Just four years have passed since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT large language model, and yet, the classroom has been overcome by a generation of change. Any effort to curb the ever-growing presence of AI in the classroom has felt increasingly futile as the years continue. According to the New York Times, the rate of students “regularly” using AI for homework has grown from 48 to 62 percent over the course of just half a year. But are students the only ones?
Google, owner of the G-Suite line of products typically used in classrooms, recently introduced AI generation features for Slides, specifically aimed at teachers, allowing them to “beautify” in-class materials with their Gemini image generation product. School districts in Texas, where the state recently signed a 400 million contract with the AI education firm Cambium Assessment, have begun suggesting directly that teachers use AI to generate their assignments. Some staff members virulently oppose the tools, while some openly embrace them. There’s no doubt that students are flocking to AI, but the other side of the coin has become deeply divided and confounded, where the only consensus is that there is none.
“I try to be open about AI. I try to tell [students] about ways that it might be used… I know there are plenty of ethical, environmental, and artistic concerns about it, and I totally respect them, but I want them to know enough information to make up their own minds,” said English teacher Brady Gunnink.
Many teachers align with the belief that conversations need to be had with students about the emerging technology, but some teachers still express deep concern with their students’ use of the program.
“I would say I’m probably someone who errs on the side of using it very minimally. But I also think it’s really important to have honest and nuanced conversations about it. I’m not naive enough to believe that they’re not using it. I’m pretty open with how I think it harms [my students], and what I think they lose as a result of that,” said English teacher Caitlin Miller.
But the focus isn’t only on students. Teachers, as a collective, feel that there really isn’t much of one when it comes to the conversation of AI.
“I think there are some bright lines we need to determine how a teacher should and should not use AI… I think there are clear moments of consensus that we can come to, and it would be good for the school if we came to them… the worst thing we can do is not talk about it at all,” said Gunnink.
Some teachers ruminate over the ethical concerns that figuring out “good” AI usage by teachers and staff poses.
“I struggle with the idea that [Jones’] leadership uses AI as a tool in many ways… and I think the same thing goes for teachers. I’m struggling with seeing colleagues using AI, because I worry that, particularly as an English teacher, I’m in the trenches with students every day… and when they see the adults in their lives using AI to make shortcuts, I worry about what message that sends,” said Miller.
However, some teachers see a gap in the skills regarding best AI practices between students and staff.
“I think that one of the differences that separates adults using AI as an assistant and students using AI as something to do the thinking for then, is that adults adults have already developed those skills, and use AI to free up that time, whereas I think students have not quite developed the skills that AI is capable of doing for them yet,” said social studies teacher Jonathan Smith.
And as time has passed, some teachers have seen their opinions on the matter shift.
“Early on, I used AI more frequently in the classroom, in the spring of 2023. I started in some of my classes, to have them try to get AI to write responses to AP prompts, and them have them score those responses… I don’t do that assignment anymore, because I didn’t find it particularly valuable,” said Smith. “I backed away from that entirely, I don’t have students deliberately use AI for any assignments now… if we think of the brain as a muscle, one of the things that AI does is allow students to create thought without using the muscle.”
And once students graduate and eventually break into their various career pathways, the story becomes even more clouded.
“I have a lot of friends in the corporate world who have a much more positive view of AI than I do, and I think part of the reason for that is because they’re at a spot where AI is just an assistant. They haven’t seen the way that it’s going to impact the future people that are working with or for them. That’s where I’m most concerned,” said Smith.
Teachers have sought out some sort of conversation or consensus on the issue, but congruence has been hard to find.
“I don’t think that we know how to start these conversations. They’re hard, they’re very complicated, and I wouldn’t want anyone to feel attacked in that space. But I feel like, as adults, who are responsible for the well-being of kids, we have to figure out what we’re doing about [AI], so we can steer the kids in the right direction,” said Miller. “There are ways in which AI makes sense in the classroom. I struggle to reconcile with that, but I respect the viewpoints of other people and how it might work for them.”
Where the conversations have taken place, some leaders see a void in the conversation that more teachers could fill the space.
“I run an AI working group in this school, and there are some people who feel this is our obligation to help students use this, and some people who think this is terrible and that this is removing all the creativity and original thought from our students in ways that are really damaging,” said Gunnink. “I think as a school, we need to be talking about this more than simply the group of eight to ten teachers that I work with… I think the more thoughtfully we can think about this, we can manage this problem and opportunity.”
