The use of artificial intelligence has gone mainstream in the last year with the rise of tools for art, music and writing, among others. However, within educational institutions, AI is often seen as a threat to the traditional process and could signal a boon in cheating and plagiarism. The generational acceleration in the sophistication of tools like ChatGPT are causing teachers concern that they won’t be able to know what’s created by a student and what’s just a product of AI.
Students are also not sure what to think. In 2023, BestColleges conducted a national survey of 16- to 64-year-old students currently enrolled in an on-campus, online or hybrid undergraduate or graduate degree program. The survey found mixed opinions on whether using AI for academic assignments is cheating: just over half (51%) of college students in the United States believe that using AI tools to complete assignments and exams is cheating. That same survey also found that 1 in 5 students have used AI to complete school assignments.
Research and the current thinking on this issue are still developing with both potential positives and negatives being associated with the use of these tools. Given AI’s potential for affecting education in positive and negative ways, the U.S. Department of Education is looking for help with how to respond to concerns about the use of these AI tools in the classroom. It seeks clarity on whether its communication efforts should be centered on educating its audience on the benefits of AI or whether it should focus on communicating why AI should be restricted in educational settings. The department believes thorough research will provide insight on which of these two communication strategies to take in its communication on the topic.
The U.S. Department of Education has approached your team for help with the following tasks:
Over the next several weeks of this class, you will collaborate on this one project, tackling each of the four tasks listed above through weekly assignments that will help you build toward an end-of-the-semester presentation to your client, the U.S. Department of Education.
As you begin your work on this semester-long project, you will first need to conduct secondary research to fully understand the topic background. Your research should provide a thorough understanding of the nuances around the use of AI tools in academic settings, as well as specific data and statistics related to the issue. Focus specifically on the application of this technology in education. Through this research you should start to get a sense of what level of education you’ll want to focus on (e.g., K-6, middle school, high school, college). The Lesson 2 module includes information that will guide you as you do your research, from where and how to find information to critiquing the data you find to determine if it is valid. See the directions below for details on requirements related to what kind of sources are acceptable to review.
Create a list of concept terms based on your task. Use synonyms to capture more information.
Concept #7 - "Department of Education" AND (campaigns or PSA or “public service announcement”)
