AI in schools – should we give this a nod or take a step back? About half (52 %) of U. S. adults give the green light to AI in K-12 schools by agreeing to the proposition that schools should focus on teaching students how to appropriately use AI. However, another half of them are sceptical or remain unsure. And there are valid reasons for concern as AI, with both its benefits and drawbacks, still lacks full regulatory guidance in education.
A technology that outpaced legal frameworks
Newly emerged technology left education systems with the need for rapid development of methods to keep up with the technology and its regulation between students. Last year, less than 10 % of schools and universities had formal guidance on AI. This year, hopefully, the number will increase faster due to efforts to regulate AI like the release of UNESCO’s first global guidance on proper Generative AI, like ChatGPT and Gemini, use in education.
A positive note – AI in a classroom
Recent research on AI in education highlights the potential of AI to enhance learning, particularly through personalized learning experiences. A study published in September 2023 gives a promising attitude toward AI in schools by testing Generative AI in the classroom. The study involved pupils studying in the 4th-6th grades who participated in lessons where the content was generated and modified by using ChatGPT-3.5. The experiment showed that AI was a good tool to personalize learning material so it aligns with different knowledge levels and learning abilities of pupils. Not to mention that the majority of students enjoyed learning the Gen AI modified lesson material.
Spotting the bot – not that easy
Examples like this show that integrating AI in a primary education classroom makes learning more appealing, however, when it comes to institutions of higher learning it carries different outcomes. There is an emerging problem of AI use for essay writing in college. An emerging number of college students use AI not only to brainstorm ideas but also request the bot to write a whole essay itself. By doing this, students miss out on the process of learning and hinder their academic growth.
Addressing this issue becomes even more challenging due to the fact that colleges struggle to identify AI use and discourage students from using it ineffectively. A study called “Can You Spot The Bot?“ tried to check how easily people in college can spot AI-generated text. In the study, a test was created with pairs of essays – one written by a college student and another generated by ChatGPT. The test included responses from instructors, students, and ChatGPT itself. On average, instructors were able to guess the AI-generated text only 70 % of the time, compared to 60 % for students and 63 % for ChatGPT. No matter the expertise or confidence of both instructors and students, there was a struggle to spot AI-generated work. For this reason, banning is not an option, but educating students on effective AI use could be a better approach.
Final notes
Even though AI emerging in schools raised its challenges, leveraging AI capabilities in schools holds promise in revolutionizing the field of education. When used as a learning tool to modify the material and personalize it, AI shows success, however, when used to generate text it prevents students from learning themselves. As the World Economic Forum notes, by emphasizing human-centric teaching first and supporting AI and digital literacy, achieving success with AI in education may be possible.
Sources: Statista, UNESCO News, European School Education Platform, MDPI, Campus Technology, Springer Nature Link, World Ecomonic Forum.
