Students who use artificial intelligence inside and outside the classroom are more advanced than schools in adopting generative AI tools for learning, according to a new survey by Project Tomorrow, a national nonprofit that researches technology and innovations in education, according to an article in The 74.
The report was paired with an online panel discussion featuring Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and a group of high school students. They recommended that schools create policies around generative AI and incorporate it into everyday learning.
“AI is our future, and our young people will be inheriting it,” Lake says. “The question is really whether our education systems will prepare them to shape that future or be shaped by it.”
The survey polled 29,461 middle and high school students, 5,025 parents, 7,127 teachers and 3,495 administrators about AI.
Here are three takeaways from the report and briefing:
1) Most students want access to generative AI benefits
Today’s students already consider AI part of their education, says Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow’s CEO and moderator of the panel.
“They don’t see it as a bystander, as [something] on the side,” she says. “This isn’t like a project we’re going to do with AI today but you’re not allowed to use it for other things. The students actually see it as part of their entire learning process. We need to catch up and think about what makes sense.”
Most students (68%) are familiar with different types of generative AI tools. Two-thirds of middle schoolers and 73% of high schoolers believe they should have access to these tools in school, while 61% of parents and 58% of teachers agreed.
The top ways students want to use generative AI: brainstorming ideas about assignments, analyzing notes, getting feedback on writing, accessing tutoring outside of school and summarizing text, according to the report.
About two-thirds of students said AI use in the classroom exposes them to new ideas. Other benefits cited: preparing students for college and future careers, making learning more efficient and saving time.
“If I’m in a physics class and I just really don’t understand a concept, I could talk to ChatGPT,” said Ian Son, a senior at Redondo Union High School in California Son. “I could talk basically anything through generative AI, because it could imitate and it could role-play anyone. So just using it in those different ways has just been super helpful, because it’s almost like talking to any type of expert at any time during the day.”
2) Students have concerns that AI can misinform or falsely accuse of cheating
When using AI at school, students are most concerned about misinformation, people using it to harm others, false accusations of cheating and data privacy, according to the survey.
“If I’m at school and I’m pulling out ChatGPT, for example, I’m automatically going to be accused of cheating or trying to cheat around my work or being lazy,” Son said. “Most of us aren’t trying to cheat, but we’re actually trying to use AI to help us.”
More than 40% of high school students and 80% of parents said the possibility of false cheating accusations was a serious concern for them. Nearly 90% of teachers are worried about students cheating when using AI.
“AI will make up data. It’ll make up a math problem and how to do it,” said Arnav Hingorani, a junior at Desert Mountain High School in Arizona. “I think [when] using AI all the time and seeing how it works, you start to get an idea of the right way to use artificial intelligence to enhance your learning rather than just getting an answer or perhaps even getting a wrong answer.”
“I’m scared that I’ll rely more on AI than my own thinking,” said Neha Palla, a senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Kentucky. “I feel like critical thinking is something that AI could replace. I feel like every single time I encounter a problem, I’ll just automatically go to AI and see if they have an answer, rather than thinking for myself.”
3) Narrow school AI adoption lags behind broad use and guidelines
Most schools that have adopted systemic AI use it only for small, isolated tasks – not expanding it to classroom activities or lessons, according to a July CRPE report.
“Schools are focusing really narrowly on plagiarism detection or saving teachers a few minutes of grading time,” Lake says. “What we’re seeing as a missed opportunity is that they’re not able to focus on the possibilities for using AI to truly transform learning.”
Teachers’ lack of familiarity with generative AI causes them to avoid using the tools in class, according to the report. More than half of teachers said they haven’t had any discussions with their students about AI; only 13% are very confident in using the tools for their own productivity or to advance student learning.
Hingorani said that in his school district, Scottsdale United, “So many teachers are like, ‘I don’t know what the current policy is.’ I think that’s the fundamental issue a lot of districts are facing right now.”
Only 15% of teachers in the report said their school districts provide enough professional development for effective use of AI in the classroom. About 61% of students were unsure whether their school has AI policies.
“I think teachers are automatically compelled to have a stigma toward it,” Palla said. “I think providing resources to allow teachers to learn about it will make them more willing to integrate those tools into a classroom.”
The 74
