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As AI advances, a Houston County teacher is trying to teach students how to use AI — properly

A Houston County teacher says she noticed an increase in students using Chat GPT to write papers. A program called Writable helps her detect which ones.

HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Artificial intelligence apps are spreading to classrooms across the country, but so are the new tools to help manage it. 

At Houston County High School, American literature teacher Madeline Peacock said she allows students to use the Chat GPT app to come up with ideas, statistics and better sentence structure, but their final work must reflect their original thoughts.

"If they know how to use it properly, it's being done well, and if they're just using it to get out of the work, then we're not seeing it being done well," Peacock said.

She said last year she and other teachers noticed a huge increase in the number of students using Chat GPT to write papers. A program called Writable helps her detect which ones.

"Once they realized that we were able to detect that, and we knew what that looked like. They realized 'I'm just cheating myself in this,' that I have to take a Milestone at the end of the year, I have to take a MAPS test at the end of the year and A.I. isn't going to be available to me," Peacock said.  

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Elgin Mayfield said the district is playing catch up to manage A.I.’s language development.

"We have to have time to understand it and think about how can we, again, utilize it in such a positive way, while making sure that we diminish its negative capabilities to us," he said.

He said the Writable program is a great opportunity for teachers to give students feedback faster. It can scan student papers to provide preliminary feedback that teachers can use to give their own.

"It's still the teacher who is the expert in the classroom,” Mayfield said. “But A.I. becomes something that helps the teacher facilitate that instruction."

Mayfield said there’s still an absolute way to keep A.I.’s use under control.

“A.I. can’t help you if I ask you to write it down on a piece of paper,” he said. “Paper and pencil still is the ultimate A.I. blocker."

Houston County Schools doesn't have a district-wide policy on how teachers should include or exclude A.I. in their classrooms. Mayfield said it depends on the grade level and the subject.

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