“How’s the essay coming along for you?” A student asks.
“Wait, what?” his friend replies, confused. Just then, he remembers he still had to wrap up an essay due tomorrow. Dread and worry fills his body. His muscles tense up, and his mind starts to rush as he thinks, How could I possibly get it done? And out of all the thoughts in his head, one peaks his interest; I could just use AI.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has become a common and frequently debated resource in the world of education, especially in English classes.
English department chair Angie Gintonio willingly expressed her thoughts and ideas on the uprising debate.
“I use it as a teaching tool, which I didn’t really think I would do when it first came out, but it can be a really powerful resource,” Gintonio said.
AI is a revolutionary invention due to its efficiency and utility at a nearly endless number of tasks, both inside and outside of school.
“I do a lot of things; I have a thing set up on my phone with ChatGPT that I spent an hour or so building a morning routine,” Eli Hills (12) said.
AI has been used frequently in the English department, but students at Highlands use it in many different ways to help improve their writing.
“It is very useful to supplement my writing. It makes me feel confident in my writing,” Anand Geisshuesler (9) said.
Teachers and students seem to share a common opinion on how useful AI is as a tool within English courses. Both groups see the possibilities.
“I told them they could use AI to help them come up with activities and ways to study words. They can use it to get feedback on research questions [and] on a thesis statement,” Gintonio said.
Teachers love how useful AI can be in their classes because it helps students. However, they are also aware that students may rely on it too much and are unable to put together good writing without using AI.
“Totally helpful at first, it was harmful because I would use it as a crutch rather than a tool, but now I feel it’s really helpful,” Hills said.
To help prevent the poor use of AI at Highlands, teachers use technology to help catch AI and other sources of plagiarism.
“Turnitin scans for AI, so we use that. I also know my students and their writing, and I can tell if it’s not something that they have…The kind of language they have used before in a piece,” Gintonio said.
Overall, AI is one of the most useful tools in the English department. Students find it helpful because it can assist them with just about anything they need support with in their writing. Additionally, teachers also use it to help them with a wide variety of tasks, like streamlining assignment creation.
