More than half of educators—59 percent—are not currently using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey reported in Education Week.
In additon, 37 percent of respondents—which included district and school leaders and teachers—say they have never used the tools and don’t plan to start. More than one in five—22 percent—say they don’t plan to give the technology a try this school year but hope to do so in the future.
The most popular reason among teachers for eschewing the game-changing technology, at least for now? An already full plate of responsibilities. Nearly half of the teachers surveyed—46 percent—said “I haven’t explored these tools because I have other priorities that are more important.”
Educators “don’t see that they have an AI problem right now,” said Pat Yongpradit, the chief academic officer for Code.Org and leader of Teach AI, an initiative to help K-12 schools use AI technology effectively. “They have a learning loss problem. They have a teacher turnover problem. But they don’t have an AI problem. It’s not like parents are knocking on the door, saying ‘Oh, you don’t have guidance on AI.’”
Other common answers appear to point to the need for more professional development on AI. More than a third of the teachers surveyed—36 percent—said they aren’t using the tools because they don’t know how to. And another third—33 percent—said they were avoiding them because their districts hadn’t yet outlined a policy on using AI.
Other teachers said they weren’t sure whether they could use the tools effectively, don’t understand how AI works, or have data privacy concerns.
And nearly one in five said they weren’t using the tools because they don’t believe AI is appropriate for a K-12 setting,
Education Week
