The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education is increasing. According to a study by Statista.org, 54% of college students worldwide were using AI to some degree in their coursework in 2024. This includes local institutions like Butler Community College.
Valerie Haring is dean of the Arts, Digital Media and Communication Division (ADMC) at Butler. She believes AI is advancing faster than the ethical concerns
behind it.
“AI is here - we're never going to get ahead of it,"
Haring said.
Dean Valerie Haring at her desk. (Photo Isaac Rich)
"It's gonna just become exponentially more advanced. And so, at this institution, we have to use AI responsibly, and we have to teach our students how to do that as well."
According to its syllabus, “Butler Community College expects students to be able to use computers, Internet and web-based materials proficiently both inside and outside the classroom to accomplish course outcomes.”
This includes the use of AI.
Samuel Maurer is a speech professor at Butler. He personally uses AI in some of his classes, mainly as a virtual tutoring assistant for assignments. Maurer believes Butler has done a good job in allowing teachers the freedom to decide how AI will be used in their classrooms.
“I think a lot of the incorporation of AI that's going on in classrooms right now is something that professors are doing individually and in very creative ways,” Maurer explained.
“Butler's done a very smart thing and a good job of keeping it fairly flexible. And so individual professors and departments have some latitude in how they deal with it so that it's not something that's just categorically banned from the classroom…And so you can sort of put together an AI policy that's most suitable to what you want to do in your classes.”
AI has the potential to be a useful tool in the learning environment. However, when used irresponsibly, AI can also cause major problems.
“I think we start getting into dangerous territory when we start relying on AI to do work for us - instead of viewing it as a tool, viewing it as this living entity that will do the work for us,” Haring said.
Haring gives the example of writing a paper. A student prompts AI to create an essay and in seconds they can copy, paste it and turn it in as original work. The student gets the job done and AI does the work.
“In the academic sector the worry is that students will begin to lose some of those critical thinking skills,” Haring explained.
Maurer believes the loss of these critical thinking skills poses a potential problem for future workers.
“AI in the future is very dangerous for the workforce in the sense that the skills that it can sub in for you with are things that you need to learn,” Maurer said.
“And when those skills are something that you can't do on your own, it's not just that it's bad that you can't write an essay. The learning of how to write the essay teaches you how to critically think. If you can't critically think on your own, then that's a serious problem. The cognitive offloading that goes along with a lot of it is inherently a problem, but it's also going to be a serious issue for generations of students who come up and who have never really done their own work and kind of sneak into the workforce.”
In response to issues like these, Maurer personally addresses the subject of AI in his classes and lets students know the benefits and potential dangers of using it.
“I feel a responsibility to my students to talk to them about AI and make them a little bit more literate about it even if that doesn't mean using it,” Maurer said.
“Like 'here's how to understand what it does (and) what it doesn't. Here's ways that you can use it that will enhance your creativity and make you a better and more complete intellectual,' and these are some ways you can use it where it is just mental Botox, and you just shut off your decision making and critical thinking skills and it becomes toxic and terrible.”
Butler’s policies regarding AI are still in the developing stages. Haring hopes that Butler will encourage professors to show their students how to use AI with integrity.
“We need to focus on AI as it will be meaningful to students who come here, and graduate here and move into the workforce,” Haring said.
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