Education needs actual, not artificial intelligence

     Artificial Intelligence has taken over the world, being used across social media, billion-dollar corporations, and even within Penn-Trafford’s education system. Many classes have enforced guidelines restricting students from using AI on their assignments. Teachers and staff also have guidelines outlining restrictions on AI, but these are harder to enforce, ultimately making it the teachers’ decision whether they use AI responsibly. 

     AI is great at providing unbiased, timely answers and perspectives on a subject. As long as the output is double-checked for accuracy, the software can be extremely beneficial. 

     Even though AI comes with the promise of creating quick solutions, these solutions are often inaccurate and lead to more problems down the road.

PHXHERE IMAGES Artificial Intelligence is now relied on in many aspects of life.

     Earlier this year, the school board used AI to write a vague email trying to explain principal realignment throughout the district. The email used odd wording and gave vague reasons about why there was realignment— a tell-tale sign of AI. 

     Facebook pages exploded, petitions grew and news stations covered the school board meeting that followed on June 11. Parents were outraged that there was no explanation, other than this vague AI email and an inconveniently timed meeting, about why the principals were being swapped around.

     From a more academic perspective, AI is a great tool for grading statistical assignments, like multiple choice tests with the correct answers already uploaded (such as Google Forms or ZipGrade). AI is not a great tool for grading assignments with less straightforward answers, such as essays or analyses.

      For instance, I was assigned to write a 2-3 page, single-spaced analytical essay on a documentary and received a “C” on the essay. After scanning the feedback document, the comments seemed unusual – written in a colorful font with emojis embedded. I suspected it was AI-generated feedback, and I was still confused as to why it gave such a low grade.

     In consulting with other students who completed the assignment, it appeared the AI gave everyone the same, almost word-for-word feedback, despite handing out grades drastically differently. It repeated the same, random sentence in every feedback section, and gave every single student a 3/4 or less on each section.

     After the teacher regraded (by hand) my essay, I received an A, much different than the unexplanatory C the AI had given me.

     Even though my grade was fixed, other students still lost points without having their essays re-graded by a human. The AI grade impacted their report card grades despite possibly not being a true reflection of their work.

     The Penn-Trafford School Board website states, “The district prohibits the use of Generative AI in making final determinations on student assessments and evaluations. [8][9][11][14][37][38].” Whether or not this policy can be enforced is still unclear.

      It is much easier to simply plug in an essay and have it instantaneously graded, but AI is too underdeveloped to produce consistent and accurate results.

     There are ways to positively use AI, but that requires double-checking and not relying solely on the software. There is a reason a popular AI platform is called “Class Companion,” not “Class Dependency.” The AI platform is meant to work in collaboration with education, not by replacing it. A few classes in the social studies department use this app to grade our writings, but all the essay grades are double-checked and human-graded before the final score is entered into PowerSchool due to flaws from the software.

     Teachers and administration cannot rely so heavily on AI. The policies and restrictions put in by the school board are too hard to enforce, making it up to the teacher whether he/she will take the shortcut of relying too heavily on AI.

     If there are policies that students have to be transparent when using AI, teachers should follow similar policies and be open about where they receive their information. When the school board sent out the email, there was no signature on it, hiding the fact it was AI. When my essay was graded, I had never been told AI would be used to grade it until asking the teacher. 

     Teachers need to use AI responsibly in the classroom. From being transparent about where the information is coming from to double-checking the output, teachers have a responsibility to use artificial intelligence appropriately.