In the ever-changing and evolving world, artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing and controversial issue in schools and we at The Equinox are concerned about it.
Recently a high school student in Hingham, Mass. has been reprimanded for using AI to take notes for a project. Hingham High School made the student redo the project and gave him a lower grade, reprimanding the student while the school did not have an AI policy. The student’s parents are suing the school as a result of the reprimanding process he was initially denied acceptance to the National Honors Society (NHS) and his application process to his preferred schools was delayed.
While the repercussions of the incident seem even-handed, the response from the parents seems a bit excessive. Suing the school for his temporary lack of ability to apply to schools is outrageous. We fear this is part of a similar trend amongst parents nowadays, while parents are taking a step back from their roles.
We feel this is just another unfortunate case of parents getting more involved and more excited about a situation than there needs to be. Parents blow up on schools and other institutions for the miscommunications between them instead of being introspective about issues with the students. This also appears to be a backlash of parents who do not seem as though they want to parent their children, not acknowledging the issues with their child’s actions or behaviors and projecting that frustration onto others instead of parenting their child. The student should have been more conscious of how the use of AI would affect his schoolwork.
Checking with teachers on use of AI is something of a no-brainer. Even without a formal policy students should be checking with their teachers on whether the use of AI is acceptable and to what extent. However, the school system needs to make some adjustments as well.
Hingham High School did not have a policy regarding the use of AI in schoolwork at the time. While we feel the punishment was even-handed and not overly punitive, it is a bad look for the school to be handing down punishment on an issue that is unclear. This should be a sign to Hingham and other school districts that do not have these formal AI policies to start working on how they want them to look. Laying out a formal policy would help avoid these issues with both the school and families and the added clarity would enable students to make better choices on how they utilize AI in their school work.
Keene State College’s policy regarding AI use is nice as it allows students and faculty to work within that nuanced area of acceptability, stating,
“The College strongly encourages instructors to establish and to clearly articulate course policies governing students’ appropriate use of generative AI, if any. Generative AI tools may not be used in the completion of coursework unless the instructor specifically authorizes their use. If an instructor approves the use of generative AI for coursework, any use must be properly cited, as defined by this Academic Honesty Policy.”
This is especially important as the times change with regards to AI access and capabilities as many search engines are now integrating AI into them. KSC’s policy remains fluid and current without major changes being required. Hopefully more schools can take heed from this situation and try and catch-up in this ever-changing world of ours. AI policy is certainly something that will need to be kept up with as schools go forward. If not these schools will not have a chance at staying on top of the changes, leading to an exacerbation of these issues.
