Education continues to evolve as new technologies come online, most recently with the emergence of artificial intelligence.
The introduction of generative AI technology raised an alarm in K-12 classrooms and higher education institutions. This form of artificial intelligence can be trained to generate high-quality text. A commonly used example of this technology is the Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer or ChatGPT.
Besides the evident concerns of using this technology in an educational space, many see the benefits of its use for both students and teachers. According to the U.S. Department of Education, AI technology can adapt to a student’s learning process and be a helpful tool for educators to meet the individual learning needs of their students.
Academic institutions across the Upstate continue navigating the world of AI and the enhancements it can bring to the classroom.
Student impact
Generative AI produces text and other forms of content from information and prompts given by an individual. A concern for those in academia is that students will turn in AI-generated content under the guise that they produced the work themselves. Many educational institutions prohibit this type of behavior.
Larry Miller, vice president of learning and workforce development at Greenville Technical College, said minor changes were made to the school’s academic policies to state the appropriate and inappropriate use of AI. For instance, AI generative content was included under the definition of plagiarism in the school’s online learning policy.
Greenville County Schools currently does not allow students to use AI technology. Programs such as ChatGPT are blocked from district devices used by students. Jeff McCoy, GCS’s associate superintendent of academics, said the school system is considering AI’s impact on learning and how to make sure students have the skills they need.
“So how do you teach them writing skills and make sure that kids understand you can’t throw everything in ChatGPT because you really have to have the writing skills to edit it?” McCoy said.
McCoy explained that GCS fully embraces AI and feels responsible for teaching students how to be good digital citizens. Digital citizenship with AI involves equipping students with the knowledge and skills to ethically and securely use this technology, according to a report by RTM Business Group.
“We know kids are going to be using (AI) even in their workplace so how do we teach them to use it responsibly, ethically and all that,” McCoy said.
Higher education institutions have started to embrace the supervised learning of AI technology, but it is mostly left up to a professor’s discretion. For example, Magdelyn Hammond Helwig, Furman University’s writing programs director, allows her students to use generative AI only under certain conditions and with her oversight.
“I’m stepping them into how they might integrate ChatGPT or Gen AI into their workflow — more as a writing process thing. Like, how might this be useful in terms of brainstorming or how might this be useful in terms of proofreading,” Helwig said.
Teacher utilization
AI technology offers some benefits for teachers and staff at educational institutions.
GCS has spent the past year training teachers on how to use ChatGPT and Magic School AI, a platform to help teachers write lesson plans and more. McCoy said AI can save teachers time throughout the week by completing administrative tasks for them.
“While these tools can provide valuable support, they should never substitute the critical role of teachers in fostering meaningful student engagement and facilitating personalized learning experiences,” says GCS’s position statement on AI released in 2023.
The school system’s position statement stresses the ethical use of AI to augment classroom instruction in a way that still aligns with pedagogical practices and undergoes continuous evaluation.
At Furman, Helwig experimented using ChatGPT to create lesson plans and produce book summaries. She said AI technology has also made her rethink her teaching methods, such how to design authentic and engaging assignments for students.
“If they perceive what we’re asking them to do as busy work then they’re not going to see asking ChatGPT to do it as short-circuiting their learning, because they have not assigned any value to that work,” Helwig said. “They have to assign value to it in order to extract real learning from it.”
Greenville Tech’s learning management system is also integrating AI to help faculty develop assignments and rubrics for grading. Miller explained the college will create clear policies and procedures for this type of AI use.
Classroom integration
Academic institutions are still navigating the integration of AI in the classroom.
GCS is following a roadmap for implementing the technology in its schools. Before the technology is available for students, the school district has focused on training teachers and establishing policies.
“I think the training is good and completed for the most part, or will be very soon,” McCoy said. “I think the conversations we’re now having is to get our teachers comfortable with students using it, and how do we put those guardrails on.”
An AI task force was created at GTC to assess the use of AI and develop policies and procedures for its use in the classroom. Miller said the task force features a mix of faculty and staff who will work over the summer and provide recommendations at the start of the fall 2024 semester.
“My charge to this task force is that I want to make sure it has representation by those who are AI optimists and AI pessimists,” Miller said. “We have to make sure that we’re guarding against the risks and taking advantage of the potential (of AI).”
Miller also joined the Complete College America Council on Equitable AI. Launched in 2023, the council focuses on providing equitable access to AI tools for institutions whose students have historically been excluded from using these resources.
“AI is going to change everything and some of that will be good, some of that will be bad,” Miller said. “I thought this was a great opportunity to have Greenville Technical College’s voice represented by a national organization and particularly in service of our students.”
AI detection
Generative AI has the ability to produce high-quality text in just a few seconds. Without effective software that can detect AI-created content, many teachers must rely on old-fashioned plagiarism detection.
Magdelyn Hammond Helwig, Furman University’s writing programs director, said it is easier to catch AI than one might think. She explained that she uses the information she knows about her students, their writing styles and other context clues to detect what was written by AI.
“ChatGPT has a voice that is a bit florid and dramatic and overwrought,” Helwig said.
Statistics
1 in 5 teens ages 13 to 17 who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork.
57% of teens who’ve heard about ChatGPT say it’s unacceptable to use AI to write essays.
69% of teens who’ve heard about ChatGPT think it’s acceptable to use AI to research topics.
Teens in higher grade levels are more likely to have used AI for schoolwork.
