By Ania Delaney Bou

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The rise of artificial intelligence in education has sparked a heated debate among teachers. Some educators see AI as a powerful tool to enhance learning, streamline grading, and personalize instruction, while others fear it promotes academic dishonesty and diminishes critical thinking skills. As schools grapple with this technology, the question remains: Should AI be embraced or banned in the classroom?

The above introduction was written by artificial intelligence after being fed a simple prompt. By using new AI models, such as ChatGPT, people can receive answers, ideas and writing created without human involvement. Since its birth, AI has become faster, smarter and better at mimicking human voices every day.

Following ChatGPT’s release in November of 2022, the world has been trying to answer the big new question: what place does AI now have in our lives? And as AI becomes more and more integrated into our everyday routines, the field of education faces a crossroads: should AI be allowed in the classroom?

It’s a question with no clear answer as educators have drastically differing opinions on how the new model can be used to benefit student learning, if at all.

Gracie Caton, a ninth grade math teacher at Bowling Green High School, said students now regularly use AI in the classroom.

“Some students use it for purposes such as cheating, but I have seen it used for educational purposes as well,” Caton said. “Some teachers encourage educational use of AI inside of the classroom to spark ideas and deepen understanding.”

While some students have been letting AI do the work for them, which hinders their understanding of the material, Caton said that some of her colleagues have let students use AI as a tool when completing projects, and they’ve told her they saw positive results.

While Caton said she has some concerns about AI affecting students’ work ethic, the staff at her school has met to discuss ways to check student work for AI use.

“AI has been helpful to teachers as well (as students),” Caton said. “It can help with the lesson planning process, grading and giving feedback to students.”

For those teaching writing skills, the AI issue can become more challenging to navigate. Kiersten Bryant Blackwell is an English, arts and humanities teacher at Boyle County High School. She said her students use AI daily to complete their work.

“As an English teacher, I have noticed that students don’t even attempt to write their papers. Their first instinct is to take a photo of the prompt and have their AI websites do it for them,” Blackwell said. “I have even seen a student take a photo of the prompt and set their phone on their laptop to copy it–not even attempting to hide their lack of academic integrity. It is a problem to the extent that I have to check every Google Doc’s history to make sure they do not just copy and paste from another website.”

Blackwell said  AI has not just been affecting individual work, but also her students’ abilities to work together.

“Students are using AI instead of collaborating with their partners to figure out an answer,” Blackwell said. “This has led to a rapid decline in a teenager’s ability to work with other people.”

Blackwell said the main issue she is finding as a teacher with AI is the lack of academic integrity with students. 

“I don’t like that I have to question a student’s work because they used AI. It adds a certain degree of pressure because if I feel like a student used AI, I have to prove that they did, which isn’t always easy,” Blackwell said. “Kids will make sure to tell administrators that they didn’t use AI and will lie to them to get away with their cheating when, as a teacher, I can tell that the writing is above their abilities. I have had to use a website that tells me if students have copied and pasted their work. This makes it easier to prove that they didn’t use their own brain to complete their work.”

Blackwell said she has several concerns about student usage of AI. 

“First, I am concerned about the lack of challenge and adversity students are facing as they complete harder assignments. If someone doesn’t understand something, rather than having to critically think about ways to solve it, they just snap a photo to get the answer,” Blackwell said. “This will lead to a decline in a person’s ability to problem solve and critically think which is important to being a successful adult.” 

Blackwell said she is also very concerned about the effect AI will have on her students’ long-term collaboration abilities.

“I see students skip the step of asking for help, which will lead to (future) adults not having the experience to collaborate. I do think that AI can help adults in the future; however, there is certainly a cost that comes with that.”

Blackwell said that while AI has its issues, it also has improved her workload as a teacher tremendously. 

“It has helped me quickly come up with new, exciting assignments as well as help me grade

papers quicker,” Blackwell said. “Our school had a PD (professional development) day teaching us how to use AI to our advantage, so it is clear that it has its benefits.”

Colleges are facing the same ethical concerns about AI’s place in the classroom. At Murray State University, the Kentucky Academy of Technology Education (KATE) has been hosting sessions to help professors learn how to use AI as a useful learning tool.

Rebecca Simons, instructional technology coordinator for KATE, said they hosted a session with Holly Clark, a leading expert in educational technology, in April of 2023, just five months after the launch of ChatGPT.

“She talked about why this technology can’t be ignored, how it is changing the landscape of education, ideas on how to handle some of these changes, as well as an introduction on how to use ChatGPT,” Simons said.

Since then, Simons has created a framework on how to use generative AI with students and hosted a conference in August of 2024 for the College of Education and Human Services.

“One of the big focuses of the conference was on what shifts can faculty make in their teaching and assignments to think through when and how AI should be used and what pivots need to be made to assignments and assessments so they are not invalidated through the use of AI,” Simons said.

KATE also led round tables and courses to help professors better understand challenges with AI and ways to improve prompting skills when working with AI models.

“This can be an incredibly beneficial tool for faculty,” Simons said. “It can serve as a brainstorming partner, aligning standards, designing lesson activities, etc.  Not to mention how you could leverage (AI) for productivity and workflow efficiency.”

While Simons understands some educators’ hesitancy around using AI, she said it’s important to learn how to use it as the new technology is here to stay.

“It’s becoming part of all professions, meaning while foundational skill development is critical so students can critically evaluate generative AI’s output, it’s imperative that they are trained on how to use it in an ethical and responsible way within their field,” Simons said. “This requires faculty to learn how to use it and effectively integrate it into the courses. It also highlights the importance of teaching AI literacy, digital literacy and digital citizenship skills.”

While AI training for educators is becoming more common, implementing the new technology in the classroom can be challenging, especially for disciplines centered around reading and writing.

Stephanie Fulcher, distinguished practitioner of English education at Murray State, said she doesn’t see a reason to permit the use of AI in classes.

“I am anti-AI; I’ve yet to see any meaningful, positive impact that outweighs the negative,” Fulcher said. “Using generative AI is leading to a reduction in critical thinking skills. AI’s impact on academic honesty is also an issue worth (noting); using AI to generate texts, or even ideas takes away the experience of doing so for yourself, which is the point of such practices…I do not see any benefits to AI as it stands now.”

Fulcher is one of many educators around the country to make AI strictly prohibited in her syllabus. One motivating factor in this decision is that Fulcher said she doesn’t believe AI can be used ethically.

“As studies are already showing, it will continue to negatively affect critical thinking skills among other things,” Fulcher said. “I worry for future generations who will not have the basic skills that our current generations possess.”

The question of ethical AI use in the classroom will continue to be explored in the years to come as every educator comes to their own conclusion. Whether the decision is the adoption of AI tools or strictly prohibiting the technology, classrooms around the country will have to adapt and stay aware of advancements as AI continues to evolve. 

One thing is clear: AI is here to stay. The question is: what now?