AI in the Classroom By: McKaylee Thomas

AI is a new modern way to get answers in 2024, and Hillgrove High School’s students and teachers have similar and different opinions about using AI in the classroom.

Peyton Rawcliffe, a senior at Hillgrove, says that “there can be positive aspects or negative aspects, because it could help you generate your own ideas, like giving you a baseline start. But I also think that some people take it too far and extreme, to where they copy it. So, I think using it the correct way could be beneficial or using it in a bad way could be negative.” Students have the opportunity to use AI as a tool to help them, but many students don’t use it in that way. Most teachers assume that students use AI to cheat and copy answers rather than using it as an educational tool. Students use AI on their own outside of school, but most don’t know exactly how to use it. Dr. Spruill, an English teacher at Hillgrove, thinks that “Until we teach kids how to [use] it correctly, I don't know that it's something that's useful. I think that there are potentials for it, but students don't know how to use it right.”

One student at Hillgrove, Liam Brady, a sophomore, says that in class “we're doing this thing in template where we're, like, writing an essay about like, the effects of it, of technology, like how it affects your mind. So, we just use it as like, more of like a positive thing... it could be used as a tool, but I know someone taught me once, like, if you don't use your brain enough, like a muscle, it's a muscle. So, if you don't use your muscle, it will stop working.”

Some teachers are trying to show students the effects of AI and new technology on student's minds. Students in these classes are learning how not using your brain will hurt you more than you think but using AI to help generate new ideas and boost your creativity can help your grades and learning abilities. Liam thinks that “if we learn how to use it properly, it could open more doors in terms of like new learning activities and experiences at the school.” AI can create wonderful prompt and difficult questions for students to answer which will help students grow, but the majority of students don’t use it in that way. Peyton believes that “they should push to teach how to properly use it. Because if people don’t know how to use it, they could get caught cheating because it’s not their own ideas, so like if they teach [students] how to use it in the correct ways of like bouncing ideas off of it to help your own.” 

AI is changing the way teachers have to grade and think about their student’s work. Teachers at Hillgrove are trying to teach students that straight copying only hurts but using it as a revision tool or as a way to build your personal ideas can help you now and in the future. “I think when [students] use it in place of their own brains and in place of their own ideas and understanding, I think it’s one thing to replace it...versus using it to support.” says Peyton.

Students need to use AI as a tool and support in the classroom and not as a cheat sheet or an answer generator. From now on, teachers need to teach students to use AI in this way rather than hurting themselves and damaging their creative and smart minds.