Schools need to stop hiding from AI

I shared last month the idea that schools should perhaps pay for AI tools for their students, and I believe that even more strongly now. If nothing else, schools need to stop being so scared of it and start seeing ways they can use it to improve the lives of their students.

I understand their fear, as many students would likely use it to cheat (which needs to be deterred), but the blanket “AI is evil” that most schools are shouting is not the right answer.

I’ve mentored a local high school student for the past few years, and he’s now a senior. This kid is amazingly smart, and that’s what lead to our recent conversation. He’s taking classes at high school during the day, he’s taking a remote class from Georgia Tech in the afternoons, and he’s struggling with that class a bit. I mean, it’s a high level algebra class at Georgia Tech, so it’s not an easy ask.

We talked through his struggles a bit, and I immediately saw how AI could help. The class isn’t live, so he just has to watch videos of the professor speaking and then take various quizzes and tests. I suggested we have ChatGPT help him study, and he had no idea how to use it for that — I fully blame the school for that shortcoming.

Using AI

Here’s what we did:

• The videos he has to watch are roughly 10 minutes long, with perhaps 8 of them per week to review. All are pretty dense, so he has lot to try to learn.
• I had him download the video…