AI should be a partner, not a ghost swicher, for students

AI tools as Cat are models of large languages ​​formed on large text collections, including millions of web pages, books and articles on the Internet. He generates answers using the models he learned from his training data, essentially predicting the words likely to come into a sentence. These AI systems are based on complex algorithms to produce answers, but they do not check the facts or do not assess the credibility of these responses.

The AI ​​can even synthesize information from new ways, producing content entirely manufactured in a phenomenon called “AI hallucination”. Hallucinations occur when the model generates answers which seem credible but which are ultimately false. These may include invented facts, documents or sources. Hallucinations are among the most important limits of today's AI systems and highlight the importance of human critical thinking.

Credit: contributed

Credit: contributed

Artificial intelligence, however, can help generate ideas and perhaps move in the right direction. But that should not delete our thought – our intellectual commitment. Teachers play an essential role by showing students how to use AI in a responsible manner and guiding them throughout this process.

Teachers can also guide students by stressing that a good writing is a process, not just a finished product. When students submit contours, drafts and review newspapers, they engage in thoughtful and reflective work that AI should support, and not replace. In fact, part of the process can include showing how students used AI to generate ideas or explore sources – as long as they also reflect and personalize this content, making it their own.

The first opportunity is to help them generate main ideas or subjects. AI can also help develop a plan to help organize their writing in a logical sequence. This helps them organize their thoughts before starting to write the real test.

Students and researchers can use artificial intelligence to help the editing and revision process to ensure clarity and consistency. AI can also help students think about how different sources or theories could connect. Of course, students will have to check and cite sources themselves.

Again, artificial intelligence should be a “partner” for the student-writer, not a screenwriter. This is an opportunity to grow and get in intellectually. Good control for teachers is to ask students to verbalize in their own words what they have written and learned. Artificial intelligence cannot do this for you.

The drafting of works may have to evolve by asking students to reflect on their process, to create personal connections to the content or to apply concepts in a way that AI cannot reproduce. Although the concerns about shortcuts and abuses are certainly justified, AI also has a new precious opportunity to teach metacognition, research habits and ethical literacy practices – if educators are ready to guide their students in a reflected manner through this evolving digital landscape.

While AI continues to evolve, our approaches to teaching, learning and evaluation must also. We must adopt a balanced perspective – that which takes advantage of the advantages of AI while preserving critical thinking and intellectual commitment. Educators must direct this burden by designing work that incorporates AI, teacher to students to verify information and underline the human elements of learning that technology cannot replace.

In doing so, we can prepare students not only to coexist with AI, but to use it as a tool that improves rather than reducing their intellectual growth. We will often have to return to this conversation because the history of AI and education is always being written.

Elias Clinton is an associate professor at the University of Piedmont who is president of the Department of Education for Exceptional Children and Dean Partner of the College of Education. Perry Rettig is a professor and former vice-president of Piedmont University. He spent 42 years as an educator, including stays as a school teacher and director.