"Resist AI in the classroom"

This blog post is originally an email I sent to all teachers and administrators in my school.

Over the course of the last several months, I have witnessed a surge of AI in the school environment cause intense disruption amongst students and teachers. As a veteran teacher who has been working in public schools since 2008, I feel confused for the first time in a long time about how to proceed in the classroom. Not since Covid uprooted public education have I felt so disheartened about the direction in which we are headed. The majority of what I have been hearing are the “benefits” that AI provides teachers, and how it makes our jobs “easier.” I don’t know about you, but my job has become significantly more difficult to navigate since the rapid acceleration of AI, and I’m worried about what comes next. 

My most profound concern in regard to student usage of AI is the potential loss of the ability to write. AI has been integrated into educational technology and provides the students with alleged "tools" to improve their writing. However, the problem with AI is that it does not just simply polish spelling and grammar, but rather it substitutes phrases, whole paragraphs, or the entire piece of work. If a student replaces large sections of their writing with AI suggestions, then the work ceases to be original; it is a form of plagiarism and cheating. Spelling and grammar checks are useful tools - I fully endorse them - but AI capabilities soar beyond the valuable editing process. For a while now, students have been losing the skill set of spelling and proper grammar usage. But what if they don't NEED to learn how to write anymore because the computer does it for them? What does that mean for our future?

 I personally know of many students who have been passing classes with ease through the unethical use of AI. And many teachers are not only ill-equipped, but lack the support to deal with this onslaught of AI generated student writing. It feels as if we are on an island engulfed by a tidal wave as we fight to stay afloat. In my classroom, specifically related to writing, I have always promoted original thought, creativity, critical thinking, freedom, and the expression of a unique voice. AI has the potential to fundamentally destroy this style. If AI brainstorms, conceptualizes, solves problems, writes, summarizes, and corrects, then what exactly is the student doing? Again, I understand there are some potential benefits of AI in the classroom, but when it comes to student produced writing, I believe it does much more harm than good. As districts continue to invest large sums of money in Educational Technology, teachers who care about authenticity will feel forced to turn back the clock, returning to notebooks and pens, thereby creating a massive disconnect between administrative agendas and teacher strategies. Watching students write in notebooks in front of the teacher is the only surefire way to ensure authenticity in student work.

There are far too many honest and industrious students who are being treated unfairly as they dig in to do the work themselves while others regularly use AI. I know specifically of several students who have high GPAs as a direct result of extended AI usage. I am also aware of strong writers who are intentionally making mistakes in their writing just so they won’t get flagged for AI. How backwards is that? They will deliberately dumb down their writing, not strive to make it their best work, so they don’t get accused of cheating. For the students who want to find the easiest way to get good grades, they have been supplied with the ultimate cheating tool to get through high school. Teachers have their own tools to counter AI cheating, but the checkers I know of are both inconsistent and unreliable. Until just recently, specifically from my vantage point, no one has directly addressed what I believe to be an educational crisis. The school days come and go. We try to march on like this invasion is normal, yet it is anything but normal. AI is a different beast that I believe needs to be challenged, not welcomed.

Reading and editing student work is a likable part of teaching for me, not a burden. As a person who writes for pleasure, I also enjoy exploring the original writing of students and then commenting and writing back to them, thereby creating a collaborative workshop environment. But most of that time is now replaced with detective work in trying to figure out if student writing is authentic. During class time, I am expected to constantly police the technology of students to make sure they are doing honest work. There is no media specialist present in our building for assistance. A technology policy in regard to AI  use is not yet formulated. I was not trained to be a technology specialist but rather a teacher of language and literature.

I am not naive and fully understand that the world constantly changes. LIke it or not, we live in a rapidly advancing technological world. Part of the duty as an educator is to stay informed and learn about such change in order to prepare students for the future. However, when do we resist? Where do we draw the line? Big Tech, under the guise of Ed. Tech, is getting richer by the billions while students are losing crucial skills and falling further behind. The Department of Education has been gutted. Artificial Intelligence is deregulated. In due time, if AI is fully integrated into education, young people will lose the ability to think originally and creatively, to be industrious and resourceful. Necessary critical thinking skills in students are slowly being diminished by the advancement of this machine’s uncanny abilities. If young people are unable to formulate their own ideas and thoughts, then the natural next step to articulate those very thoughts are in peril. The critical process of conceptualizing is dangerously being replaced. We need to push back. Human beings, especially teenagers, if not challenged or motivated, will often take the path of least resistance. They already have been. Why make that easier for them instead of more difficult?

To be clear, I come from a place of concern, not criticism. AI has been useful for some teachers and I am not here to judge. I am certainly able to see some value in it for areas such as researching, summarizing, or brainstorming. Just recently, I used AI to summarize a project idea related to a novel, and it worked well. I am not exempting myself from any of this or proclaiming to be above and beyond anything. And If I were a teacher of math or science, I may be singing an entirely different tune. But I am not. I specialize in the art form of language and fear it may be dying. In the same way young people lack the focus to read as a direct result of the overuse of technology, I am afraid writing is the next victim. This both saddens and scares me. So, I will continue to originally express and share my fears and anxieties through writing, just as I would expect from my students. My hope here is to not only voice my concerns as an educator, but also to create an opportunity for meaningful discussions related to this topic. I remain very much open to listening and learning.