A recent Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) research survey on AI discussed schools embracing generative AI tools and its unaddressed risks.
AI technology received its name back in 1956 at a Dartmouth workshop, but it’s only been in recent years that its effect has become prevalent. Many students use it, which has brought about the massive struggle that schools have had in adopting policies surrounding the use and abuse of it. The CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens stated, “…the biggest risks of this technology being used in schools are going unaddressed, due to gaps in training and guidance to educators on the responsible use of generative AI and related detection tools. As a result, teachers remain distrustful of students, and more students are getting in trouble.”
The survey found that the majority of teachers (59%) are certain one or more of their students are using AI and that 83% of them have used a generative AI tool for personal or school use. A large gap exists between the number of teachers who say they’ve had formal training about policies and procedures regarding AI (80%) and the number of teachers who say they’ve received guidance on how to respond to student’s misuse of AI, such as plagiarism (28%). The survey indicated that there has been a sharp increase (up 16%) in the number of students that have gotten into trouble this past year for using generative AI tools on assignments.
There are school districts, however, who have banned the use of AI. With ChatGPT, you can tell it prompts like “Write about____ at an 8 th grade reading level.” Though it may be banned in the classroom, there are still teachers who use it at home to generate reading passages with questions. Quill is an online writing instructional tool that uses adaptive learning. Google has now come out with their equivalent called Practice Sets.
For pronunciation, there is English Central and its new counterpart, Speakable. For other ideas on how AI can be used in the classroom, you may want to read this blog,”A Collection of the “BEST” Lists About Using Artificial Intelligence in Education.
By Joyce Costello, KEYTA Publications Contributor and CEO of Tutoring Excellence, LLC.
