AI in education has been a polarizing issue in the education community, this is because AI comes as a huge assistance to learning but can also be seen as a crutch that will reduce our ability to be independent. AI is now more capable than we could have imagined 20 years ago and it’s rate of expansion has been profoundly fast. Many are sceptical of AI as it has expanded so fast and most are ignorant to how it acts. New things will always be confronted with controversy before acceptance into regular society but the ability to be a good critic requires learning about the thing you are critical of so that you can actually form a cohesive argument. Unfortunately most critics of AI won’t spend the time to learn about its functions properly and therefore criticize it from empty grounds.

We have hit a wall in which AI has now advanced to such a point that we can ask it to preform tasks for us and it will, without needing careful direction. It seems as though this profoundly powerful AI can act and think on its own, a concept which scares many. Therefore I find it completely understandable that many are reluctant to adopt it, however its trajectory is clear and it is only going to advance further and become a bigger part of our world, making it an individuals responsibility to understand how to use it and how it functions, regardless of their moral viewpoint on it.

I am conscious to the fact that students can now take simple testable questions and retrieve the answer through AI. I may not be happy with this reality as it will force me to adapt how I evaluate students and approach teaching, potentially making my job more difficult. Although my opinion is not important as the fact is that the world is now changing and AI is now a tool people have access to. This means my role as a teacher to prepare students for success in adult life will now entail not avoiding AI but instead teaching them how to use it efficiently. We as teachers need to realize we cater to our students requirements and are not simply trying to teach our own values. So I will happily welcome AI usage in my classes when I allow it, as if students can learn how to facilitate their lives and learning through the use of AI I am better preparing them for their futures.

When looking back I can see that with access to AI in my first years of my undergrad degree, school would have been so much easier but my learning would have been completely equivalent. My undergrad was spent finding the easiest ways to get a high grade on a scholarly paper or assignment, BUT NEVER did any of these papers help me on any exams. Exams are taken in a classroom without the access to any other tools, hell even the calculator we can use is a simple calculator model we must buy through the library, therefore why CAN I NOT USE CHAT GPT FOR A BIOLOGICAL PAPER. I can reliably say I learned nothing from biological writing except how to waste my time on a paper that I won’t even learn as the only thing that mattered was getting a good grade so I could get my degree. I am a teacher NOT A PROFESSOR therefore I wish AI had been a part of my toolbox as it would have saved me time without reducing my learning process.