On Jan. 21, students received alerts on their homescreen Canvas announcing that students had received access to two AI platforms..
Gemini and Notebook LM are two of multiple platforms, including Chat GPT, that have quickly risen into prominence due to the development of artificial intelligence.
The inclusion of AI-dedicated platforms in class syllabuses at the beginning of the year had one factor in common: banning, if not strictly discouraging, the use of AI and highlighting the importance of personal integrity in school work.
The decision to allow the use of AI has prompted multiple different viewpoints throughout the school community. Hannah Survilas, a world history and ethnic studies teacher shared her thoughts. “Our world is advancing in the way of AI […] I think most students— most people— are actively engaging with different AI tools, regardless of what they’re using it for. I think maybe it made sense for the district to be out in the open with that since they know students are probably already using those tools anyways.”
Survilas provided an optimistic perspective about AI, stating, “I think [AI] has the potential to be used correctly if teachers are actively teaching their students about proper and appropriate AI usage…I try to have conversations about AI when I can. I try to be transparent about when I’ve used AI in my life because I never want to be someone that is anti-AI.”
Like Survilas, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services, John Walker discussed the importance of using AI technology correctly: “ I think in the short term…students will find [it] very helpful for study aids in terms of practice quizzes, practice problems, reviewing and preparing. I think that is a great use of the AI tools…In the longer term, I think there’s some real positive potential with AI tools…for students.”
Walker shared his concerns about AI usage emphasizing its dangers. He said, “If students quickly go to AI to solve those problems, they’re engaging in what we’re referring to as cognitive offload.” Cognitive offloading refers to the result of less students thinking for themselves and instead allowing for AI tools to perform critical thinking for them.
Junior Olive Dey-Troth shared a student’s perspective of the new AI rules. “They’re good if people use them for what AI is good for, not cheating on homework and doing it for you, but creating questionnaires for material and good study material.”
When asked if they think AI is going to have a large impact on Campo going forward, Dey-Troth responded, “It might mean that some classes have assignments specifically in thinking about AI, but I don’t think it’s going to have a major impact.”
Both Walker and Survalis agree that the new AI policies will not result in cheating. Survalis voiced her perspective, saying “I think that a lot of students are already using [AI] and may have already been using it to assist them with their homework or in class, whether that [use] was to their teacher’s knowledge or not. I don’t think that it’s going to greatly increase cheating.”
Despite several concerns about students relying too heavily on AI platforms to do their work both in class and outside of class, the AUHSD school district found the benefits overruling of the negative effects of them and decided Notebook LM and Google Gemini would be the best platforms to introduce to the AUHSD school district. While teachers are concerned about cognitive offloading, the district thinks it’s most beneficial to students to begin to learn how to use it properly and productively and how to use it in a way that’s beneficial for them and their learning development.
AI’s prevalence is rapidly growing in the Campolindo community, in addition to the whole world. Despite the debates about whether AI will have a positive or negative impact both in the short and long-term, one thing is for certain: AI will affect our lives not only just in high school, but in the world at large. The fact of the matter is AI is here to stay, only one question remains: How long will it take to accept AI into our lives?
