Artificial intelligence was labeled a tool, a threat, a mixed bag and unavoidable at a Community Conversation event Thursday, where residents gathered to discuss AI’s role in the classroom, and in other facets of learning.
“Are you a glass-half-full person, or a glass-half-empty person?” Todd Herrmann, director of the School of Business and assistant dean at Franklin Pierce University, asked the crowd gathered at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture in Peterborough.
“Because we can get excited about the potential for AI and what it can do, and we can also get scared about it,” Herrmann said.
Along with Herrmann, Dublin School senior Finley Fiandaca and ConVal technology integration specialist Helfried Zrzary talked about AI’s role in education.
“It’s become to be like a tool, basically,” Fiandaca said. “There are benefits to it, but there’s a part of it where honesty comes in.”
Fiandaca said that, while he uses it to understand complex concepts, he does not let AI generate answers or projects for him.
“To write an essay for me, to do my entire schoolwork for me, that’s where I would draw a line,” he said.
In the classroom, Fiandaca said his teachers use the Harkness discussion method, in which students lead the class discussions on homework.
“I think that’s a great way to avoid these AI conversations,” he said. “It really shows which students really went through the reading and took their time with it.”
In ConVal schools, Zrzary said the administration plans to integrate AI guidelines into classrooms for the second half of this school year. Similar to Fiandaca’s experience, the school district hopes to introduce AI as a tool while ensuring students do not use it to generate answers or write.
“We will teach them how to use the technology appropriately and not overly rely on it,” Zrzary said.
The Franklin Pierce guidelines for AI require faculty to address it in the classroom, but give professors flexibility in how it’s used. Within the faculty, Herrmann said, there are many differing opinions on how AI should be used for education.
“The challenge is that AI is a mixed bag. It has mixed support, and it keeps changing,” he said.
In his classroom, Herrmann gives exams in two parts: in-class bluebooks with comprehension questions, and take-home tests that allow students to use their notes, computers and AI. Some professors also use oral exams to test knowledge, he said.
As a liberal arts institution, Franklin Pierce has shifted its classrooms from instruction to small-group discussion, and in some classes, students can use AI.
“This is where there’s a difference of opinion among faculty — is that what I just described and that experience, is that considered critical thinking?” he said. “Are we encouraging critical thinking by doing something like that? I would say we are.”
Janine Lesser, a member of the ConVal School Board, asked the guest speakers about the benefits of AI, despite its drawbacks, which can include frequently incorrect answers.
With the guidelines being set at ConVal, Zrzary said, the hope is that students will think critically about their use of AI.
“Think about before you use it, whether it’s necessary to be used. Just because the tool is there doesn’t mean that you have to use it all the time,” he said.
Zrzary also pointed out that the way educators teach students about credit and sources has changed with the advent of AI. Now, when people type in a prompt, they are given a summary answer, which sometimes includes links, but those sources can be incorrect or completely fabricated.
“People that I have seen and have worked with AI on a consistent basis have said that all this double-checking actually costs more time than going to, let’s say, a regular Google search,” he said.
Additionally, he said AI is intentionally programmed to befriend the user, rather than provide facts.
“The model is not interested in giving you information. It’s trying to keep a conversation going, and it’s trying to please you,” Zrzary said.
When Geoff Frank of Peterborough asked the looming question about preparing students for the workforce with ever-changing AI, Herrmann said, “That’s what we’re trying to do — is preparing students in a very rapidly changing environment, and we are trying to focus on them developing their skills.”
Talking to business owners, Herrmann said he’s heard firsthand that employers want well-rounded employees.
“What employers are really looking for is a balanced person who’s got the technical skills, is trying to keep up with it … and having an appreciation of where they are in the world, in terms of making a difference, and having the ability to be part of the team,” he said.
Zrzary worries about the possibility that AI could eliminate entry-level jobs.
“If we do not have any entry-level positions for students who are graduated right now from high school or maybe even from college, then where are the middle managers going to come from 20 years from now?” he asked.
He pointed to Amazon’s recent attempt to rehire former employees who were fired in the belief that AI could replace them.
“We really don’t know how it’s gonna end up,” he said.
While Fiandaca has some time before he enters the workforce, he said he understands AI has affected job opportunities.
“Looking at it as a younger person myself, a student, it is a little scary,” he said.
Community Conversations is a series created in partnership of the Monadnock Center for History and Culture and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.