‘It’s Pandora’s Box’: Modesto educators face uncertainty in age of artificial intelligence

Since their emergence, artificial intelligence language models — tools that can write anything when given a prompt — have led to debates across the nation on how they should be handled in classrooms.

Teachers in Modesto City Schools wonder about artificial intelligence’s impact on their students’ work and their own teaching methods. Some teachers view AI as a way to enhance their work and lessen their burdens. Others remain torn on the issue, knowing they will have to be vigilant in checking their students’ work to stop plagiarism.

Kerry Castellani, a sophomore English teacher and head of the International Baccalaureate program at Modesto High School, said she believes schools cannot effectively ban AI’s use. Though it’s another challenge teachers face in fighting plagiarism, she said she also knows the tools have benefits. She uses the plagiarism-detection service Turnitin to determine if her students are using artificial intelligence in their work.

“I think it’s Pandora’s Box,” she said of AI. “I don’t think we can shove it back in.”

Consider ChatGPT. OpenAI released on Nov. 30 a demo of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, which shot up in popularity on social media due to its easy accessibility. ChatGPT reached 100 million users within two months of launching — faster than TikTok, which made the milestone in nine months, according to Reuters.

How might students use AI? Assigned to write an essay on “Frankenstein,” one could ask a language-model like ChatGPT to compose it based on the instructor’s requirements. Or, to better understand the literature, the student could ask the tool specific research questions.

Tools like Turnitin are used to check plagiarism, and now use of artificial intelligence. Turnitin has claimed its tool has a false positive rate of 1%, but according to the Washington Post, that rate has increased to 4% since being announced earlier this year.

Access to AI tools can lead to an equity divide

“I think plagiarism is always common,” Castellani said. “I think you, as a teacher, have to be aware of that and you have to have tools to deal with it. I do an awful lot of writing in class, not on the computer. I almost always have students hand-write their first draft.”

It’s not a perfect solution, she said, since she has around 200 students in total in her classes and can’t afford to always require them to write multiple drafts for every English assignment they work on.

Castellani said Modesto High and Modesto City Schools have not given clear guidelines on the how AI should be used in the classroom, but the district did block use of ChatGPT on school computers. Castellani said students with phones easily can bypass that obstacle, which can lead to an equity divide between those who can access it and those who can’t.

That issue is of concern to the California Department of Education, which “encourages educators to approach AI with a lens of equity,” it said in a statement to The Modesto Bee. “As educators and students learn about potential inaccuracies, bias, and social impacts of AI, they build capacity to promote ethical use of technology. The department supports educators who adapt their teaching methods to incorporate emerging technologies effectively in line with student needs.”

Mike Rich, associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction and professional development for Modesto City Schools, said artificial Intelligence will create ripples across the educational landscape. He emphasized the importance needed for data privacy for students, parents and teachers.

Tools should “strengthen intellectual muscle”

“When looking for intentional ways that AI can support student learning, we need to ensure that tools strengthen intellectual muscle and not simply provide an easy answer,” Rich said. “If educational interactions with AI are effortless, then they are worthless in supporting student growth. We must work to find a path that strengthens the learning process while providing the proper guardrails and support.”

A survey conducted by BestColleges earlier this year found 43% of college students have used ChatGPT or a similar artificial intelligence application. In the survey, 60% of students report that their instructors or schools haven’t specified how to use artificial intelligence tools ethically or responsibly.

Jason Kelley, director of activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said there is both enthusiasm and fear about this technology, which is why it’s highly debated. He said some teachers fear students are going to cheat with it, while others fear it will replace jobs or radically alter the way schools function. At the same time, he said, there’s also enthusiasm because teachers can use it to personalize education for their students.

He said he believes it’s important that teachers not only show students how this technology works but learn how to use it themselves to broaden their skill set, improve their job performance and avoid burnout.

“Potential improvements can occur so that teachers don’t have to do every single thing,” Kelley said. “They don’t have to individually tailor that lesson plan to each student, which they probably wouldn’t have time to do. These are the sort of things that the AI can do in theory.”

Kelley said a good comparison to artificial intelligence is Wikipedia or a calculator, both of which were banned in classrooms in the past.

“Wikipedia isn’t good or bad. It’s just a list of information on a huge website,” he said. “Does that mean you can cheat by just copying Wikipedia if you’re a student? Sure. And also, you can go to the references and get a starting point.”

Dawn of internet created a similar stir, teacher recalls

Castellani said when she was finishing college, the internet was emerging on college campuses, prompting similar conversations about academic cheating. She believes AI can be used as a helpful tool for students by generating research questions or assisting students with disabilities.

“My biggest worry with all technology is how it’s affected curiosity and creativity,” she said. “Students are the ones who are going to be affected the most. They might be able to get by with something that they create on ChatGPT, but that’s not going to teach them what they need to know.”

Though Modesto High has yet to set guidelines AI use in the classroom, the International Baccalaureate program — an independent organization that develops curriculum for use worldwide — has. Castellani said she will follow those guidelines; the organization does not want to ban AI use in the classroom. Castellani plans to encourage students to use it as a study method to develop research questions and skeletons that can help them understand writing and the materials in her classroom better.

“The IB believes that artificial intelligence technology will become part of our everyday lives — like spell checkers, translation software and calculators,” the organization announced earlier this year. “We, therefore, need to adapt and transform our educational programmes and assessment practices so that students can use these new AI tools ethically and effectively.”

Richard Vanden Bosch, who teaches social studies at Modesto Junior College and Advanced Placement history courses at Ripon High School, said he believes the technology can be used in a positive way in the classroom. He utilizes a website called Class Companion, which uses artificial intelligence to give feedback to his students about their writing.

“All of us as educators should try to evolve and I think that should be our goal,” he said. “It’s here to stay. We can cry and moan about it, but at the end of the day, it’s here, so how can we harness the energy positively?”

Castellani said she will also continue to monitor use of artificial intelligence in her classroom and encourage students to cite it when necessary.

“Teachers will never be replaced by AI, but great AI will replace mediocre teaching,” she said.