By Riya Shah
eSomethin staff
Throughout the years, the appearance of artificial intelligence (AI), in a multitude of different formats, has significantly increased in the classroom.
Most people associate A.I. with cheating and plagiarism, but there are various types of AI that are perfectly ethical that are used all the time.
Some less known forms of A.I. in the classroom include data analytics, spell check, or scheduling help. Data analytics appears in Google Sheets, online calculators, and debugging software – resources that most people use without realizing they are using A.I.. Spell check is practically embedded into every online document editor and automated scheduling help is used by almost every administration network.
There are bountiful benefits that AI brings to the classroom.
Using A.I., teachers can set up software and programs that can grade assignments or papers. This is very helpful because most teachers are stretched very thin, trying to keep up with the demanding workload. With A.I. available to help, teachers can grade student work much more efficiently.
Senior Hope Keller said another benefit to AI grading is that “with automated grading, there is no possibility for teacher bias.”
A.I. allows 24/7 access to student support during times when teachers are unable to help. With A.I. feedback, teachers do not have to worry about getting back to emails or messages with small non urgent questions, because A.I. can provide feedback for students in a very timely manner.
Teachers have a lot of students to focus on, and when they have limited office hours, it is hard to find the hours in the day to keep up and monitor each individual student. With A.I., it is easier to manage.
Junior Shambhavi Brahme continues on with the benefits by saying that “students can get the help they need, but can also gain and grow independence while finding resources for themselves.”
Each student also has individual needs and learning methods. Teachers can not be expected to be able to adhere to each individual’s requirements, but that does not mean students should go without their most effective learning method. A.I. is able to provide personalized learning experiences for each student, highly increasing their success rate in the classrooms.
Alongside the plentiful pros associated with the use of AI in the classroom, the cons are still mentionable and significant.
The possibility and accessibility of cheating and plagiarism that A.I. brings to the classroom is worrying and growingly becoming more and more dangerous.
Tools like ChatGPT and others that have the same setup and purpose have fueled the increase of students using A.I.-generated work while passing it off as their own. Websites like these can read a prompt or set of directions and create automated responses eliminating all work ethic from students.
Senior Mia Harlow said about the fact that, “students having access to something that does their work for them and having the choice to use it or not, definitely plays a role in decreasing work ethic in students.”
Alongside increases in plagiarism, A.I. could lead to a decrease in social skills.
With students having access to automated information at their fingertips, there is less of a need to engage in conversation with humans. With A.I. on electronic devices, and popular apps like Snapchat, students have places to go with all sorts of questions eliminating conversations with teachers or peers.
Raquel Burden, a Perrysburg senior, said, “students using AI may not feel comfortable going to their teachers for help, when they have online access.”
There are plenty of pros accompanied by plenty of cons for AI in the classroom. Teachers and students have conflicting and different opinions about it, with some condemning it, and some encouraging it. AI could change the future of education for the better or for the worse, and with AI popping up in many different forms and areas, that future is fastly approaching.
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