Embracing AI in the Classroom: How to Evolve Without Compromising Ethics

Find out how AI is working its way into classrooms, and how you can properly use it as a student.

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the classroom is one of the most significant changes in the way students learn and professors teach. I’m sure you have already heard of it. AI algorithms can provide personalized feedback and recommendations, automate repetitive tasks, and provide instant feedback that probably before their existence could take way more time. However, they also have their limitations and ethical implications.

Here’s how AI can be used in schools, some benefits and challenges of using AI in the classroom, and how we can evolve without compromising our ethics (and our degree).

How can AI be used in schools?

There are many ways that AI can be used in schools or universities to enhance our learning experience. Some examples are:

• Thinkster Math: This tutoring app blends the actual math curriculum with a personalized teaching style. It uses AI to analyze our work and provide step-by-step guidance and feedback.
• Brainly: This is a social media site for classroom questions. It allows us to ask and answer questions from other students around the world, as well as access verified answers from experts. It uses AI to moderate content and suggest relevant topics.
• ChatGPT: This is probably the most famous one and you may be familiar with its functions. This AI-powered chatbot can generate natural language responses based on our own input. I personally use it for conversation practice, my creative writing and outlining, and sometimes even entertainment.

Some benefits of using AI in the classroom

Using AI in the classroom has many advantages for both students and professors. Some of them are:

• Personalization: AI can tailor our learning experience according to our needs, abilities, and preferences. It can also provide us with adaptive feedback and suggestions that help us improve our skills and knowledge.
• Efficiency: AI can automate tedious tasks such as grading, attendance tracking. or homework assignment. It can also provide instant feedback and results, saving us time and effort.
• Engagement: AI can make learning more fun and interactive by using gamification, animation, or voice recognition. It can also stimulate our curiosity and creativity by providing us with challenging problems or scenarios.

Challenges of using AI in the classroom

Despite its benefits, using AI in classes or even in homework likewise poses some challenges for both students and teachers. The more relevant are:

• Reliability: AI is not perfect or infallible. It may make mistakes or errors that affect our learning outcomes or assessments. It may also malfunction or crash due to technical issues or bugs.
• Transparency: AI is often complex or opaque. Experts recommend first to understand how the AI tools work or why they make certain decisions or recommendations. We may also need to determine who is responsible for its design and development.
• Ethics: Your professor and even the University has probably already talked about this as AI has ethical concerns such as privacy, security and bias. Some of these tools collect or use our personal data without our knowledge. It may also discriminate against certain groups or individuals based on their characteristics or backgrounds, which can lead to repercussions even when they were no intent.

How to evolve in the AI revolution without compromising ethics?

As students who are in the midst of technological evolution and we want to embrace AI in the classroom, we have a responsibility to use it wisely and ethically. These tips will help us doing it correctly without compromising our integrity:

• Be critical: We should not blindly trust or follow what AI tells us. We should always question its accuracy, validity, and relevance. We should also compare its results with other sources of information or feedback.
• Be aware: We should know how AI works and its limitations and implications. We should also be aware of our rights and responsibilities when using it.
• Be respectful: We should respect ourselves and others when using AI. We should not use it to cheat, harm or offend anyone.

I hope this blog post has given you some insights into how we can embrace AI in the classroom without compromising ethics.