Artificial intelligence is a tool that can be wielded in many ways. It can either help students in their academic growth, or it can be used to complete work on their behalf, robbing them of an opportunity to develop skills. As of now, AI shows few signs of disappearing, so it is crucial that students learn to use it to their benefit, without stunting their development.

English

English is the subject where using AI is the most tempting, since ChatGPT can generate an entire essay within seconds. However, students do not gain any writing skills from doing this. 

“There has to be a way to use it as a research tool to find information, but I think ideally, the student still takes that research and applies their own ideas or makes their own connections or comes to their own conclusions,” offers Mr. Kim, an English teacher at King. “So it’s part of the process, but it’s not producing the end product.” 

Math

If a student is struggling with a math problem, it is easy to find the answer, but it can be difficult to find a step by step explanation on how to get to it. “AI software can be used to solve, simplify, evaluate and reform different concepts in mathematics. It can also be used to critically think about and provide answers to more complex problems, such as word problems and proofs. These softwares include ChatGPT, Photomath, Wolfram Alpha, and Socratic,” explains Ms. Anderson, head of the math department. “ChatGPT has been a game changer for many students. Not only can it compute the things that software like Photomath can, ChatGPT has been able to critically think about application problems requiring problem solving and critical thinking skills. It utilizes its understanding of different concepts in math to come to a logical answer to the question input into the software, and output an explanation of how it was able to come to its answer.” 

AI can also be used to help students expand the breadth of knowledge they come across. “AI provides multiple examples of concepts expressed in a vast amount of ways,” Ms. Anderson continues. “There is only so much that a teacher in a classroom can teach their students due to their own limited educational experience. With AI having access to an internet full of knowledge, there are more opportunities for students to be exposed to a variety of different methods to use to answer a single question. [This] can allow students to think of concepts in ways that they may have never thought of before.”

Even if the AI tool does not give the most accurate answers all the time, it still forces students to use the problem solving part of their brain. One anonymous survey respondent says, “[It] helped give me practice questions for math and chemistry. The AI was mostly stupid, but that helped make me smarter since I noticed the incorrect explanations.”

Science

University level science courses expose students to many different topics in only one period. This can be overwhelming and the explanations may not be enough to make every single person gain a full understanding. With AI, students can ask as many questions as they want without worrying about feeling judged or taking up too much of class time. One responder of an anonymous survey says, “AI helps people with anxiety, like me, get the help and answers they need for their education.” 

Another way it can be used is by lowering the amount of reading. “There’s a lot of heavy reading that sometimes happens in grade 12 biology. If you had ten pages worth of notes to read through, you can use [AI] to help you summarize, and maybe it condenses it down to just two pages. The only thing that you have to be careful of, that I tell the students, is that AI tools are not perfect, so their summaries may not be perfect. So yes, it summarizes major concepts, but you should still have the skill set to scan through the original documents to confirm that the AI tool that you’ve chosen is doing what you need it to do,” advises Ms. Moh, co-head of the science department. 

It is also encouraged in doing the more tedious aspects of assignments, but students still need to apply themselves and ensure that the product is accurate. Ms. Moh explains, “Some of our projects allow for it. For example, we use AI tools to create subtitles for our video projects. But the stipulation is to only use it as a tool. If there are errors in the subtitles, it is the student’s job to scan through, check and make sure it’s actually applicable to their video. If there are errors, that means they did not do their part and only used the AI tool’s product, so that would be considered plagiarism.” 

Modern Languages

Additionally, students can use artificial intelligence to further their fluency in other languages. “We can interact with an AI bot like we do with a tutor. We can ask it to explain things to us and give us practice questions to improve our understanding,” says Mr. Bodor, a French and Spanish teacher at King. “I really like voice AI bots that speak in multiple languages. It’s like having a native-speaking language tutor that you can take your time practicing with to develop your oral communication skills.” 

Mr. Bodor likes to use TalkPal and other options exist as well. For instance, DuolingoMax has features like video calls in the language the user is learning, “Explain my Answer,” as well as roleplaying, which allows users to recreate real life scenarios, like ordering a coffee. If students desire a free option, ChatGPT is great as students can simply have a conversation in their language of choice and if they have questions on how the bot is responding, they can ask and get answers in real time. They can also ask it to identify and correct any mistakes they are making.

When choosing an AI tool, ChatGPT appears to be the best bet due to its accessibility. It is free, so there are more people using it, meaning it has more information to learn from and thus, it is better trained and will provide better results.

Regardless of what course students choose to accept help from AI for, it is important to remember that it should only be that: help. It should not be tasked with creating the final product as that will only rob students of their ability to learn and grow. Not to mention that teachers can usually tell when students submit AI produced work. Ms. Anderson says, “If the response to a question does not match the grade level, or the method that was used in class, or demonstrated individually by the student during the unit, it is quite easy to detect which student utilized a source other than their own brain to answer questions on an assessment.” Mr. Bodor is in agreement, “When a student turns in something with perfect French that’s beyond their level (sometimes even better than my French), it is obvious that they cheated. I ask them to explain the vocabulary and grammar in the content. Very rarely are they able to…”

Want to learn more about how to use AI to your advantage without making it a hindrance? Visit KingGPT’s instagram @rhkinggpt.