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Classroom Practice/Program

Educators: Taking an Intelligent Approach

to Artificial Intelligence

By Claire A. Swanson

The recent development and availability of generative applications like ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com)
and Google Bard (https://bard.google.com) have generated considerable discussion about how artificial
intelligence (AI) will impact the educational community. These “chatbots” are software applications that
allow humans to interact and communicate with computers as if they were communicating with another
human. One interacts with AI through prompts, which are the instructions or questions one inputs into the
AI in order to elicit a response from the chatbot. The more detailed and concise the prompt, the better the
results one will receive from the chatbot. If the first result does not fully answer the inquiry, one can go
back and continue the “conversation” with the chatbot with more specific information. The chatbot will
realize that the new input is a continuation of the previous prompt.
AI has been available to some degree for a while, and perhaps readers will have interacted with it
without realizing they have done so when using applications such as Alexa or Siri. So, what are some of
the ways that AI will be affecting the educational community?

Concerns About AI
One of the biggest concerns about ChatGPT and other similar applications is that they will allow
students to have the chatbots complete their classwork for them. Those who have been in education for some
time will remember that when the Internet and student computer usage became possible a concern arose
that students would just “copy and paste” information.
Accordingly, educators needed to revise assignments to
make it more difficult for students to “take the easy way
out”—and use of AI raises a similar need.
Another concern about these chatbots is that only
information up to a certain date has been imported into
these applications, so the most recent information will not
appear in results. Another factor is that the information
imported has not been vetted for accuracy, timeliness, or
bias. A final factor is one of privacy concerns because AI
“learns” as it goes along, and everything imported into
it becomes part of its knowledge base. Because of these
concerns, some districts have decided to block use of these
applications in their school settings. This is a losing effort,
however, because students have access to these tools
outside the school and through their mobile devices when
they are not connected to the school’s Internet portal.

What to Do About AI
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Is it not then the responsibility of educators to teach students how
to use AI tools in ethically responsible and safe ways because doing so will be a skillset necessary for them
to have in the future? To do so, school districts will have to revise their policies on academic integrity
regarding plagiarism and other issues. Matt Miller (2023), in his blog Ditch That Textbook, wrote a post
entitled “Writing School AI Policies? Use These 10+ Resources” that contains many resources that will

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