Several AI programs such as Copilot, Gemini and NotebookLM have been approved for all teachers in CCSD. The district plans on approving tools for student use as soon as this upcoming fall semester. These changes cause some students to question generative AI’s role within school both for students and teachers.
Instructional Technology Coordinator Kris Edwards understands and welcomes the future of learning with AI, such as helping teachers with lesson plans, organizing day to day work, and speeding the whole process of teaching along.
“Those are things that we can now do without spending all of our time, and, all of our weekends and our nights working on that,” Edwards said. “It frees up time for teachers to work with students more, get their grading done, to do more for their mental health, and get more time to spend with students.”
Many students and teachers alike already are in large support of the idea of AI being used to elevate learning and production.
“You can take all the things that your teacher gives you to study, or for your materials in class, you can put them into NotebookLM and create study guides, I see students creating [things] in Canva that are amazing,” Edwards said.
English teacher Mhari Doyle attended a lunchtime professional development seminar on April 9, presented by Edwards and English teacher Seth Fine. It helped teachers learn how to use AI in all facets in their teaching.
“I think the idea of AI is really, really, really attractive to a lot of people, and because it saves so much time, right?” Doyle said. “The thing that I hope happens with AI is that we learn to use it to support our critical thinking, but not replace it.”
Along with many other teachers, Doyle already uses AI in many parts of her teaching, such as to change up talking points or help develop her teaching towards students who may not completely understand the topics.
“I use it a lot to get fresh ideas for lessons that I’ve been teaching for 20 years already, using it to generate images, making lessons more engaging, or just to get the ball rolling,” Doyle said.
A lot of students question the open availability of AI for students.
Students at Creek and the greater world are divided and uncertain about AI, whether simply avoiding using it due to avoiding cheating, or environmental issues, it is still something many are just not willing to incorporate into their lives. On the other hand, some already use it in their day to day school, with AI being used as a search engine or essay writer.
“[AI] does benefit most of the things I do, when I need a little help with homework or some school stuff, it will help, it’s always been a good tool,” sophomore Danny Stamper said.
However, many students do have ethical dilemmas associated with the use of AI.
“I personally avoid as much AI as possible because of the environmental impacts it creates such as wasting water, and it’s forcing its way into so many aspects of my life that I could handle much easier without AI,” junior Drayden Bradshaw said.
Practically, if AI is to be further integrated into education at Creek, education of students on the topic will be considered.
“What I hope is that we start to address the problem that students don’t know how to use it,” Doyle said, “We’re just going to assume they’re going to use it ethically. We need to build that into our instruction, and I don’t know where that fits.”
