Ethically Using AI in Education: A Student’s Responsibility 

By Harper Gardner 

 

Not long ago, students would spend crucial hours late at night writing essays or trying to finish assignments until the very last minute. Now, with a single message to Artificial intelligence tools – like ChatGPT – students get their essays and assignments done within seconds. What once took time and energy spent researching and writing is now being replaced by AI – but what cost does this have on students?   

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, refers to the development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. For instance, writing an essay, solving a math problem, or analyzing scientific data. Currently, AI platforms like ChatGPT are spreading rapidly in schools throughout the country. With just a simple message, or photo – students are getting answers in a span of seconds. With the increasing development of AI, educators have been raising concerns about how AI is affecting students’ learning and performance in schools. Additionally, the national test scores are down in the United States for middle school and high school students. Although Artificial Intelligence can weaken students’ education capability when not used properly, AI can strengthen students’ learning if used appropriately, therefore making use of the current issue for today’s schools.  

The Overlooked Risk of Using AI 

When students rely on Artificial Intelligence for writing essays, doing assignments, or solving problems, they don’t realize how this affects their learning capability. Studies show that AI can cause a reduction in brain activity and memory. One Nease student I interviewed mentioned, “AI just makes it too easy to take shortcuts instead of thinking for myself.” If you use AI on a consistent basis to do work for you, when you try to do work yourself it becomes a lot more difficult to do than it normally would be. This means that the more you use AI to perform tasks for you, the harder it becomes to complete tasks by yourself. This raises concerns from educators as a recent survey report that 51% of young people ages 14-22 currently use AI for schoolwork. Another concern is students becoming too reliant on AI, which can lead to a decline in problem-solving and critical thinking skills that are essential to young people. As a Nease student explained, “Most of the time I just want the answer, not an explanation.” This shows that some students just want to get an assignment out of the way, instead of using it to help learn the topic. To demonstrate, a student who uses AI to write their whole history essay may struggle with doing an in-class writing assignment without the assistance of AI. Colleges are highly strict on AI cheating. In some colleges if you are caught using AI to write an assignment, you could get suspended or kicked out of the course. Currently 40% of colleges use AI detectors, making it harder for students to be able to use AI for assignments. So, with the lack of problem solving and critical thinking skills, transitioning to college can be very difficult. Not only does it make college harder, but for those who decide not to go to college, it can make having a career difficult by not being able to meet the demands that they require. For instance, having to know information from the top of your head, and being able to memorize it. This is why many educators worry about the increased use of AI by students. Toward the end of my interviews, a few students that use artificial intelligence for their schoolwork claimed they have become “less willing to research or do the work”. This shows that AI could limit self-discipline and personal effort from students. These issues raise the question, how can students use AI as a tool that supports their learning, instead of harming it?  

Using AI the Right Way 

While AI can cause harm to students’ education, it can be a powerful, helpful tool when used. As most AI platforms cost no money, they can be seen as a free tutor. For example, if you’re stuck on a math problem and you have no one to help you currently, you can just ask AI for a step-by-step guide to solve it. Another Nease student I interviewed said, “I use it to check my math problems to see if they’re right and to understand the steps to do it correctly.” This is an example of using artificial intelligence that benefits your learning rather than just asking for answers. Additionally, AI can be used to give feedback on essays for students, which also helps students get better at writing. AI also gives students the opportunity for personalized learning. Every student has a preferred style of learning. Such as visual examples, summarized explanations, or using practice problems. For some students, their teacher does not use or provide their style of learning, which makes it difficult for them to adapt. To illustrate, if you’re a visual learner and your teacher uses lecturing as their way of teaching, it will be a lot harder for you to understand and learn the concept being taught. As another student explained, “AI helps simplify texts and break them down like an outline or guide.” AI offers students with this specific problem an efficient learning alternative, by providing students with visual examples, step-by-step breakdowns, or links to other helpful sources and videos about the topic. English teachers also see that artificial intelligence can be used as a helpful tool for students. Mrs. Morrison – an AP English teacher I interviewed – stated, “AI can help generate ideas, like creating a prompt or developing a thesis, and show students how to construct it properly.” Another AP English teacher I interviewed was Mrs. Geiger, who added that it “provides examples of articles related to your topic, which helps students do their own research instead of copying.” Additionally, a new way of AI helps students learn, is having an actual discussion with AI. Some AI studying apps carry this feature, where you can be on a “call” with an AI chatbot, where you can ask any questions about any topic and it will give you a quality answer. You can also use this chatbot to practice explaining concepts, in which they can check if you’re correct. AI also helps students with learning at a faster pace. When a teacher does not provide any notes or sources for a student to study, the student must go and research for themselves. This takes an unnecessarily long amount of time. Making notes and finding sources takes time out of actually studying and learning the concept. AI offers a solution to this issue by being able to generate summarized, well-throughout notes, practice problems, and concept checks in a matter of seconds.  

The Role of Teachers and Schools 

Most schools have responded to AI by fully discouraging it to students; their perspective seems to view AI as a way of cheating, or getting assignments done for you. This perspective is understandable, but trying to fully “ban” AI from students is realistically impossible. AI is only going to expand, the more it increases the harder it will be to make students not use it for schoolwork. So, instead of fully discouraging students from using AI, teachers and schools should embrace students to use AI in a way that is appropriate and supports their learning. By explaining to students how to use AI ethically, as a personal tutor, or study tool – teachers can help students build higher critical thinking skills, and more understanding of the concept being taught. This solution also helps students use AI responsibly. During an interview I did with Mrs. Milian, she claimed that “AI is not going away – we need to start teaching our students how to use it the correct way.” Our future will indefinitely consist of AI everywhere, especially in the workplace. So, helping students be able to navigate in the future through AI, or knowing how to use it effectively, will help them benefit long-term. Many years ago, calculators were in a similar position to AI; they were highly controversial for students to be able to use them. Over time, they became accepted as a tool to help students in math rather than discouraging their quality uses. AI can similarly be accepted by schools as well, by taking notice of all the positive qualities AI provides to students. Just like a calculator, AI is a tool that can help students learn, if taught how to use it properly. As AI continues to grow, schools have the chance to help students navigate through it, in a way that builds a foundation for better understanding and future skills for students. The acknowledgment of AI’s increase is important for schools, because unlike calculators, they will be involved in almost every career. So, it is vital to teach students how to use AI responsibly now to set them up for future success.  

Artificial Intelligence is not going anywhere and is only going to grow more within the education field. If not being used ethically by students, AI will weaken students cognitively, and ability to get work done themselves. But, if AI is embraced to be used ethically, then it can serve as a helpful source and tool for not only students, but adults too can use it to learn more efficiently. With personalized learning and study tools, AI offers a free way for students to learn and perform better in school. Just like calculators shifted the way math is being taught, AI has the potential to reshape learning and education for the better. But that is only if students know how to use AI properly. The real challenge is not if AI should be used in the classroom, but how we choose to use it for ourselves.