AI at school – it’s already there!
Artificial intelligence is now used at schools. At the same time, this is mainly due to students who use AI-enabled applications. I asked almost 100 high school students whether they used artificial intelligence at school. They almost unanimously stated that they did. The scope of their use of the tools is wide. It concerns, among other things, exploring incomprehensible issues through dialogue with a chatbot, searching for sources, but also using AI to do homework. Declarations of using artificial intelligence for cheating are common among students.
Here's a brief explanation for the uninitiated ones: the student takes a photo of a sheet of paper on which the tasks are printed, pastes the photo into chatGPT and asks for the solution. Then they copy the answer from the smartphone onto the paper, and after a few days receive a grade, usually a very good one. Naturally, this model of behaviour does not apply to all students. It is also not known how common such behaviour is. At the same time, it should be noted that artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it supports the education process, and on the other, it facilitates unethical behaviour.
The role of a teacher and obstacles
Due to the popularisation of AI, the role of a teacher is to manage the educational process in such a way that students learn that artificial intelligence is a tool for cooperation, which is not supposed to do the work for the students, but together with them. AI is an assistant that allows to overcome human limitations, which supports creative processes and relieves from routine tasks. At the same time, in order to make student come to such a conclusion, the teacher should be able to design a lesson using AI. At the moment, this is a demanding task for two reasons:
- the level of competence of teachers in the use of AI is lower than the level of students,
- using AI tools at school requires going through bureaucratic procedures.
In the case of procedures, the scale of the investment is not the challenge as many tools that can be used in education cost, for example, PLN 40 per month. Even a school with a modest budget can afford it. The problem often lies in settling such costs, as well as the purchase itself, which requires a payment card, which schools often do not have. At the same time, bureaucratic difficulties cannot be an excuse, because there is a whole range of tools available free of charge that allow you to bypass this problem.
Fortunately, more and more schools are training their staff in the use of AI tools. The topic has also become a priority for units supporting the development of teacher competences, including Voivodeship Centres for Professional Development. There is hope that the education sector will transform. The question is when this will happen.
The article has been written based on the author's own research, which uses experience in working with high school youth and teachers on the development of competences in using artificial intelligence.
Author: Dr Dominik Skowroński
Edit: Faculty of Management, University of Lodz