WA Schools View AI With Optimism, And Caution

According to reports, this fall is the first full school year in which AI is being viewed as a potentially valuable tool in the nation's educational system.

   New Federal mandates and programs seek to boost uses of AI

 Geekwire reports a number of new Federal mandates and commissions are studying ways to further develop AI, and incorporate it in educational systems.

However, when does it become a crutch to help students "skip" the often tedious and difficult part of learning?  Several larger WA school Districts have gone from banning the use of ChatGPT and now are seeking to utilize it as part of their systems.

Teachers are finding AI-guided programs can help with grading, planning and other tasks they used to have to devote time to, freeing up more time for lesson plan creation.

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However, others see AI, if not watched, could be used as a crutch. Some of these teacners comb through student work, looking to see if the child used AI to take bullet points and use them to create a paper or project.

One educator says because AI can generate projects for students, their writing skills don't ever really improve. But others say AI-guided learning programs can help students move through learning more quickly and easily, and can boost comprehension.

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They key, many teachers say, is using the AI to handle more tedious tasks that don't directly interfere with student project creation or hands-on learning.

One Bellevue School District educator says AI will "let you do dumb things,"  but AI also pushes educators to plan lessons that students can't use AI to shortcut.

One educator says if a student tells them they used AI to help create a project, especially writing, then they probably did the bulk of the work. But if they don't tell them and it's later discovered AI did all the work, then it is a disservice.

Many teachers are able to use special AI-detection software that can scan projects and determine if they were likely human written or AI, and they say AI-assisted work should always be double-checked for accuracy and errors.