How has technology changed your job?

Skynet, A.I., definitely not Skynet, the self-aware artificial intelligence network that perceives humans as a threat to its existence, thus starting a nuclear war and turning all robots against humanity. Even if a billionaire genius jokingly decided to name their AI Skynet, my students miss the foreshadowing of our impending doom, so long as they have weaseled their way out of homework. 

I have a love hate relationship with artificial intelligence. I grew up watching The Matrix, Space Odyssey, I Robot, and Terminator, none of which were a good thing for humanity. However, movies like Chappie and Wall-E pulled on my heart strings for those robots. And just like my mixed emotions about A.I. in the fictional world, I have the same for those in our world. 

At the start of the school year, teachers were told that we had to integrate Khanmigo into their daily use. As I sat in the factual meeting, I wondered who in the county was getting their palm greased by Khan Academy. It was dumbfounding how hard the district was pushing artificial intelligence to replace teachers’ lesson plans and student interaction. One of the biggest reasons they wanted teachers to use this program is they could track how often students were using it and what lessons were being used. I skirted this request because I wasn’t a core subject and the district had deemed us unimportant. The only lesson offered covered TV production, Pixar’s story structure, or something like that. But it wasn’t even directed for TV, it was meant to be used in English classes. 

Students have moved past using the limited Khanmigo and straight to ChatGPT or DeepSeek. I can’t fault them for asking for help from certain subjects. When they are doing math homework and are stuck on a problem, they ask ChatGPT to break down how to solve it. There is no difference from asking a teacher, who would be on their off hours when students are completing their homework. But the issue is most don’t just use the software when they are stuck. I have seen many who just input each problem and write the answer. Now we are back to the idea of students just regurgitating and no longer learning. In a single year, ChatGPT has single handedly circumvented years of teaching students weird multi-step processes of completing math work. 

While I have used ChatGPT to help me create lesson plans when I am stuck on how to create a new and fun, interesting way to present a subject, I have found my students doing the same for their script writing. I don’t fully hate the idea of them getting ideas, it would be the same as grabbing a card from Storymatic or prompts dice. I know not everyone is a storyteller and needs assistance. But it’s sad how quickly ChatGPT regurgitates the same storyline. My students don’t know this but I do, especially after reading four of the same script. Some students get creative and will put the script in proper format and change some character names, along with dialogue. But there are others who don’t. It’s just lazy. Part of their grade is writing in the correct format. If they just did that they would get more points. 

Outside of ChatGPT, adobe has integrated artificial intelligence into its software. Students have found it helpful creating voice overs when they have forgotten to record one and their projects are due. Others have used it to clean up their audio when they have poorly recorded their sound. Again, I don’t hate it. However, this is allowing them to be lazy. Instead of ensuring they have filmed everything they need for a project, they now shrug it off. That is the correct use of “I’ll fix it in post.” I need my students to follow their shot list. I also need them to learn how to film audio correctly. Because when they use the artificial intelligence to clean up their sound, it sounds off. Either the audio becomes thin or there is just an unnatural sound to it. 

Artificial Intelligence could be so helpful for students. It can guide them in ways that sometimes I can’t because it’s a room of 30 kids and I am just one person. However, I am finding that not to be the case. This is the generation that just uses technology without understanding how or why they use it, and AI is the same. Instead of sparking creativity and exploration, the kids are fine with allowing the machine to do all the work for them. So when Skynet, ChatGPT, finally takes over the world, my students will welcome their new overlord because the robots will do all the thinking for them. 

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