The Over Reliance on AI in Education

As technology continues to advance, it has begun to integrate itself into many parts of society. One of the most important being with schools and education. Although there are many well established technological institutions, such as Google Classroom and Kahoot, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has found its way into the educational system. ChatGPT was founded in November 2022, bringing generative AI to the center point of schooling as teachers and districts navigate utilizing it whilst restricting it. However, it is not the only type of AI found in schools. Organizations like GoGuardian, Google Workspace for Education, and Microsoft 360 have found to integrate AI into their systems. The use of AI in schooling can be both beneficial, providing learning gaps and helping teachers manage time, and harmful, resulting in plagiarized essays and cheating.

First, teachers have limited time on their hands. Being stretched thin as they strive to communicate with parents, manage the classroom, grade assignments, plan lessons, the rise of generative AI has helped with meeting these occupational demands. According to Ed Tech Magazine, a magazine that explores technology in the educational workforce, “...GoGuardian recently rolled out several AI-fueled features including Edulastic, which identifies student learning gaps; serves up differentiated assignments to remediate, reinforce or challenge learning; and then monitors progress toward mastery” (Slagg 2023). GoGuardian is an educational software company that provides schools with tools to monitor student activity, filter content, and protect students from harmful or explicit content. By implementing these new AI features, they are able to quickly identify learning gaps and align them with specific, individualistic assignments that saves teachers a great amount of time and effort. This is one of the many ways that school districts have been able to positively implement technology, benefiting both teachers and students.