Is AI sneaking up on you through student submissions?
In one form or another, generative AI is finding its way into students’ works. Grammarly has typically been embrace for allowing students to more clearly express their ideas. There’s a chance that a rephrasing tool could be doing the same. Then there’s the increasing additions of supportive AI tools to platforms like Google Workspace and Documents and, if reports are true, Apple’s full-on embrace of AI in its upcoming operating systems. It’s conceivable that by the start of the next school year, every platform we’re used to interacting with will have been “augmented” by AI.
So, the question will become to block, or not to block? The analogy I use when speaking with educators is that of the walled-garden, which has been used to enforce academic integrity for centuries now. Whether it was the floor of the arena taken over for final exams, a lecture hall, or a locked-down digital interface, schools have been in search of the best venue to ensure that the only content resource available to a student was the one between their ears. And yet, we know that students have always been industrious and motivated to work less, so we have to use tools like our Document Audit, History Reports, and Replay as a digital-walled-garden equivalent.
But, is a block and enforce approach the correct approach?
AI can be frighteningly good at helping your students!
If AI tools are already wide-spread and increasingly embedded in the platforms the students are familiar with, and will be expected to be proficient in for higher education and the workplace, does blocking their usage in secondary education make sense?
On the other hand, if a student can generate a 1500 word essay by passing ChatGPT the subject of their assignment, should they be allowed to use it?
We’re proponents of using AI appropriately, and responsibly. As such, our tools are focused on helping the educator identify usage of AI generated text, but also examine the process by which a work was written to understand how it evolved. That, combined with your own experience, knowledge of your students, and your intuition as an educator, will go a long way toward fostering a learning environment that can integrate the newest technologies without fear.
But we get it, keeping up with AI can be scary
We hear you. The pace of innovation and the sheer amount of tools that exist and are coming have created a ton of noise. It’s unrealistic and unfair to expect you, an already over-worked educator, to add proficiency in all-things AI to your skillset, at least not this quickly.
That’s our job, though, and we can tell you that “Generative AIs” are getting really, really, good and generating text, images, videos, audio, and code. And also, their number and quality are trending in the upwards and to the right direction of the graph 📈.
Stick with us for more about how we’re going to help you get through this AI scary season.
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