‘What can I help with?” lingers on the screen. While working on a math assignment, junior Caleb Morello prompts an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program to break down the steps involved in a problem he’s struggling with. In less than a second, Caleb is met with a terse and meticulous breakdown of every step.
A 2023 survey administered by the college testing nonprofit ACT found that 46% of students in grades 10 to 12 use AI services like Chat GPT, Dall-E 2, Bing Chat and others. As artificial intelligence technology continues to develop and grow in popularity, students and teachers around the world are learning to navigate its place in the educational setting.
“I see AI tools helping students in ways in the classroom and education,” CTE teacher and Animation club sponsor Andrew Nourse said. “In general we are becoming more online based, and there are more digital and AI tools that could help, But also, I think they can harm students in terms of creativity and individuality. But there’s a lot of benefits. There are pros and cons.”
NEW WAYS TO LEARN
There are several ways that AI tools can be and are being utilized in the classroom setting. A 2024 report co-written by Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving, Common Sense Media, and Hope Lab reported that help with school work was the third most popular use for AI of those aged 14 to 17, just after getting information and brainstorming ideas.
“If I got something wrong on my math assignment, I’ll look back at my notes, if I can’t figure out what I did wrong from the key, I’ll run it through an AI,” Morello said. “If it gets the answer right, maybe one or two because of the difference in rounding. I’ll follow it’s steps and say ‘ok this is how I do it for the rest of it.’”
Similar to Morello, the Harvard report mentions students who remark that using AI to facilitate learning helps them ask questions without feeling pressure. However, the report also cites several teens who report that they abuse, or know someone who abuses, AI to cheat on their schoolwork.
“I’ve seen it used in two different ways,” Morello said. “I’ve seen it used as a helper. For example, let’s say you can’t call anyone at the moment, or your parents can’t help you, or you’re not at school, and you need help with something, you can use AI to teach you. But there’s also the case where some people just finish assignments with it. They say, ‘do this for me’ and then copy and paste a few things.”
As of 2024, the Austin Independent School District’s Responsible Use Policy states the expectation that students in the district are required to be honest and transparent when using digital tools like Artificial Intelligence. The policy also states that these tools should be used in order to ‘support’ students’ learning.
“I think that there will be a catch with everyone at whatever point, whether it’s like a lesson talking about guardrails that are in position in school,” CTE teacher Cheryl Navarette said. “You have to defend the paper that you wrote, not just turn in the paper, because then you have to demonstrate your understanding of what you presented. So, that’s a place where you’re going to get called out.”
In California, guidelines for AI use in the educational environment are executed at the state level. The California Department of Education published a page on their website dedicated to providing guidelines for AI use in California schools. This page highlights the importance of teaching students to use AI tools in a responsible, respectful, honest, and safe way.
“It hinders learning, especially if you use it a lot,” junior Lexi Chavarria said. “If that’s your main go-to when you get an assignment, just going to chat GPT and being done with it, I think it hinders learning for sure. I do find myself using it. I try not to use it often. I usually will try to use it if it’s something I already know how to do, and I just want to be done with it. But there are definitely people who will just use it without taking any notice.”
STUDENT CREATIVITY
A concern of many students like Chavarria, who takes both upper level graphic design and animation classes, is the use of AI in the creative field. Students have the chance to learn about and develop the skills to create artistic content they feel passionate about in school. However, many AI tools are eliminating the need to learn those skills.
“It’s so unethical, I use it, but it’s so unethical, especially when it comes to human core values,” Chavarria said. “When a human creates something, it’s made with a lot of passion. But AI creating something, generating music, writing something, or anything like that, it just doesn’t have passion.”
According to the Harvard report, concern about job opportunities as AI seeps into different creative industries is one of the largest worries of young people like Chavarria. Generative AI saves both time and money in the art industry, which eliminates the creative roles many students have developed skills in and are passionate about.
“I think it is a harm to your culture, to society in general, in terms of creativity, especially,” Nourse said. “It’s a concern for students that want to pursue something like this, with the likelihood of AI taking over jobs, or already decreasing job openings and that sort of thing, so it’s definitely a threat to careers that are based on creative content.”
In a 2024 survey conducted by the Society of Authors, 26% of illustrators report having already lost their jobs because of generative AI software. In addition, the survey reports others in many different creative fields, like fiction writers, anticipate their jobs being affected negatively by generative AI.
“AI can do animation already, and that’s gonna reduce the cost of films, they’re predicting like 90%,” Nourse said. “So, if a film that used to cost $20 million only cost $2 million to create, what happened to all those jobs and all those people that were involved in that? And so then it almost makes us like a work-less society. That’s a concern.”
Students like Chavarria who have learned the skills to create digital art and want to pursue a creative career, will enter the workforce at a time where the type and quantity of opportunities are uncertain because of AI’s Influence.
“People take a lot of stuff for granted, things that are actually human made,” Chavarria said. “It’s important because that’s how people express themselves. So, I feel like, if AI becomes more and more of a problem, people will take things for granted. And everything starts to have less value.”
REGULATING
Artificial intelligence technology continues to develop with seemingly little guidance or direction. Discussions about regulation, especially in the educational environment, are becoming increasingly relevant. The Association for Career and Technology education published a guide for CTE teachers like Nourse and Navarette, arguing that in order to welcome AI into the classroom environment, students must be taught how to utilize it in a manner that ensures they are still learning and understanding skills essential to the CTE curriculum.
“In our classroom, in graphic design, there’s plenty of room for AI, the software that we use,” Navarette said. “Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator both have built in generative AI features now, and so I allow use for students. We have altered assignments to allow for the use of generative AI, but I’ve also had to figure out what those limits are.”
As of late 2023, only the states of California and Oregon had provided official state-wide guidance to schools to regulate AI use, according to the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Since then, AI has only become more prevalent in the classroom, especially generative AI and AI tools like those recently added to Adobe platforms.
“Most teachers are against it, I’ve seen, but there are a few that kind of have the idea that we can’t really do anything now,” Chavarria said. “We can’t get rid of it, so might as well adjust to it. It puts the limit on something that is a very powerful tool and that can be easily misused. It puts a limit on it, but still allows students to use the tools that they are given.”
According to the Harvard report, 41% of young people ages 14-22 believe AI will have both positive and negative effects on their future. Others in the report are worried about AI becoming too advanced for human control.
“It needs to be regulated, but I don’t know if it’s possible,” Nourse said. “It’s a competitive environment and a competitive industry. We have all these different countries and companies producing all this AI, and they’re trying to advance it as fast as possible.”
As Caleb finishes his math assignment, he thinks back to a few years when this kind of technology wasn’t accessible at the click of a cursor. Putting his assignment into his folder, he wonders how different the educational world will look in the next few years.
“I think the cat’s out of the bag, and it’s never going back in and we just have to figure out how to roll with it,” Navarette said. “I think that fearing it and trying to control it are futile. We can just move forward and figure out how to utilize it.”
