AI In Schools

I recently read an interesting article in the Washington Post about how schools struggle to adapt to AI’s reality in the classroom. I couldn’t help but smile as I recalled how, before Covid, there was a push for computer-directed instruction. Even now, some school systems are looking at AI-driven computer instruction as a solution to teacher shortages. While we had a fantastic online program that was required during Covid, it was a shadow of the program we offer in person.

It has become evident after the pandemic that there is no replacing teachers, and that our strength, in education, lies in our teachers. The interconnection of our teachers with your children is how we can nurture them to expand their intellectual and social abilities. It was so much more difficult to form those interpersonal connections and work on social abilities when there is a screen between you. It seems bizarre that after all the data that came out after the pandemic, and the research about how much information was missed in public school instruction, the idea of AI as a means of teaching is still being considered. Schools cannot exist without in-person teachers.

Even now, we know that high student-staff ratios aren’t effective. Not terribly surprising, no child is the same. Almost a cliché saying but entirely true. One child may be ready to take the assessment, while another may not be close to ready. Now imagine having 32+ other students in that room, all of whom may be at different readiness levels; how is anyone, even an experienced teacher, going to teach them the same lesson, let alone help each student with what they are ready for?

Here at Nysmith, we have such low student-to-staff ratios that we can connect with your child, motivate them, and excite them about what they’re learning; that is really our mission. Although AI would be able to form each child’s individual lesson, it cannot form those relationships between each student as well as truly knowing a child like a teacher can. This leads me to the second challenging aspect of AI.

Most schools face the significant challenge of ensuring that their children can research, organize, and compose, given that AI can write substantial research papers for students in minutes. So the question is, what is the solution? One that seems to be arising through many schools is to do an outright ban on using AI. At first, it makes sense. If they cannot use these tools, then when asked to do an ‘assignment’ that requires research, organization, and composition, they will have to do it themselves. Unfortunately, that exact thinking was the same logic and conversation we had when the internet became widely available.

Can you imagine a world now that isn’t interconnected? Can you imagine going down to your local library and trying to find a book/magazine/journal to find a piece of information for your project, for your recipe, for the news?

Now, AI is different from the Internet. One is a tool and the other a web of connections, but the idea is the same. They are an upheaval. They are changing how we, and our children, will interact with information. From a school standpoint, AI is no different from our past situations. I am sorry to say that we have had parents who have done their children’s homework, written reports, and done their projects. Now we will save that entire conversation for another time. But the idea behind it is the same as AI; something or someone else is doing the work. Luckily, as a teacher, it is pretty easy to spot work that isn’t the student’s. Teachers get to know the students and their work; they spend nearly 8 hours a day with them. If suddenly one of their students, who is working at a 6th-grade level, is writing essays on a high school or college level, it will raise some flags. Another scenario: imagine having 30+ students in just one of your classes that day. Would you be able to spot if a child was writing higher than they usually do? Would you remember what level each student was writing at? Teachers remain vital to the success of the children, but their odds of success are so much greater when they are not forced to teach as many students as they can possibly fit into those classrooms.

Schools have always seemed to be at the forefront and sometimes the battleground of major issues. Another one that schools are contending with right now is cellphones and social media. Check back later; I will be talking about those issues as well in the future. Just like Pandora’s Box and every other major upheaval, once it is open there is no forcing it back in. Schools must change with the times! Rather than trying to disrupt the waves of changes, schools need to be trying to ride and guide the waves.

AI is the future, and now it is time to determine how to teach children how and when to use it effectively and appropriately. How to use it to find sources, how to use it to cite them correctly, how to use it to help create outlines and form better connections. Many of these things that we will need to teach students are the same things that we are teaching them about the internet. Now it is just taking that a step further, teaching them to properly use a new tool rather than relying on it.

It all goes back to a common theme: mindset. We want to teach our students to look forward to the future and embrace it. We have talented teachers who also have that same flexible mindset. Looking for solutions, foreseeing potential problems, and putting the steps in place to help ensure success. There is no question that education in the next 20 years is going to be very different, but that’s why it’s important to be flexible and constantly evaluate what skills the children will need in the future.