Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic of conversation in almost every line of work, but it is especially prevalent in education. Its ability to collect information, write paragraphs and generate images makes it a tool that is utilized by students and teachers alike. 

The school community utilizes AI in many ways. English teacher Christine Pankratz-West recently gave her senior English class an assignment where students utilized AI finding pros and cons for a given topic in order to form a thesis statement. The students were asked to copy and paste the information given by the platform, to review the ease of utilizing it and to look for any bias within their results.

Though this may seem like an unconventional approach, Pankratz-West believes it is helpful for both her and her students because “students are way ahead of teachers on this and this is not something that’s going to go away.” 

Pankratz-West says AI can be useful when it comes to brainstorming, researching and collecting information. However, she believes that when using AI to collect information it is important to “sort through” and determine bias. 

Freshman and senior English teacher Kathy Judge also encourages her students to use AI for the brainstorming process. She wants to take away the fear around using AI. Judge sees AI as a tool similar to a calculator saying: “Was a math teacher scared of the calculator at first?” When used correctly, Judge believes AI is a tool that does not take away from the true purpose of writing. 

Continuously attempting to catch students who are using AI is not something that Judge wants to spend her time doing. 

“[It] is a no win situation, and so that’s not a game I play,” Judge said.

She says that it is harmful for teachers to be trying to catch their students doing something wrong, and as a teacher when something is inauthentic it will be more obvious. 

Though students may use AI for unethical reasons, many use it as a simple study tool. Senior Maisie Krodel said she uses AI to organize her thoughts when writing essays. She explained that AI is helpful in the very beginning of the writing process for planning and at the end for correcting grammar and checking mistakes she may have overlooked.

AI can be used beyond writing assignments. Junior John Nguyen uses AI in his chemistry class for examples of formulas. He said he was encouraged to use it in AP Computer Principles. 

“We use AI to help us code,” Nguyen said. “[College Board] said that we can use AI to write a whole script.” 

AP Computer Principles teacher Lauren Reichman explained that for AP test, College Board asks students to submit a code in advance with a video of them explaining it. Then on the AP test, students are given questions about the code that they submitted. Reichman said College Board acknowledges that they cannot prevent students from using AI.

“They actually allow them to use AI,” Reichman said. “They just have to cite it.”

The reason behind this is that the purpose of computer programming is to not simply write code but to understand it.

“AI is going to be able to take the jobs of some events, but you need to be able to step ahead,” Reichman said. 

AI has many skills and abilities and can help students in many areas for studying and practicing their work. 

But, despite all of the ways that AI can be helpful, it does not always work perfectly. Krodel has found that at times AI can be limiting. 

“It sometimes has no idea what I’m talking about,” Krodel said. 

This can lead to incorrect responses or information that is not useful. Nguyen said he has found issues with more sophisticated math and science prompts. 

“If it’s a complex equation in chemistry, it’s a little complicated,” Nguyen said. 

Though AI is increasingly sophisticated, it is still developing and has a hard time keeping up with unseen requests. 

AI can be useful for teachers as well as students. There are specific programs designed to help teachers craft assignments and even grade them. Pankratz-West believes that teacher AI programs can be helpful for writing small snow day assignments or adding five more questions to a test. However, she said it can be repetitive. 

AP World History teacher Laney Maguire has spoken at conferences with Reichman about using AI as a teacher. Maguire mentions using platforms such as Magic School and Eduaid.

“You can put a YouTube link in, and it will make a worksheet based on that,” Maguire said. “It can create rubrics.”

Teachers can use AI to help complete these types of mundane tasks. However, it is not perfect, especially if it is being used to help grade.

“I think it’s probably harder on students than we would be,” Maguire said. “It’s not super helpful in identifying whether things actually score points on a rubric.”

There is a continuous learning curve with the development of new technology. AI is making its way to being second nature to students and teachers alike even with some bumps along the way.