As School’s Kick Smart Phones Out, They’re Ushering AI In

By: Chris Johnson

As the Artificial Intelligence technological revolution spins up, parents and teachers of American students are pushing for their kids’ access to tech devices to go down.

A sudden and surprisingly successful movement is blazing through state legislatures – and uniting both sides of the aisle: banning cell phones in schools.

In just the past few years, 37 states have banned cell phones in class. Many of those take the ban further, with what they call a “bell-to-bell” ban, meaning no use of personal devices during the entire school day.

There are very few subjects on which I can positively quote the National Education Association, in fact, I think this is the first time. But NEAToday, the org’s publication says this: “Educators are deeply concerned about the impact social media has on students’ mental health, and believe those negative effects are another reason to limit access to phones at school.  But, according to the NEA survey, the biggest concern about social media use in school is the constant disruptions to learning. 

“And it’s not just social media.

“‘We’re competing with Netflix, FaceTime, texting,’ Gilzow said. ‘They’re even watching March Madness’.

“Kim Tilton, a science teacher at San Marcos High School in California, agrees. ‘If the phone is in their hands, there is zero engagement, zero focus. That’s the experience we were all having, and it became a major working condition issue for us.’”  

NEAToday describes it as a “Teacher-Led Movement.” They cite a survey of their members which revealed that 90% supported bans during class, while 83% supported the “bell-to-bell” policy.

Time.com, however, calls it a “Parent-Led” movement. They put it this way: “Parents have long sensed that smartphones were transforming childhood. But it’s only recently that they’ve finally had the language to describe what’s happening. Last year, Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation was published to broad acclaim. The book, which argues that smartphones and social media have transformed a ‘play-based childhood’ into what Haidt calls a ‘phone-based childhood,’ has spent 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and spawned a grassroots movement and public-awareness campaign advocating for less screen time and more real-world independence for kids. Advocates who had been pushing to reduce screen time suddenly found themselves flooded with new volunteers. ‘The momentum came from his book,’ says Kim Whitman, who co-leads Smartphone Free Childhood US. ‘But it’s a lot of us moms out there doing the actual work. We’re the boots on the ground, pushing it forward.’”

One thing is for sure, parents and teachers on both sides of the aisle find phones in school to be a distraction and not a learning aid.

But, even as parents and teachers are pushing for less time on devices, the rapid development of AI tech is pushing institutions not to step back from technological educational crutches, but to step into them.

It’s being cast as a gamechanger for educators who can use it to personalize assignments to meet a struggling student’s specific needs, customize curriculum, or even ease the burden of grading assignments. The Center on Reinventing Public Education says AI isn’t on its way—it’s already here. “Educators report using AI in a variety of ways, but teachers are mostly likely to say they use AI to support students with ‘learning differences.’ It may be that AI is simply making current teacher practices easier or faster. For example, a teacher might use AI to easily create customized homework for a student to practice a concept they were struggling with in class. Teachers may also be using AI to allow a student who reads at a grade 4 level to access high school-level social studies content. However, these fairly common instructional strategies do not necessarily accelerate student progress. Understanding how teachers use AI to help students who are struggling or have disabilities, and how effective it is, are open questions that should be studied soon.”

While the education industry is quick to hype the potential for efficiency offered to teachers by AI, what gets less attention is the threat that Artificial Intelligence poses to students’ actual intelligence.

After all, as much as AI might offer answers that simplify an educator’s challenges, it offers the same opportunity to his or her students.

Recently, at UCLA’s graduation, one graduate celebrated the occasion with his study buddy – a laptop open to ChatGPT, the AI bot which had helped him complete his finals. In a later video, he says his professors had encouraged the use of AI, and exclaimed, “Shout out to ChatGPT for never getting tired of my questions.”

Ohio State University is requiring students to use AI. “Through AI Fluency, Ohio State students will be ‘bilingual’ — fluent in both their major field of study and the application of AI in that area,” a school statement said.

So, as we are removing cell phones from the classroom because of the distractions they cause and the human interactions they replace, we are replacing student-teacher interactions and efforts with AI prompts. Never mind the obvious issue of students being able to repeat a question asked by a teacher into an AI chatbot and restate the answer. Many teachers wouldn’t even consider this to be cheating, just “stepping into the future,” or something.

But, while schools and universities are jumping into the AI puddle with both feet, research is only just beginning to reveal how deep it is. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology just released a first-of-its kind study on how the use of ChatGPT affects students’ brains. They divided 54 students into three groups, one to write a paper using AI only, one using AI and search engines, and one using only their own knowledge.

WOSU.org reports, “The ChatGPT participants couldn’t even accurately recall their own essays.

“Those essays were also reviewed by English teachers, who didn’t know what technology was used for each. The AI papers were panned as unoriginal or as the English teachers put it: ‘soulless.’”

The researchers even came up with a neat new phrase for when AI does your thinking for you, “cognitive debt.”

Parents and teachers are finally becoming aware of how the last major technological breakthrough, smart phones, have negatively affected children. Yet, even as we’re finally taking action to deal with that obvious issue, our institutions are selling out the students in their care for the next iteration of technological advancement.

Constant access to the internet has made kids “less independent,” “less-focused,” and more anxious. Constant reliance on Artificial Intelligence will only make it worse.

 

To view this article in your browser, Click Here

For more information, articles and newsletters, please check out our website at https://americandecency.org/

You can support ADA financially by visiting: https://give.cornerstone.cc/americandecency

 

 

---