Artificial intelligence [AI] has been so negatively stigmatized in schools that people forget that it is meant to be helpful. Yes, the majority of students use it to write their English essays or fill out their history capture sheet, but there’s more to AI than giving straight-up answers. WCHS AP Calculus teacher Audrey Phillips has been urging students to use AI correctly in math, especially advocating for academic honesty.
“AI definitely provides easy access to work out problems in mathematics,” Phillips said. “If you are home alone studying, it is nice to be able to type the question in and get an answer to validate it. I’ve also heard students say they use it when studying to create practice problems, which is creative. AI can be useful if used to check your work, but not do your work.”
After catching so many students using AI to solve work for them, the majority of teachers have outright banned using AI, not realizing how beneficial it could be for students. As the debate grows, artificial intelligence has been carefully watched in the academic world, with new software being created that allows teachers to test if students have used AI to complete their work.
“If used in the right way, students could use AI as a tool,” WCHS freshman Sigal Benitah said. “The issue is that since students use AI to do their work for them and not assist when they get caught, AI gets a negative stigma because it’s [used as] a cheat code instead of a helper.”
AI is revolutionizing the way students approach math by offering personalized learning experiences and assisting with complex problem-solving. With its ability to adapt to individual learning styles and provide instant feedback, AI is making math more accessible and engaging for students of all levels. While some view using artificial intelligence with skepticism, others see it as a valuable resource to engage productivity and innovation.
“[Using AI] to solve problems improves creativity because it opens up windows in the brain you did not know were there,” Phillips said. “When solving problems, I think people tend to respond and react to situations in a similar pattern. If it works the first time, you will most likely solve it similarly a second time. Even if you don’t know how to start you could use AI. ”
The argument against or for AI has been going on for a while. According to the Digital Education Council, 86% of students use artificial intelligence tools in their homework. With so many using AI, it’s almost impossible to ban; instead, students should be taught how to use AI for good.
“In a way, AI could diminish creativity because it gives everyone one way only to start solving a problem instead of letting people come up with their own solutions,” Benitah said. “But it could also stir creativity by helping people get past what’s blocking them from getting started.”
As AI development speeds up, students have, and hopefully, teachers will recognize its value in the classroom. By finding ways to integrate technology into classwork, helping students understand work, or generating new ways and explanations to solve a problem that works for them, AI could help teachers find more ways to explain content.
“For school, AI could be used to generate prompts for an English essay, edit an essay, find solutions to math problems students don’t understand, generate math problems for practice, create study guides, and more,” Benitah said. “The possibilities are endless, the key is not using AI to do work for you but [creating] work that still has students [to do the] work.”
In her classes, Phillips has suggested that students use AI only after struggling to start a math problem and only to start the problem, not to solve it fully. Some other teachers at WCHS have suggested using AI to answer questions or generate study guides before a test.
“I haven’t tried, but I think ChatGPT could create a set of practice problems. I’ve heard teachers talking about using AI to create practice problems,” Phillips said. “I use it to double-check my work if I’m second-guessing something. With AI, we [can access more information]. I used to have to go look it up in an encyclopedia, library or research room to pull out manuals, [but] now you can sit at a desk and type something [and] you have the whole world and beyond [at] your access.”
AI could be useful in academics for many purposes, but no class teaches using AI properly. Banning AI outright implies that teachers don’t trust their students, damaging the bond between them. However, teachers are coming from a place where they want their students to challenge themselves, not leach off the work of others or a robot.
“Math is necessary for coding, and AI needs coding to be able to function, but AI can create false information,” Phillips said. “If you do not have a way to check the validity of a solution, how are we ever going to know the AI was right? If we stop using our brains and just trust and rely on AI, how will we ever know if a mistake was made? We learn from our mistakes, but we have to let ourselves make mistakes.”
