As the school year gets underway, teachers across the country are dealing with a pressing quandary: whether or not to use AI in the classroom.
Ludrick Cooper, an eighth-grade teacher in South Carolina, told CNN that he's been against the use of AI inside and outside the classroom for years, but is starting to change his tune.
"This is the new encyclopedia," he said of AI.
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There are certainly benefits to using AI in the classroom. It can make lessons more engaging, make access to information easier, and help with accessibility for those with visual impairments or conditions like dyslexia.
However, experts also have concerns about the negative impacts AI can have on students. Widening education inequalities, mental health impacts, and easier methods of cheating are among the main downfalls of the technology.
"AI is a little bit like fire. When cavemen first discovered fire, a lot of people said, ‘Ooh, look what it can do,'" University of Maine Associate Professor of Special Education Sarah Howorth told CNN. "And other people are like, ‘Ah, it could kill us.' You know, it's the same with AI."
Several existing platforms have developed specific AI tools to be used in the classroom. In July, OpenAI launched "Study Mode," which offers students step-by-step guidance on classwork instead of just giving them an answer.
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The company has also partnered with Instructure, the company behind the learning platform Canvas, to create a new tool called the LLM-Enabled Assignment. The tool will allow teachers to create AI-powered lessons while simultaneously tracking student progress.
"Now is the time to ensure AI benefits students, educators, and institutions, and partnerships like this are critical to making that happen," OpenAI Vice President of Education Leah Belsky said in a statement.
While some teachers are excited by these advancements and the possibilities they create, others aren't quite sold.
Stanford University Vice Provost for Digital Education Matthew Rascoff worries that tools like this one remove the social aspect of education. By helping just one person at a time, AI tools don't allow opportunities for students to work on things like collaboration skills, which will be vital in their success as productive members of society.
"Great classrooms create a sense of mutual responsibility for everybody's learning," he told CNN.
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Lauren Monaco, a New York City pre-K and kindergarten teacher, also has concerns about the use of AI in the classroom. She sees AI as a crutch that keeps students from actually learning. In her perspective, teaching involves more than just the "transactional information input-output" of AI, she told CNN.
For Robin Lake, Arizona State University's Center on Reinventing Public Education director, the increase of AI use is a positive thing because of how prevalent it’s become in other areas of our lives.
"What are students going to need to be successful in an AI economy once they get out there?" she told CNN. "That's another issue that educators should be grappling with."
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