Should AI Be Allowed In The Classroom?

In the past few years, the launch of generative artificial intelligence has seen widespread useage in all facets of our lives, especially in the education sector. However, there have been many debates about the ethics of the inclusion of AI in education. I myself have not fully decided how I feel about AI in the classroom, so I will present to you both sides of the argument and let you choose for yourself!

It is impossible to escape AI, especially in today's world. Avoiding it in the classroom is impossible, especially as digital learning is almost the entirety of all education from the primary school level, exponentially increasing in older year levels and making up 100% of all university education. However, while it is very clear that the use of generative AI can be very heavily abused in the classroom (i.e. writing essays, completing homework tasks, solving homework), it can actually be a very useful tool! Personally, I am very protective of my brain and use AI as a tutor! I start all of my prompts with "without providing the answer, explain how to solve: ...". This way, the AI will give me a step by step answer on how to solve the question without providing me with an answer that I can copy paste.

Additionally, AI is undeniably a major part of our future, so learning how to use it properly now is incredibly important as we can build up the skillset to use it. If we don't teach students how to use AI in a safe, constructive way from an early age, we can ensure that our future society is built on strong, capable individuals who understand the nature of their ever-evolving digital world.

However, there are also many dangers to using AI. The most pressing one relates to the difficulty of policing students' AI usage. While using AI as a tutor can make education accessible to all, it is unlikely that all students are using it solely as a study tool. This way, we can raise a society who relies on this tool and lacks critical thinking skills.