Ever since a new revolutionary version of chat ChatGPT became operable in late 2022, educators have faced several complex challenges as they learn how to navigate artificial intelligence systems.
Schools are tackling questions such as: Should the technology be banned? What should an AI use policy and protocols look like? How can schools harness this technology for teaching and learning? And, alternatively, how can schools prevent students from using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to cheat?
Education Week produced a significant amount of coverage in 2024 exploring these and other critical questions involving the understanding and use of AI.
Here are the five most popular stories that Education Week published in 2024 about AI in schools.
ChatGPT Can Make English Teachers Feel Doomed. Here’s How I’m Adapting
This opinion piece outlined high school English teacher David Nurenberg’s strategy to respond to the number of students using ChatGPT on assignments. Nurenberg, who also works as a lecturer at Northeastern University in Boston, plans to focus his class more on helping students analyze different texts and competing ideas, and less on the mechanics of writing, such as grammar. Read more.
Parents Sue After School Disciplined Student for AI Use: Takeaways for Educators
The parents of a Massachusetts teenager sued his high school after they said he was unfairly punished for using generative AI on an assignment. The school did not have a policy addressing AI usage. Read more.
'We're at a Disadvantage,' and Other Teacher Sentiments on AI
More than half of the country’s K-12 teachers—58 percent—had not received professional development on AI, according to a nationally representative survey of educators conducted by the EdWeek Research Center last fall. That made it hard to know how to handle the technology, they said. Read more.
What to Know About AI Misinformation: A Primer for Teachers
Sam Wineburg, a professor emeritus at Stanford University and the co-founder of the Digital Inquiry Group, an independent nonprofit research group that creates curriculum for teaching information literacy, and Nadav Ziv, a research associate of the group, offered up advice for educators seeking to help students learn to tell fact from AI-created fiction. Read more.
Meet Sassy, the AI Chatbot Helping Students Find Their Dream Jobs
Sassy, a chatbot created by the Oregon Department of Education, can help students in Oregon brainstorm possible careers, create action plans for getting their dream jobs, prepare for an interview, and even stay motivated. Read more.
