What is AI and Should Students Be Allowed to Use it to Complete Assignments?
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In an age where technology rapidly evolves, artificial intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of groundbreaking innovations. With AI’s expanding presence in our daily lives, it’s only natural that the world of education is experiencing a significant transformation.
A question now emerges: Should students be permitted to harness AI’s capabilities to complete their assignments? To answer this question, its important to understand the nature of AI and its role in modern education.
Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is the area of computer science where it is possible for machines to emulate human intelligence. This includes activities like learning, thinking, solving problems, and even interpreting natural language. AI can take many different shapes in the educational setting, providing a wide range of applications targeted at improving the learning process.
AI’s role in education covers several crucial aspects, such as personalized learning. AI can gauge students’ unique learning patterns, strengths, and weaknesses, thereby delivering tailored educational content and assignments to cater to individual needs. AI can also be useful for automated grading. AI systems can speed up the grading procedure and give educators and students immediate feedback. In turn, this makes it easier to spot problem regions as soon as possible.
Dr John Wells, a professor at Allen Community College, is particularly concerned about the ethical implications of widespread AI usage. He emphasizes the significance of instructing students in the responsible use of AI and deems it essential to make sure that students grasp the repercussions of over-reliance on AI for completing assignments.
“It is crucial to ensure that students understand the consequences of excessive reliance on AI for assignments,” Dr. Wells said.
The debate over whether or not students should use AI to finish their assignments typically centers around two opposing viewpoints. Advocates argue that students can benefit much from AI. It can speed up time-consuming procedures, simplify complex subjects, and provide instant suggestions for improvement. Students can use AI-powered tools to navigate the complex nature of their academic schoolwork in a world that is becoming more and more digital. Sarah Dunphy, a student at Bluefield University majoring in computer science, believes that AI can be a valuable tool for students.
“AI helps us understand complex topics better and save time,” Dunphy said. “We can use AI to improve our work, but we should still understand the content ourselves.”
Opponents emphasize the significance of preserving the authenticity of the learning process. A heavy reliance on AI for assignments could potentially undermine the development of essential skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. Andrew Pascal, another Bluefield student, shared his thoughts on this.
“AI takes away the concept of traditional teaching because with all these technologies we really don’t need teachers as every information is available for students,” Pascal said.
But AI does raise ethical concerns, including the risk of plagiarism and dishonesty in academia. Chris Shoemaker, an assistant professor at Bluefield University, shared his perspective on the issue regarding the use of AI to complete assignments. According to Shoemaker, AI fails to lead students through the crucial learning process that provides the experiences necessary for enhanced education and greater post-college preparedness.
“While AI is unquestionably a strong tool, it frequently fails to promote the authenticity and depth of learning that students actually require in their academic careers,” Shoemaker said. “However, it runs the risk of avoiding the significant experiences necessary for true learning.”
AI has the potential to completely transform education, benefiting both students and teachers in a number of ways. However, there are still numerous aspects to the debate over whether or not students should be allowed to utilize AI to perform projects. It is crucial that we find the correct balance between using AI as a useful tool and maintaining the core principles of education. To develop rules for appropriate AI usage, cooperation between educators, students, and educational institutions is essential. The eventual goal is to develop a learning environment that combines AI innovation with the indelible worth of human intelligence, creating the future’s most well-rounded and critical thinkers.