Resist temptation to lean too heavily on AI, teachers say

By Bella Emory
Staff Reporter

There’s a right way and a wrong way to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools as a student, said two long-time English teachers.

“It allows students to do a lot of research in a very short time,” said Jan Seiter, a senior English teacher.

Chat GPT, the most well-known artificial intelligence chatbot, can answer questions and write essays so it’s raised questions as to whether it’s considered cheating since it debuted in the fall of 2022.

Junior Gabe Moore, a debate student, said ChatGPT has allowed him to prepare for Congress debates in a way that would not be humanly possible without it. Congress debates simulate debates in Congress in Washington D.C.

“For Congress, I had to write around 20 essays in the span of a week, but I’m only one person and I have other classes on top of this so I use Chat GPT to get a different point of view and sources,” he said.

Moore said Seiter encouraged debate students to try ChatGPT and showed them how to use it.

“I think Chat GPT would make my life a little easier because if a teacher is teaching it, they are going to teach the right way to use it because there is a right way and a wrong way to use it,” Moore said.

Using it the wrong way could result in students not challenging themselves properly, said Danielle Wilkes, a teacher of both AP/dual credit for juniors and senior English.

“At a young age, developing those skills yourself so that you can be a visionary leader is important,” she said. “If you want to be the boss, don’t let something else do the thinking for you. Teenagers, historically speaking, take the path of least resistance. It’s just so easy for students to lean on AI.”

Critical thinking is one of the biggest skills that students need to develop and is an important lifelong skill used in all professions in varying amounts.

“Even if you use other people’s ideas, that’s fine,” Wilkes said. “But you’ve got to still be able to look at it critically and determine what are the flaws with the model or plan you are looking at and ask yourself how it can be improved. If you use Chat GPT, cite it as a source.”

Like a lot of things in education, teachers can be a resource for students in the AI era, too.

“It’s still up to the teacher to make students work hard by asking them critical thinking questions,” he said.