On November 30, 2022, a momentous leap in technological advancement occurred: the release of ChatGPT. With this app, anyone can use an AI chatbot to answer questions, generate messages, and write. Consequently, it allows students to falsify their work; they can simply type in their assignment prompt and paste the response into their assignment.
Developers have also released detection technology to combat cheating. However, it is not always reliable. It has been known to flag authentic student work occasionally and might even miss some AI-generated content. Still, teachers can often tell when students use artificial intelligence for assignments, both by using AI detection technology and simply noticing a shift in writing style themselves. Students should not be able to use AI to complete assignments for them, but whether or not teachers should refrain from using it is debated.
Teachers should certainly be permitted to use artificial intelligence to an extent, but they should not rely on it entirely. AI has made it easier and faster for teachers to grade assignments and give feedback on them, which benefits students as well. We have all had teachers who take forever to grade essays. Using AI can eliminate the endless waiting and worrying about a grade.
In an interview, a middle school English teacher from Hauppauge spoke about using AI to generate model assignments. She said, “I would put in an essay prompt into Brisk, and it can create a low, medium and high example of what I’m looking for. … It saves me a tremendous amount of time in writing it myself.” Furthermore, she noted how helpful AI can be in the grading process, stating, “I also use it to generate comments on my students’ essays, and I find that to be tremendously helpful in staying consistent as I grade. I can ask for feedback on certain elements of an essay, and oftentimes it comes up with valuable comments that I might not have had the time to type out for each individual student myself.”
Nonetheless, there are things that, just like students, teachers should always do themselves. Creating lessons is the most important of all. According to the teacher, “Very rarely would I just use what is created in my classroom, but at least it helps get me started with the basics of creating a slide deck. … A lot of the formatting is there to give me an idea, but then I go in and actually put what I need to teach into each slide, so the final project looks very different from what AI-generated.” Artificial intelligence can generate details like fonts and backgrounds. Still, without a teacher creating lessons themselves, students might as well simply learn from ChatGPT instead of going to school—which, of course, would be disastrous. Educators such as the one interviewed thankfully agree.
Still, some parts of teaching fall in a gray area: they are not vital for learning but still need a human touch. Another teacher remarked on letters of recommendation, saying, “Time and attention need to be given to personalizing those types of things. So, I would never take it as it was generated and use it without adding my own personal touch.” Additionally, the specific use of AI might vary between different teachers and subjects, so school administrators should implement rules and guidelines for when the use of AI is appropriate as well as when it is not.
As a student, I am aware of the indignation my peers might feel knowing that teachers are permitted to use AI when they are not. However, teachers have different roles that require different focuses. It is much like a young child in elementary school just learning to add and subtract, as opposed to a high school student learning calculus. Using a calculator might be considered cheating for one but typical for another. All students need to learn to read and write well on their own. Therefore, using AI to write essays can hinder a vital aspect of education. Teachers, on the other hand, need to pay attention to ensuring their students learn and understand the material they need to know. Using AI-generated model assignments or comments on graded essays would not only make a teacher’s job easier but also foster a positive experience for students.
Ultimately, as AI continues to advance and develop, we need to modify our use of it. While educators should currently be encouraged to use it for some aspects of teaching today, one can never know what tomorrow will bring—whether AI will advance to be more reliable for things like creating lessons or if it will remain a fallible technology that requires a human touch to truly succeed.
