With the developments being made to AI, it’s not hard to imagine how AI might appear in the classroom. Students could use AI to help edit their work, generate ideas, and speed up the writing process. This technology has benefits and drawbacks. In this entry, I am going to explore the possible effects of incorporating AI in school.
I think that there are some assignments that are appropriate for AI, such as assignments that require writing that is not important but could take a long time. When I had tech class in the beginning of the year, we had to write a paragraph to review how to use Google Docs. Everyone took a long time to write their paragraph. In that situation, we could use AI and it wouldn’t be a problem because it would save time, not hurt students’ writing, or make them rely on it heavily. It may even help by showing a new tool students could use.
A question people have about the use of AI in the classroom is whether it helps students or prevents them from learning on their own. I think the answer depends on the situation and what class students are in. If students are in a writing class, then they should stick to writing normally. This will help them learn writing skills and grammar rules. In other classes we could use AI, but it should be limited because it is not always accurate and can steal other peoples’ work.
Students should think of AI as a tool that can help with writing and speed up the process. They shouldn’t rely on it. They will need to check, fix, and replace some parts of what the technology writes. If they don’t, the AI will use some words that may not fit the project or are exaggerated.
Teachers should also think of AI as a tool for themselves and students to use. They need to teach students about both the flaws and benefits that AI brings. Teachers could also use ChatGPT and similar tools to make their presentations they show the class, saving a lot of time.
Some of the risks and trade-offs of AI are that the technology can show bias because the creators of it will also have biases themselves. Another risk of using tools such as ChatGPT is that, because the program takes information from the internet and there is always fake content, the AI might also produce false information. Another issue is that, since programs like ChatGPT do not state the sources they draw their answers from, they are effectively stealing information from other writers. Users cannot track the source so they cannot really confirm its reliability.
AI is a tool that I think we should all learn to use because it can make work better and faster, if used correctly. However, we should use AI as a tool and not a machine that can do every part of the writing process in just a few seconds.