How is artificial intelligence affecting the classroom?
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Professors are becoming more concerned with the use of AI technology being used in their classrooms.
Students and educators alike have become hyper-aware of using artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom as technology upgrades exponentially. This week, The Lamron reached out to SUNY Geneseo students and staff in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as those in humanities and literacy classes. All participants in this article are willingly depicted anonymously, as some content might be incriminating—specifically for students.
One student explained when and how they chose AI for class assignments: “I wouldn't use it to copy directly. A lot of teachers have, like, AI scanning apps, and that's also plagiarism. But I've used that to inspire ideas.” They go on to explain that they often use AI to summarize articles, “If you are reading an article [and] you don't understand it, like, what's the main argument of the article?”
Another student explained how using AI in STEM classes can sometimes be complicated. “In terms of STEM stuff, especially for math, it's a quantitative methods class. But some formulas take 13 steps, and you have a hard time figuring out what these steps are. You use the AI to help define the steps.” They go on to state, “You can put in the exact numbers that you need for the question, but the math is usually wrong when it comes out, so you just use the equation that it gives you and do it yourself. And that's how I've used it for STEM-related purposes.” While the answer might ultimately be incorrect, this student believes there is still value in using AI to receive steps of the problems.
A STEM professor had a similar optimistic outlook on the use of AI in STEM classes. “If it's on an out-of-class assignment, I'm not monitoring that. I hope that they felt like they needed to use AI or ChatGPT, something like that, to solve a problem that they then paused and learned the process and could apply it to other problems without needing the AI to solve it. So if a student uses it to help them learn, much like I did 30 years, 40 years ago, in a solutions manual, then I encourage it.”
They told a story reflecting on using calculators: “I said to someone, I do the problem by hand, and then I use my calculator to check it. And the person who was much older and more experienced than me said, ‘Gosh, I think I'd see it the other way around. I'd use the calculator, then I'd use my human brain to check it, and let me be the authority on it.’ And I guess back then, as a kid, I was putting too much value on the technology instead of it myself.” This professor sees a similar problem developing with AI, stating, “ I think we need to get back to the point where we believe our results, you know, and we do have to be very critical of the AI output.”
As for non-STEM classes, a professor answers why they believe AI is harmful: “Once you receive a four-year degree, you should at least be able to read and write. I have students who can't read and write, and they're just using technology to get them through school.” This professor continues to explain, “I think it's dishonest. It's dishonest to the whole system. It's dishonest to the students themselves. What are you going to do when you get into the workplace, and you can't read and write? What does it say to the institution that we have students who can't read or write? It bothers me, the lack of integrity that comes with this.”
When asked whether or not professors should be more lenient on AI used in college classrooms, one student answered, “It's kind of going against their livelihood. They are teaching, and, if an AI is doing all of your work for you, you're not ingraining those concepts into your mind. So being lenient [on AI use] is kind of negating the kind of purpose for us being here and learning stuff and kind of melting it into our brains.” That being said, this student explains that you can't deny its existence, “it's something that will help mitigate stress for assignments when, especially for incoming students who have kind of had it their entire college experience, and haven't known how to do other stuff, like doing it without it. I think trying to just rip it away is an impossible task…you can not get rid of it.”
Professors are in a way on their own in terms of cracking down on AI being used in their classrooms “It started about three years ago. I was getting these well-written essays during tests, which are stressful, and I'm expecting spelling errors and writing errors, and I'm getting perfect papers…they were off-topic. They didn't answer the question, so something was off.” Since discovering the use of AI in their classroom, they have been forced to modify their classes to catch students using AI and keep them from being dishonest. “It's turned into a cat-and-mouse game. It's nothing new between students and instructors, but the technology has made it much more difficult to find cheating.”