Does AI have a positive impact on education at schools?

During recent years the AI has impacted all spheres of our life making many processes easier.

This includes the education and learning.

Many teachers are concerned that AI does not benefit the student and in fact, makes education less efficient.

According to a "Artificial Intelligence in Education" survey by UNESCO (2023) 45% of students globally say AI has positively impacted their learning experience, while 40% of educators worry that AI may negatively impact students' critical thinking skills.

I interviewed some teachers as well as students in the Channing school on the topic of AI in order to identify advantages and disadvantages and answer the question "Does AI have a positive impact on education in schools?"

From the point of view of teachers such as Mrs. Tomback (History teacher at Channing), who commented that “AI is useful for certain things such as writing short quizzes for pupils or translating for bilingual students” which is really time-saving and helpful.

Despite positive uses and and huge benefits of AI Mrs outlined that she is often faced with challenges when students “circumvent essay writing and course work by the use of the AI” and thinks that it is going to always be a problem going forwards, as it “challenges the concept of how important knowledge is” and that skills is “one thing that can't be regenerated”.

However Mrs Devine(History and Politics teacher at Channing) said “I don’t use AI in my lessons, as I am not confident it is factually correct, and I am rather cynical about it” and she “wouldn’t allow it to be used” as she thinks “it will lead to educational standards slipping. AI will just remove analytical thinking students’ skill sets”.

Although Mrs Tomback and Mrs Devine didn’t noticed that AI has improved student engagement or learning outcomes, many students such as Frosya (Y12 student at Channing doing Economics, English Lit, Maths) and Maisey (Y13 student at Channing doing History, Politics, Geography) use AI such as Chat GPT regularly for “exact answers, summarising information and making conclusive sentences”.

Answering the question “why not using google or other browsers?” students said that it is “time wasting, as you need to search many websites to find information, while AI will do it instead of you making searching faster and much more effective”.

However other students like Yinning (Y12 student at Channing doing Chemistry, Biology and Maths) thinks that “AI is not reliable” and even if she uses it she goes on google to verify the information.