Is AI Good for Students? Here’s Why Many Educators Doubt It
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Even as their personal use of AI has increased, educators have mixed feelings about drawing on the technology in their classrooms. AI chatbots can drastically ease teachers’ workloads in some areas, but they also allow students to essentially bypass learning by turning their assignments over to a robot.
Those mixed feelings about the technology are illustrated in an EdWeek Research Center survey conducted this summer. It found that about a third of teachers, principals, and district administrators believe platforms like ChatGPT would have a “somewhat negative” effect on education while another third said they would have a “somewhat positive” effect. Everyone else was split fairly evenly among feeling neutral, very negative, or very positive about the technology.
The EdWeek Research Center regularly surveys educators on AI to get a pulse on where they stand on this disruptive technology. For this survey conducted in June and July, 559 educators weighed in, and many of them voiced concerns in open-ended responses that AI is undermining students’ learning.
Even with that uncertainty, some educators say it is their responsibility to teach students how to use AI, and they’re calling for more official guidance—and training—to achieve that goal.
The following 16 responses—which have been edited for length and clarity—show the wide range of views about AI among educators.
AI is causing students’ critical-thinking skills and creativity to atrophy
AI is being used by students to cheat more efficiently than teachers to use it as a meaningful tool.
I believe the use of AI is negatively impacting the knowledge-acquisition process in our students. It is also affecting their critical-thinking skills.
—Elementary teacher | Nevada
I teach theater. This year, during our playwriting unit, students attempted to write plays using AI, even though they were explicitly told not to do so. It is disappointing and discouraging that students would rather cheat than take an opportunity to be creative. I feel AI is diminishing our ability to be creative and stealing the humanity from our art!
—Fine arts teacher (high school) | Texas
AI is such a hot-button issue. There are so many varying uses, both good and not-so-good. As a teacher of fine arts, one of the areas that is most concerning to me is that AI removes opportunities for users to be creative. Instead of using critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to creatively come up with solutions, users turn to AI to get a quick fix.
—Fine arts teacher (elementary school) | Utah
While I know about AI and the potential positive outcomes it can have within the classroom, I do not think my district has done a great job of providing PD to school leaders and staff around the topic. Students are using it whether we like it or not, so why not provide a space within the classroom to do so?
—District-level administrator (Title I and equity) | North Carolina
On the use of AI tools, I am in favor of those being applied to administrative, scheduling, teacher planning, and such. The use of AI by students should be closely guarded and restricted, because the tendency I have seen is that those tools are used to take detrimental shortcuts or to cheat during the learning process. In the past two years, I have seen an increase in the number of students attempting to get away with minimum or no effort and figuring out ways for AI to do their work.
—Science teacher (high school) | Florida
I’m tired of AI being something that teachers catch students using to cheat on their writing. I think we need to speak openly about it and understand that it’s a tool.
—English-language arts teacher (high school) | New York
Educators acknowledge they need to prepare students for an AI-powered future
Schools should embrace the use of generative AI in the planning and implementation of their instruction. Failure to do so only puts them further behind the rest of the world.
—Principal (high school) | Tennessee
AI will force a change in education. It will be better to understand it and use it than be left behind.
AI will be an extremely vital tool for helping us instruct, become more efficient in the workplace, and in preparing our students for the future.
—Assistant superintendent | New York
AI is a good tool to use as an educator. Educators spend a lot of time planning after hours. AI helps with creating assessments, schedules, resources, etc. It should be used by educators.
—English-language arts teacher (elementary school) | Louisiana
AI is coming at us fast and furious, and schools are not keeping up with what students are doing. Teachers need to be equipped and provided with devices and training that can keep them at the forefront of this new and enduring shift in teaching.
AI responsibilities and use need to be addressed for teachers, admin, and students. Each district should have an AI policy for all staff and students.
—Career-technical education teacher (middle school) | Virginia
As educators, our job is not just to prepare students for the world as it is—but for the world as it will be. Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most transformative tools in our society, reshaping everything from the workplace to the way we access information. To ignore its presence in education is to do our students a disservice. If we don’t teach students how to use AI responsibly, we leave them vulnerable—either to misusing it or to being left behind.
—Principal (elementary school) | California
I am very concerned about how AI will be used, its impact on the environment, job losses, and the potential negative effects on student learning. However, I believe it is our duty as educators to consider effective ways to utilize it in our classrooms and prepare students for the workforce and higher education with a clear understanding of how to employ the tool effectively.
—Principal | Mississippi
This story draws on findings from a research study supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
