High schools, colleges adapt to ever-changing world of AI
In a world where artificial intelligence is constantly changing, they have to adapt to it at the high school and college levels.
CALEDONIA/COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – In a world where artificial intelligence is constantly changing, they have to adapt to it at the high school and college levels.
Caledonia High School Principal Gregory Elliott says that because AI and Chat GPT are so new, school leaders haven’t established a policy. Still, they are training their teachers about how to handle it.
And they are taking a proactive approach – AI is here to stay – so it needs to be used in the right way.
“We’re encouraging our teachers to show students when it’s appropriate to use it and when it’s not appropriate to use it,” Elliott said. “There are times when it’s very useful, and we want our students to know how to use it.”
Scott Tollison is the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at MUW. He says faculty generally make known their preferences on AI on their syllabus.
“In some of our classes, you’ll see that our faculty will disallow it altogether. In other classes, our students are allowed to use it on particular assignments, and in other classes, there is more free rain for students to use it how they see fit. I think in terms of positives, with AI, I think the ability to generate ideas and create initial outlines would definitely be beneficial,” Tollison said.
At the same time, both Elliott and Tollison agree that this tool can also be used for harm.
“There are times in the classroom where we have to measure students’ writing abilities, and so, we’re going to ask them during those times not to use it,” Elliott said. “And if they use it during those times, that would be considered cheating.”
“Generative AI also can struggle with things like properly citing data, returning false returns, and it also can take the place of original work on behalf of our students,” Tollison said. “We do have institutional academic integrity policies. If we suspect a student has used AI irresponsibly, we have a process by which the faculty can turn that case in and we can look into it to ensure the work was that of the student.”
And they agree that it’s not to replace learning or original thought.
“Probably in the world we have ahead, what you’re going to see is people who know how to use artificial intelligence and chat GPT may replace people that don’t know how to use it,” Elliott said.
“When we use our AI-based tools, we need to ask, ‘How did it supplement our learning and not take the place of our learning?'” Tollison said.
Overall, at the high school level and the college level, students and faculty will have to learn to adapt to the ever-changing world of artificial intelligence.
Both Elliott and Tollison say if AI tools are used improperly, there are a range of consequences.
