AI in the classroom

This past summer, I had the privilege of becoming a human AI detector while teaching a creative writing course to middle schoolers at my old school. The first instance of AI use was subtle: a girl submitting an assignment had suspiciously good grammar and cadence with that distinct computer tinniness. We told her to stop and she quickly did.

It was the second incident though, that still shines in my memory. A day after requesting that the students spend the next week working on a three-page story, a document appeared in the Google Classroom assignment inbox. Thinking some overenthusiastic student had already finished, I opened the document. After a page of scrolling, I began to grow suspicious of the uncomfortably formal, overly detailed writing. After another page of scrolling, I attempted to scroll to the bottom of the document while questioning its integrity, only to realize it was 79 pages long.

I laughed at the absurdity of submitting such a glaringly fake document to our class and $agged the document for the teacher. But I couldn’t stop wondering, what made her decide to do that? Our class was incredibly informal and we weren’t necessarily grading on quality rather than effort, so why bother?

After issuing a classwide warning against the use of AI tools, the cases slowed down. The debate on AI usage in the classroom challenges teachers everywhere, particularly teachers who primarily deal with written assignments. The question of whether it should be banned entirely or embraced as the future can’t be clearly answered. New York City Public Schools initially banned ChatGPT from their Wi-Fi networks but quickly reversed that after seeing examples of successful AI integration in classrooms. Other districts around the United States quickly adopted AI into their curriculums to show students how they work, hoping to prevent future misuse of the tools.

The concern with AI tools is strong as well as the questions regarding academic integrity and the bias of AI tools themselves as they are programmed by mostly white, male programmers. One example of the problematic bias is the AI system used by Google Photos sorting 80 photos of a Black person in a park into a folder titled ‘Gorillas’ in their camera roll. It’s these types of stories that continue to raise apprehensions about bringing these tools into learning environments for young people everywhere.

Personally, I think AI is a fascinating tool when used appropriately, which seems to be the general consensus among educators. I’m sure in several years we’ll start to see the impacts of AI use among students when young people are either incredibly talented or completely inept at producing their own writing. I think AI’s adoption into education will truly shape the next generation’s views on creativity and writing. !e rami”cations of AI in the workforce will be fascinating, if not a little frightening to see.