Today’s high school students have access to a plethora of things to help them cheat on essays, tests and the like. With the rise of cheating, teachers have taken notice of this phenomenon and it has affected how they give out certain assignments. The main problem is Artificial Intelligence (AI) resources that provide answers for students which require minimal effort and the fact that teachers are starting to realize the difference between what’s really students’ work and not.
The main problem with this AI revolution is that students who don’t use these resources and truly want to learn are getting cut short because their peers choose to cheat. Teachers have taken notice and have taken a new approach of how to deal with it. There are two very different sides to this discussion and both are equally argumentative. One side is the students who don’t like to be undermined by their teachers and accused of using an AI generator for their assignments. The other side is teachers who are being blamed for changing assignments so they can’t be done by AI, however, these teachers should not be blamed.
The main problem with this situation is that both sides are in a difficult position; there are the students who will seek help from Chat GPT and other AI helpers, and there are the teachers who are forced to change their teaching ways to combat cheating with AI. This disproportionately affects students who aren’t cheating as they are “punished” with harder assignments.
The only way for this cycle to stop is for students to work their hardest to try and learn the subject, even if it might not be fair that they are getting more work. In this situation, teachers only have a number of things to turn to so students can’t blame them for turning their back on technology, the same technology that is being used for students to cheat with. Teachers are trying to combat AI usage to allow students to understand the material.
Teachers at Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) have taken notice of students doing this, and it has changed how they give their assignments. Most only give in-class essays and paper tests in fear that someone will find some way to cheat with some kind of technology. Most of the time, if the teachers give students the chance they will, some students take writing by AI into the in-class essay. Teachers have a right to take these measures because of how some students undermine them and cheat anyway, defeating the whole purpose of what the teachers are trying to teach the students.
Wilson Tu in a PowerNotes article stated, “To prepare students for that world, educators have to strike a balance between banning generative AI and allowing students to overuse it and therefore never develop the skills they need to succeed in their careers and lives.”
While it may not be fair to the students, it is rational for teachers to give them the right education instead of allowing students to find resources to do it for them. In time, when these students are preparing for the real world with jobs, they will not have resources to just cheat off of, and they will have to learn skills that they should’ve learned in high school. Students should not be mad at teachers for trying to lessen their struggle for the future by getting through it during high school when students have a chance to make mistakes.
Teachers are in the right state of mind in this situation as they are doing what they can for their students in the best way possible. They’re showing students that there is no right and wrong in cheating and even if some students are not cheating, the teachers are forced to look at every student’s situation.
So no, you can’t blame the teachers for doing this. Their job is to teach students and focus on what would be best for the majority of the students and seek the best plan for them, even if some students who aren’t cheating are affected by it.
