Why Do Teachers Use AI?

Although we often hear about students using AI to do their work for them, many haven’t heard stories about how teachers utilize AI. Some teachers utilize AI to assist with planning, developing lessons, or generating ideas. Mr. Oxley and Ms. Ager are some teachers at Blake who’ve used AI for their work. Here’s some insight on their use of AI!

When asked why they use AI, both Mr. Oxley and Ms. Ager agree that it helps them save time. Generally, for Ms. Ager, “it would take me eight hours to create an entire lesson,” but with AI, “it [easily saves me] six hours of time.” It also allows her to accommodate her students who have IEPs or 504 plans. While for Mr. Oxley, AI allows him “to make sure [he’s] as efficient as possible.” AI also fixes formatting and makes everything look presentable, so “[He’d] rather use AI to do that than use [his]  time.” Both of them use AI as a starting point, but they control the final result. 

But how often do they use AI? Mr. Oxley stated that he uses it whenever, but didn’t mention specifically how often he uses AI. He typically uses AI to come up with examples for his math class. Although in his higher math classes, “it’s easier to come up with examples that are doable with AI versus on the spot.” He can come up with linear equations that are solvable in his head, but if it’s a logistical equation, it’s harder to make sure it’s something that can be solved. 

AI is helpful when used as a tool instead of being the one doing the work for you. From a scale of 1-10, Ms. Ager said that it’s a 10/10, though that does not mean it does all of her work. At most, “it does maybe about 30% of [her] work. It doesn’t do all of [her] work,” as she feels like she should be doing most of the work. She feels like she shouldn’t rely on it 100%. 

We now know how they both use AI, but will they use it in the future? When asked, Mr. Oxley said he would continue to use AI, mentioning that he wants to grow with it. He said he wants to teach students how to properly use AI  as a resource so they’re able to help themselves understand a concept, saving both of them time. He says it’s because if a student “comes to [him] and [then he goes] to AI, [he] can just be cut right out of this loop, and then everything can become more efficient.” On the other hand, Ms. Ager also said that she would continue to use AI, but it worries her because she “[doesn’t] want to lose [her] skill set,” which she built through her education and experience as an educator. Though she stated that she will continue to use AI as long as she’s still the person in charge of the final product of the work.

Teachers and students use AI in different ways, but what’s the difference? Mr. Oxley said he’s unsure of how students use AI, but says he uses AI “to develop material, rather than teaching how to answer material.” Despite his uncertainty, Mr. Oxley also believes that students use AI to give them the answers to a hard problem, using it as a shortcut to avoid challenging themselves, which is reflected in their grades on assessments.

Likewise, Ms. Ager believes that students use AI to avoid doing the work they don’t want to do. She says that “they’re avoiding doing the work that they need to do to show that they’re learning,” because the work she assigns is meant to have students show what they’ve learned. She uses it to aid her when creating things to teach the students, and is very confident in her ability to refine AI’s work. She can also elaborate on the topics she teaches because she’s already learned what she has to; all she has to do is spread that knowledge to the students, which she’s able to do without AI.

Overall, when students use AI, they use it with the intention of finishing an assignment quicker, using AI as a shortcut to not being challenged. They tend to make AI do the work for them, copying and pasting what the AI did, not changing anything, and passing it off as their own work. They rarely check if what the AI gave them makes sense or is related to the assignment they’re doing because they just want to finish it as quickly as possible and get the grade. Alternatively, teachers tend to use AI as a way to assist in their own work. They use it to help make certain processes quicker, but still take the time to edit and alter what the AI spat out, so the final product is more cohesive for students to use as a reference. 

So even though some teachers use AI to help them with their work, in the end, it’s only an assistance. They still put in the work and the skills they’ve learned in their lessons. 

Written by Cindy Marroquin Caceros and Elisa Reyes