The challenges posed by AI tools in education | Computer Weekly

"Education can be an incredibly rewarding but demanding profession, as the workload of teachers is ever increasing. The progress of students needs to be assessed, usually through tests, exams, essays and coursework, all of which need to be reviewed and marked. The workload of students is also increasing, as they struggle to revise for their exams and meet all the deadlines for their assessments. Unfortunately, a minority of students give in to the obvious temptation of using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to write their essays."

"My daughter recently wrote an essay for her A-Level coursework and, out of curiosity, submitted it to an online AI checker. She was shocked to find that, despite writing the essay herself, the checker concluded much of her work was created using AI. Further investigation revealed that the deliberate use of simple words and grammatical errors made the essay less likely to be flagged."

""We have Copilot in everything for work and there are huge debates about how to incorporate AI into teaching," says David Waldron, an associate professor of history at the Federation University. "The AI is good to do data processing, such as sorting data and condensing key information into a summary, but it is no good for creative material or for trusted sources.""

Teaching workloads continue to rise as teachers must assess growing amounts of student work through tests, exams, essays, and coursework that require review and marking. Student workloads are also increasing, creating pressure to revise for exams and meet assessment deadlines. Some students use generative artificial intelligence to write essays. Generative AI tools are widely promoted as assistants for tasks like creating slideshows. AI can efficiently process data, sort information, and condense key points, but performs poorly on creative tasks and cannot be relied upon for trusted sources. AI-detection tools exist but can produce false positives that affect writers' choices.

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