The Increased Use Of AI In Schools
Jaysonsmanythoughts
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
When teenagers use AI to complete their assignments for them rather than doing it themselves, often your first thought is: “children these days are so stupid”. But are they really stupid, or is the school system failing their students?
As we evolve in technology, AI (artificial intelligence) is a tool that's been gaining a significant amount of recognition/popularity with both the higher ups and working class. Big companies use artificial intelligence for engagement and to keep within what's “trending”. AI is such a complex and new technological invention, especially to the older generations. So people continue to consume and feed into it, as they have never seen anything like it in the past. To most, this is an evolutionary invention that can be used for good. But to some students it is an easy way out of doing their own schoolwork.
This is not out of being ‘incompetent’ or ‘dumb’. But rather due to the fact the school system has not evolved as much as everything else that has been going on with society. Yes, we use technology in school. But have we been using it in a way that benefits students? Or are we rather holding them back?
Difference Between Memorizing And Understanding.
Nowadays, school does not seem to thrive on actually learning and understanding what is being taught in the classroom. But instead it is mainly focused on the memorization of the subject. The environment of a school, rather than feeling like a place to learn useful things for the career you plan to pursue, feels more like a place pumping you with information they expect you to log into your brain. Without giving you the time to understand what was being said.
Since things are being taught in this way, students do not tend to enjoy school, or want to bother actually doing the work. Because instead of making the material seem like something worth learning about, teachers present it straight from the textbook. Some do not even bother explaining it to the students, and instead present a slideshow to the class for them to take notes from and memorize.
When you memorize a script from a textbook word for word, sure. You objectively know the answer to the question. Yet not how the question is answered. Just because you remember the words does not mean you fully understand the contents of the text. Understanding is remembering not just the words–but how the words came to be. How each piece of information in the text correlates to the next; and how you are meant to apply this to whatever it is you are working on. Memorizing words gets you a solid answer, but if you are asked to elaborate, those words you remembered are rendered useless.
Grades Over Learning
The school system in this day and age is undeniably focused on the grades of the students, over them genuinely learning things. Students are under pressure to get high grades, instead of actually learning useful life skills. In classrooms, you are meant to learn, grow and develop a sense of what career you plan to pursue into adulthood. Whether that be your plan to go to college, Uni or do something completely different. Instead, grades have become one of the biggest things students must focus on and worry about. This now causes students to rely on AI to do their work for them, they have no care for the curriculum. Only the concern to pass the course. This is not the way schools should be going about things, school is not meant to be a place where your worth is relevant to your grades. Grades are important–but are not the main thing that should be a concern within the school system. They prohibit the use of AI, yet do nothing to understand the reasoning behind students using this shortcut in the first place.
Schools have no concern for their students' wellbeing, or if they are learning or not. They only care if the students are getting good grades or not. When students are using AI it is not only because they are lazy (which, may be the case for some but not all.) But because it is the easiest way to get a good mark. If you do not make them care about what they are being taught, then they will not care whatsoever for what they are supposed to be learning.
Teenagers are not adults, maturity wise? Far from it. When attempting to understand where teens are coming from, when they do the things they do, you must understand. They are still growing and learning, and should not be treated as adults. They do not know as much as adults do, they should have enough maturity to understand when they have done something wrong. But they are also immature enough to try and find the easiest way to do something. Especially when they have little to no interest in said subject.
It is not the students fault for being “stupid”. It is the people teaching them that are somewhat at fault, for making schools main motive being to pass the courses required to succeed in life. Resulting in teens resorting to AI to aid them.