As Artificial Intelligence (AI) has begun to take over the country, with 54% of Americans saying they regularly use it, the use of its technology has started its process of infiltrating high schools.
Springfield’s stance:
Springfield’s Director of Technology, Brandon Lutz, gave insight into how our high school is starting to incorporate AI into learning. In December of 2023, Springfield created an AI committee with a board of teachers and staff to address the growing topic of the use of artificial intelligence. The committee has met around four times this year to discuss students’ use of AI and the impact it might have on students in class.
SDST AI Guidelines and Recommendations is the policy Springfield created to guide and facilitate the regulations for the use of AI. Mr. Lutz comments on how “[the district] wanted to make sure there was [a policy in place] so that if [there was] a question about [how Springfield is utilizing] AI, [the district] could provide [guidance] to staff and students.” Mr. Lutz also adds that Springfield provides AI resources such as “Chat GPT, Magic School (which was purchased based on a pilot last year), and Brisk Teaching.
However, Springfield can also use AI to limit students; Mr. Lutz describes Classwise as a tool where teachers can “control the class through the web. So if [teachers] want [students] on a certain webpage, they can do that. The same if they want to block something for a class period.” This is to ensure the teacher can avoid plagiarism and cheating during tests using AI. The district and Mr. Lutz’s goal for using AI is to “support students and to utilize tools and teach them how to use them in the best way.”
Versions of AI are available to Springfield High School students, and students have complex and diverse opinions on the benefits and harms of using AI for school.
Why students think technology is useful:
One of the students’ most significant uses of AI is for explaining concepts. Senior Helen Lutz uses it to get deeper explanations of her physics homework, “Because [she doesn’t] understand a lot of the concepts, and it really helps [her] understand how to approach the problems.” Likewise, junior Hazel Synnestvedt says, “I use it to explain complex math problems to me when I don’t understand my homework.”
Not only do students see the benefits of AI in explaining, but they also find it helpful when studying. Junior Andrew Lam says he has “asked Chat GPT to give [him] some questions about [school subjects],” and defends this use by saying it should be used as “AI is intelligent and has a big database of knowledge.”
Some students don’t see much harm in technology, like Synnestvedt, who says, “I think it’s useful in everything. I mean, it’s gonna be started to be incorporated within jobs and within schools, and it’s only gonna further advance education. Honestly, it’s just going to end up making all of our lives easier in the long run.” She understands that there could be some long-term consequences for developing students but overall feels that “your lack of knowledge isn’t even going to have a harmful impact on you because all information is gonna be so easily accessible to you in the future anyways no matter what.”
Why students think technology is harmful:
Though students can see the benefits of AI technology, many of them understand there may be general harm in using AI in school. Most students agree with junior Stella Pratowski that “It could be harmful if you just use it to write all your essays” because “then you’re not actually putting in work, so then you don’t actually have any work ethic.”
Lam also worries about how AI could affect students outside of high school, mentioning, “I think plagiarism could get you out of college.” These students ranged from not using AI at all to using it daily, but all agreed that there were consequences in using the technology as a student. Lutz summarizes by saying, “If you are entirely dependent on it, that’s not healthy or good for your educational and knowledge opportunities.”
The teachers of Springfield also gave their opinions on the hot topic of AI. Mr. Taylor, one of Springfield’s history teachers, comments, “AI creates and perpetuates the disposability of learning in a way that [he] think[s] is detrimental to learning.” Mr. Taylor believes that students should learn organically: being thinking intellectuals and applying their knowledge with what they learn physically rather than from artificial intelligence. In fact, he encourages students to be thinkers to the point where they can be “dangerous thinkers,” being able to “really know” a topic. He uses an analogy of a band-aid to explain AI, saying, “The band-aid isn’t the cure, the band-aid simply covers it, there’s something else that needs to cure the problem.”
However, some teachers don’t just see the harm in AI– like one of Springfield’s math teachers, Mr. Malossini. He thinks the mild use of AI is adequate when needing support on confusing schoolwork but still doesn’t recommend it. Mr. Malossini notes, “I know there are major uses of AI for homework, which is not the best use. It would be great if a student ideally used AI to explain a solution and study the steps – use it as a coach or a tool to check their work.”
With differing teacher insights on AI, both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Malossini are unsure of how this advancing development of technology will affect their classrooms, but they will continue trying to enhance student learning to the best of their ability.
Mr. Lutz agrees: the next “conversation for this year is how… we work with students. Could we create guidelines for students?”
The future of how AI will be enacted in Springfield is still developing, so make sure to stay tuned.
