Education is a whole new ballgame now. Just about every school system I know of now uses some form of 1:1 technology where students complete a great deal of their work, if not all of it, through some electronic device or another. As with all technology, this comes with exciting possibilities as well as tremendous concerns. This week, I’ve been reminded of one of those concerns which is as of now, still in its infancy. But it is already rearing its ugly head in classrooms all over the country. I’m referring to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
There are a lot of cool things that technology allows us to explore in classrooms these days that I could have never dreamed of in a million years back when I was in school half a million years ago. There’s a lot of upside for teachers, too. One huge one is that I no longer have to worry about being crushed by an avalanche of student work on papers piled high on my desk, since most of the assignments are submitted electronically. Many things even grade themselves if they are set up as objective questions. Yet, for all the good, there is a great deal of bad that teachers have to be on the lookout for at all times:
Cheating becomes easier for students when they are working online.
Games, videos, and music can become tremendous time wasters and distractions for students who aren’t disciplined enough to manage their time.
Some students prefer the tactile nature of putting pencil to paper or opening a physical book.
And…the newest danger which has been on the horizon for some time but is now here, AI writing programs.
I first became aware of AI writing programs just recently when I began to see ads pop up online that promoted the ability to “have your blog written for you automatically.” I’ve also seen sites that claim that they can write songs for you. The very idea that some artificially intelligent program can be used to create art for someone offends me deeply as a blogger and as a songwriter. Why would you want to produce a blog piece or a song if it didn’t come from your own mind? I don’t get it, but apparently, people are starting to do it.
It is, however, easier for me to understand the appeal of AI writing programs that can produce essays and term papers for students. Let’s face it, there are a lot of lazy students who would jump at the chance to have an AI program do their work for them, and some are starting to do just that. The other day, I spoke with a Language Arts teacher friend who expressed to me some concern that some of his students’ essays seemed a little “too good.” He had told me about AI writing programs being used by students just earlier that week, and now he had already potentially discovered them being used by some of his own middle school students. Long story short, he did indeed uncover at least one verified example of a student who’d admitted using AI to produce their essay. This is a tremendous concern that needs a lot more attention, and fast.
A math teacher friend informed me that there are similar AI programs available in math subjects too.
Is it time to roll back the clock and go back to old school pencil and paper assessments?
It very well could be.
Stay tuned.