MCPS is okaying students and teachers using AI on assignments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My high schooler essentially uses it as an editor and it is fantastic. They also use it to study (guides, quizzes, etc...). It's almost like a peer tutor or teacher (that must be vetted). I myself put a lot of my writing through as an editor. And I've asked for citations. And I've used it to get email tone right.

I'm also a professor. I see good uses and bad. From students and colleagues. Including one who used it to write a non-sensical annual review that I have to ask them to rewrite.

I have no issue with this policy whatsoever. How do they implement and enforce it consistently? That's a challenge.

I think there's a world of difference on using it as an adult, with real-world work and life experience and a fully-formed brain using AI responsibly, judiciously in the way you described.

It's another for the adolescent, developing brain, which has none of those things and needs the tension and conflict of struggling through ideas and revising those ideas to develop real intelligence.

There's an argument to be made for some kind of exposure to AI as a research tool in responsible ways at the high school level, but I think we're a long ways off from understanding how to set those boundaries in ways that are safe and helpful, much less operationalizing that at scale in our school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AI is getting used whether you want it or not.

The wisest solution is to study and regulate its use, instead of banning it, and teach students HOW TO QUERY, which is the one trait that will distinguish an intelligent human user from an unintelligent human user. I can tell you don't use it much, OP.

Why? Because AI is here to stay at all degrees of school and work. If you want to ban AI, you are forcing students to become less competitive compared to peers.

All schools and workplaces should be developing their own regulations.

I totally support educating kids (and teachers) on AI and its strengths and limitations.

Of course ignoring it doesn't make it go away. But just because it's everywhere doesn't mean the school system should be saying "let's give a stamp of approval to students and teachers using AI to cut corners and decrease the amount of human thought and judgment involved in education."

PP you replied to. Respectfully, you don't understand what AI is good for. It does not replace human thought. Indeed, it cannot be deployed to any great effect if used thoughtlessly. The AI is not really intelligent, it's just a gigantic deep sea trawler in the ocean of online data. The fish it dredges up indiscriminately is of all kinds, some of it useful, some of it nonsensical. It cannot replace human intelligence. Ideally, instead of looking at the finished product, which is the least important part of the exercise, teachers should observe AI use in class, and give feedback on query style, so that they can teach kids how to effectively, without wasting time, reach their desired outcome in the least amount of time. That takes a lot of critical reasoning!!! Most posters on DCUM don't seem to use AI all that much, and therefore do not understand that this is the crux of the matter.

Using AI is a lot like using mathematical and computer programming tools. You need to be supremely logical and precise in your wording. You need to be creative and think outside the box. But the added wrinkle is that AI being what it is today, you also need to double check what it spits out in a way that you don't tend to do when using a calculator (but that you do need to do when testing code!).

AI does not equal cheating. We absolutely need to harness it so we can compete with other nations.

Agree totally. I use AI to create professional looking emails where needed. I feed it the email I typed up and it polishes it. I can ask for the tone I want. And most times when I ask to add something it starts from scratch and does not understand and I get frustrated. So what I do is take parts of it, add what I need and feed it back and get a professional looking email.

So I am actually doing part of the work. It is just making my work more presentable. The thoughts are mine.

I asked AI to give me info on the regional magnets and which school has which courses that are cross region and it mentioned Crown high school. We all know now that Crown does not exist anymore. I kept calling it out and it still fed me nonsense.

AI was good at telling me whether a website was legit or a scam.

Kids need to learn how to use it to their advantage and how to distinguish whether what it says is true or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does MCPS plan to address the inequity associated with using LLM and vibe coding? Rich students can just purchase higher level of subscriptions with more quota to use a better LLM.

Now this is what I would be asking MCPS about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids don't need to learn how to use AI in elementary or middle school or even most of high school.

Don't give them access to the internet. Have them learn to read and write and do math using pen, paper and calculators in school and MCPS will achieve more than it does now.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure people will take issue with this but I'll say it anyway. A complete and total ban on AI is completely unrealistic considering that every single student account comes preloaded with programs like Grammarly which essentially just a specialized AI program. Same goes for spellcheck and grammar check on Word. Teaching the kids that there are acceptable uses for AI is a solid lesson and skill. I actually encourage my students to use AI as an editing tool. I tell them to ask AI to identify words that have been overused and to suggest replacements. This not only improves their essay but also expands their vocabulary as they can see how saying something was good six times is repetitive and what better word choices can be used.

The way I combat using AI as cheating though is I require all assignments to be 100% completed in google docs where I can have access to time stamped revision history. When a student opens the assignment for the first time at 9:45 PM and there is a 5 paragraph essay that appears at 9:47 PM, it's obvious they used AI. I don't care if they argue that they did the assignment on a separate document. The rule is it must be done in the Google Doc and now it's not just a zero for cheating, it's a zero for not following classroom rules instead.

This. Teachers need to be proactive and set up rules. Teach the kids what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

I see pros and cons with AI.

My teen who is shy in asking questions to a human is asking AI the same questions and acquiring knowledge.

Whether the knowledge is accurate is a different story but it helps her with socializing.

[Anonymous]

PP. Chatgpt is bad at Math.

Not sure about Copilot and Gemini

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AI is getting used whether you want it or not.

The wisest solution is to study and regulate its use, instead of banning it, and teach students HOW TO QUERY, which is the one trait that will distinguish an intelligent human user from an unintelligent human user. I can tell you don't use it much, OP.

Why? Because AI is here to stay at all degrees of school and work. If you want to ban AI, you are forcing students to become less competitive compared to peers.

All schools and workplaces should be developing their own regulations.

💯 I’m in graduate school right now and the use of AI is allowed. But you have to understand how it’s allowed. I think a scale could be a good way to keicodd guidance to both educators and students.


Ironically I’m currently in an ethics course and the professor had to send out a class-wide email reminded students of the proper use of AI. Adults are not using it wisely either.

It’s here. It’s not going anywhere. And we need to standardize the use to help students (and adults) learn how to utilize it as a tool. Just like calculators were a worry in math - obviously on a much grander scale- this is a tool we need to learn how to incorporate to help ensure our student success in this connected, global world.

Plus, kids are so clever, we need to also understand this tech to keep on top of them.

It's "not going anywhere" because people like you are spineless and greedy and don't question the massive social and political implications of blindly running headfirst towards a product that is specifically designed to eliminate human endeavor for the profit of a few wealthy billionaires and their associates. You are just trying to benefit yourself at the expense of those around you. Don't try to act like WE are the crazy ones for questioning the whole plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure people will take issue with this but I'll say it anyway. A complete and total ban on AI is completely unrealistic considering that every single student account comes preloaded with programs like Grammarly which essentially just a specialized AI program. Same goes for spellcheck and grammar check on Word. Teaching the kids that there are acceptable uses for AI is a solid lesson and skill. I actually encourage my students to use AI as an editing tool. I tell them to ask AI to identify words that have been overused and to suggest replacements. This not only improves their essay but also expands their vocabulary as they can see how saying something was good six times is repetitive and what better word choices can be used.

The way I combat using AI as cheating though is I require all assignments to be 100% completed in google docs where I can have access to time stamped revision history. When a student opens the assignment for the first time at 9:45 PM and there is a 5 paragraph essay that appears at 9:47 PM, it's obvious they used AI. I don't care if they argue that they did the assignment on a separate document. The rule is it must be done in the Google Doc and now it's not just a zero for cheating, it's a zero for not following classroom rules instead.

This. Teachers need to be proactive and set up rules. Teach the kids what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

I see pros and cons with AI.

My teen who is shy in asking questions to a human is asking AI the same questions and acquiring knowledge.

Whether the knowledge is accurate is a different story but it helps her with socializing.

Wouldn't it be far better for your child to work with them to become less shy of human contact rather than avoid the problem by using a crutch? What happened to personal growth?

[Anonymous]

My problem is that for anything in a Chromebook it can be hard NOT to use AI. If a student does a simple google search the AI summary can often provide the entire answer. Many students don’t even know how to actually search anything now.

I just had a student google every single question on a test. Parent is arguing that it shouldn’t deserve a 0% “because she was just trying to understand questions better.” I going to have to block all search engines in class at this point because of all the AI integration into search and the plug-ins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you see this new draft regulation? https://drive.google.com/file/d/19cDQr7J7LodmaYl2hkqHTFsrtbGxBML4/view?usp=sharing

Rather than having a zero tolerance policy on AI for students and teachers, apparently MCPS is developing an "AI Scale" that explains when and how kids can use AI to do part of their assignments, and instead of prohibiting teachers from using AI for grading, it simply prohibits them from relying entirely on it without even looking at the results.

If this is as alarming to you as it is to me, you can submit comments to [e-mail] .

This is what private schools are doing for students. They have AI Badges on assignments and AI expectations on syllabi. We can’t even do a Google search now without having AI. There is no way to avoid it now. The only thing would be to revert strictly yo paper assignments at school with all devices away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure people will take issue with this but I'll say it anyway. A complete and total ban on AI is completely unrealistic considering that every single student account comes preloaded with programs like Grammarly which essentially just a specialized AI program. Same goes for spellcheck and grammar check on Word. Teaching the kids that there are acceptable uses for AI is a solid lesson and skill. I actually encourage my students to use AI as an editing tool. I tell them to ask AI to identify words that have been overused and to suggest replacements. This not only improves their essay but also expands their vocabulary as they can see how saying something was good six times is repetitive and what better word choices can be used.

The way I combat using AI as cheating though is I require all assignments to be 100% completed in google docs where I can have access to time stamped revision history. When a student opens the assignment for the first time at 9:45 PM and there is a 5 paragraph essay that appears at 9:47 PM, it's obvious they used AI. I don't care if they argue that they did the assignment on a separate document. The rule is it must be done in the Google Doc and now it's not just a zero for cheating, it's a zero for not following classroom rules instead.

This. Teachers need to be proactive and set up rules. Teach the kids what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

I see pros and cons with AI.

My teen who is shy in asking questions to a human is asking AI the same questions and acquiring knowledge.

Whether the knowledge is accurate is a different story but it helps her with socializing.

Wouldn't it be far better for your child to work with them to become less shy of human contact rather than avoid the problem by using a crutch? What happened to personal growth?

Does your child shop for and prepare all their own meals independently?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AI is getting used whether you want it or not.

The wisest solution is to study and regulate its use, instead of banning it, and teach students HOW TO QUERY, which is the one trait that will distinguish an intelligent human user from an unintelligent human user. I can tell you don't use it much, OP.

Why? Because AI is here to stay at all degrees of school and work. If you want to ban AI, you are forcing students to become less competitive compared to peers.

All schools and workplaces should be developing their own regulations.

💯 I’m in graduate school right now and the use of AI is allowed. But you have to understand how it’s allowed. I think a scale could be a good way to keicodd guidance to both educators and students.


Ironically I’m currently in an ethics course and the professor had to send out a class-wide email reminded students of the proper use of AI. Adults are not using it wisely either.

It’s here. It’s not going anywhere. And we need to standardize the use to help students (and adults) learn how to utilize it as a tool. Just like calculators were a worry in math - obviously on a much grander scale- this is a tool we need to learn how to incorporate to help ensure our student success in this connected, global world.

Plus, kids are so clever, we need to also understand this tech to keep on top of them.

It's "not going anywhere" because people like you are spineless and greedy and don't question the massive social and political implications of blindly running headfirst towards a product that is specifically designed to eliminate human endeavor for the profit of a few wealthy billionaires and their associates. You are just trying to benefit yourself at the expense of those around you. Don't try to act like WE are the crazy ones for questioning the whole plan.

If your wet serious and not trolling would have sent this comment as a letter to the editor of sprint newspaper, instead of using a website designed to eliminate human endeavor for the profit of a few wealthy billionaires and their associates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP. Chatgpt is bad at Math.

Not sure about Copilot and Gemini

2022 is over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My problem is that for anything in a Chromebook it can be hard NOT to use AI. If a student does a simple google search the AI summary can often provide the entire answer. Many students don’t even know how to actually search anything now.

I just had a student google every single question on a test. Parent is arguing that it shouldn’t deserve a 0% “because she was just trying to understand questions better.” I going to have to block all search engines in class at this point because of all the AI integration into search and the plug-ins.

Wow! Parents are just nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AI is getting used whether you want it or not.

The wisest solution is to study and regulate its use, instead of banning it, and teach students HOW TO QUERY, which is the one trait that will distinguish an intelligent human user from an unintelligent human user. I can tell you don't use it much, OP.

Why? Because AI is here to stay at all degrees of school and work. If you want to ban AI, you are forcing students to become less competitive compared to peers.

All schools and workplaces should be developing their own regulations.

💯 I’m in graduate school right now and the use of AI is allowed. But you have to understand how it’s allowed. I think a scale could be a good way to keicodd guidance to both educators and students.


Ironically I’m currently in an ethics course and the professor had to send out a class-wide email reminded students of the proper use of AI. Adults are not using it wisely either.

It’s here. It’s not going anywhere. And we need to standardize the use to help students (and adults) learn how to utilize it as a tool. Just like calculators were a worry in math - obviously on a much grander scale- this is a tool we need to learn how to incorporate to help ensure our student success in this connected, global world.

Plus, kids are so clever, we need to also understand this tech to keep on top of them.

It's "not going anywhere" because people like you are spineless and greedy and don't question the massive social and political implications of blindly running headfirst towards a product that is specifically designed to eliminate human endeavor for the profit of a few wealthy billionaires and their associates. You are just trying to benefit yourself at the expense of those around you. Don't try to act like WE are the crazy ones for questioning the whole plan.

+1000. This exactly