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Technology is now a central part of education. Students, teachers, and administrators alike all use technology to do their part. A particular new form of technology has recently caused quite the fuss in educational spaces. Artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT are easily able to be prompted by anyone to write just about anything. This has become a cause for concern because students can now have an artificial intelligence write essays for them rather than writing the essay themselves.
“The biggest problem isn’t the AI itself, but kids thinking that they can use it and there will be no consequences,” language arts teacher Alex Bailey said.
Bailey and computer science teacher Toney Larson both shared that it is pretty easy to distinguish something that a student wrote from something that AI wrote
Freshman Viviana Rodriguez agrees that students shouldn’t use artificial intelligence to do their assignments for them.
“Either you get caught or it just tells you the answer that isn’t correct,” Rodriguez said.
With the issues that artificial intelligence presents, many wonder if it is possible to just “ditch” it.
“You cannot stuff that genie back in the bottle,” systems and help desk administrator Enoch Brown said. “For almost all of history we knew what we were preparing people for and rightnow we have no idea.”
If we can’t simply run from artificial intelligence, then we must come up with other solutions to these problems.
“The state school board is looking at different school-based AI platforms, and there will be one approved for school use probably next year,” Brown said.
Currently the state school board is looking at three different programs. All three of the programs would be focused more on helping students to complete assignments rather than generating the work for them.
According to an article from the Deseret News, a program called “SchoolAI” aims to do just that. Jordan School District has already adopted the program and other districts may soon follow suit.
Beyond the complex and controversial world of artificial intelligence, there are a lot of other forms of technology that students and teachers use.
“That’s where I mostly use [technology],” freshman Sebastian Harman said. Many other students also shared that the majority of their technology use was school related in some way.
There are endless educational based programs that make the classroom a more convenient place for students and teachers.
“I like to use Canvas for students to get information about what happened in class and also to turn things in for feedback and grading,” Bailey said.
Canvas is a very widely used application that allows teachers to make modules and assignments that include instructions for students on how to complete the assignments. Students are able to submit google documents, photos, or a URL to any other website that their assignments might be on.
“I turn in a lot of my assignments on Canvas,” Rodriguez said.
While Canvas is a very universal tool that all teachers can use, some teachers turn to applications that better fit their classes’ niche.
“We use specific web building programs like Skill Struck,”
Larson said. Skill Struck is a program that has pre-made assignments that teachers can assign to their students. Skill Struck is a more computer science focused program which works perfect for classes where students are learning to code.
While technology is a useful tool for everyone in educational spaces, it can present some problems.
“A lot of my students get distracted by the technology they’re on,” Larson said, “they should be doing their work but instead they are watching YouTube or playing a game.”
While new and developing technologies make our lives more convenient, there are definitely benefits to using paper and pencil.
“There’s research about the value of writing notes by hand and how that reinforces what you’re learning,” Brown said.
Student experiences reflect this research.
“[Technology] is just a lot harder to work with especially with how much it’s changing,” Harman said, “I feel like pencil and paper are a lot easier to understand.”
Bailey also had some first hand experiences with the use of physical materials in her classroom.
“I feel like if I give [something to my students] on paper, at least in that moment when they have [the paper], it sticks better with them,” Bailey said, “then they usually leave their papers in [the classroom], but at least I gave them exposure to it.”
In the modern world technology surrounds us and continues to grow. Whether just simply using technology as a means of communication or using it to give instructions and submit assignments, technology will continue to be used in educational spaces. Only time will tell if technology continues to benefit or hinder our education.
