good when used correctly , just like students. If AI is used responsibly, I think it can change education for the better.
Lauren • Dec 2, 2024 at 1:56 pm
I really enjoyed reading your article John, Jaydon, and Ethan! Good job. I liked how yall touched on both the pros and cons of AI and how it directly relates to our community. This is such a important topic that needs to be talked about more everywhere. I wonder where the world will be in 30 years. Will everything be artificial intelligence? Will cars be self driving? These are questions that need to be consider with the influx in AI in the modern world.
Solomon • Dec 1, 2024 at 12:15 pm
I found the information and perspectives were valuable and interesting. I think the information from external sources was helpful as context in understanding the concerns and potential benefits around AI. Also, I think interviewing different students in various grade levels shed a helpful perspective on to the issue of AI and education. I honestly am concerned about AI in the context of education right now and in the future because I think it can interfere with the learning process if not used responsibly. Also, I feel like AI may change so much that it is hard to predict what will exactly happen. For now, I think it is a good idea to understand the challenges AI presents and implement education for schools, teachers, and students on how to use it in a responsible and ethical way.
Nelson • Nov 29, 2024 at 10:54 am
I think ChatGPT and A.I. can be very beneficial for students and teachers alike, provided it is used in healthy ways. While I do not think using it for every assignment is a good way to learn things, A.I. can be very helpful when used as a sort of peer editor. I have used it to help edit paragraphs I have written or scour documents for good quotes. Using it this way is not cheating because it forces the student to work with the A.I. instead of having the A.I. work for you. A.I. will revolutionize the landscape of education in the future because of its prospect. Teachers are going to have to learn to work with it, setting up guidelines or policies, or else they will not be growing either. A.I. is not always helpful when it comes to making something from scratch. A ChatGPT-written essay is not as good as a student written one, especially for more rigorous classes, but when used to edit, find quotes, or provide context, when not taken verbatim, the site works very well, and one can learn from it too.
cb • Nov 26, 2024 at 8:42 am
I think AI negatively impacts the youth because one it causes you to not retain information or learn and two because of how many people do it it becomes a trend between young people. It’s also very counter-active if you’re trying to get a good grade or be accepted to something because if it’s tracked you will get kicked out of places and you will fail assignments because of academic dishonesty. AI will also especially get you kicked out of or rejected from colleges. Also, AI can make many teens less driven with their work because if they don’t feel like doing it they will just use Chatgpt. AI can also lessen your attention during class considering if you know you can just use Chatgpt you aren’t gonna try to learn or participate in class.
Neiko • Nov 26, 2024 at 8:31 am
1. I like how this article reviewed students do get their opinions on how Ai is affecting AFS education and students amount of focus during class. I think AFS education may take a turn if AI gets too bad. From the interview, it seems that younger generations use AI than the seniors. This could definitely become a problem in the future, teachers may have to change their teaching plan somehow, I’m not sure how because if kids are just using AI for all of their assignments then they aren’t learning anything at all. I do not use AI for assignments because I won’t learn anything. As much as I hate an assignment, I will not learn anything because my biggest fear is getting to college or working a bug job and not knowing how to handle it because of some little thing I used AI in during high school. I don’t know it may not be serious but I don’t like when I don’t know what I’m doing.
Leila • Nov 26, 2024 at 8:22 am
I think using AI for all of your assignments is not beneficial in helping people learn more, but using it for ideas, prompts, or a starting point I think helps the student start off strong and lets them spend more time working on the assignment and less time thinking about it. However, the article also highlights valid concerns about over-reliance on technology, because I have definitely seen people use AI a little bit too much. I think teachers being worried about students using AI too much is valid but I think that they need to know almost everybody uses it just not to plagiarize, more to simply take inspiration from, like an example piece.
Zhaoye Wang • Nov 26, 2024 at 8:08 am
i think the ai tools are pretty helpful. we could see the nobel prize in 2024. there are pretty much things about using ai to solve problens and save time. the most deepest memory of them is about biography: some scientists’ several year’s effort is only the work of ai in several hours. so, how couldn’t ai be helpful? also, i agree that student use ai. teachers have their own ways to determine ai.if students want high grade, they will try their best to avoid the detecter(if they have used ai). it is also a study progress. people in the future should learn how to use tools smartly. just like our ancestor learn how to use fire.
Mia • Nov 25, 2024 at 2:58 pm
I think AI can be incredibly helpful, and it also can be incredibly unhelpful. Just like any other search engine or service, AI is a tool. You can use it to generate ideas, prompts, or practice problems, or have it falsify your entire history essay. There are good and bad ways to use it, depending on the setting that you’re using it in. It’s up to each school to decide these regulations. But I don’t think it’s making students lazier, if used in the right way. It’s just the next step in furthering the capabilities of us as humans with the right tools. Teaching students how to properly use AI, to make assignments more understandable and gain their own personal tutor for example, is a good start! This is a great article with some really good interview pieces. And I agree that sometimes “getting things done in a timely manner” as said by the ninth grade student is a good benefit of AI. 🙂
remy • Nov 25, 2024 at 1:05 pm
I think the information in this article is very interesting to see how the opinions on Ai and when its used and for what subject differ in all grades. I think that AI is way more frequently used now in 2024 and I think future generations and kids will use it more to help them with projects, and assignments so that they finish in a more timely manner. I rarely do use AI but sometimes I do to help generate a title for an essay and sometimes if I need my brain jogging with an idea ill use it to get an idea but change it and write it in my own way.
Amir • Nov 25, 2024 at 12:53 pm
Nice Article. I like how you got ideas from different grades going from freshman to seniors. This article makes me want to explore deeper into AI and how it was made. How powerful can AI be and what opportunities does AI create for us to explore? I rarely use AI but I have made it check some sentences if it has the right grammar and context. A big question is what would AI look like 10-20 years from now. What if AI takes over the world? AI is cool but it disrupts the learning process by a lot. It won’t help us learn but it may seem helpful at first.
Jenny Niu • Nov 25, 2024 at 12:53 pm
I think the perspectives collected are diverse and the ideas are creative, however, the way that the information could be organized would be less concrete if it was aided by an AI program. This reflected the pros and cons of AI usage, a good article requires the creativity of the author, although AI could help us develop the writings, it is still important to have the initial for entering the prompt. In my point of view AI is but just is a mostly reliable and convenient tool to get information quickly. Yet I don’t think the future education system will involve AI unless they could find a way to accurately distinguish usage of AI. Education is not only teaching us the knowledge, but also our mindset—which, as I said, is what AI could not help us with. As for me, I don’t use AI in my assignments unless I were told to do so. I try to do every work on my own not only for academic integrity, I do indeed enjoy the procedure of doing work on my own, in fact, sometimes I think I am better than AI. If I were to write my research paper outside of school, then yes I will use AI programs, but only for helping me understand more of an article etc.
Drew • Nov 25, 2024 at 11:18 am
I agree with the main points that this article touched on. I agree that AI, generally, is not used maliciously by students at Abington Friends School. I believe that many students use AI because they are crammed with work. It is often used as a last resort. Education, as many industries do over a long period of time, is being revolutionized, meaning that so is the way people, primarily students, think and learn. If AFS wants to prevent students from using AI, they should implement clearer code and stricter repercussions for using AI on large assignments. I think the article does a great job to use interviews from each grade as evidence to strengthen the thesis.