With Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly integrated into education, faculty members are working hard to define how AI can and should be utilized to enhance teaching and learning while maintaining academic integrity.
It has been just over two years since the large language model chatbot ChatGPT was first introduced. Since then, teachers and administrators have worked to define how generative AI can be used positively in the classroom and in student work.
Principal Sean Bevan understands that AI has become the new normal, and alongside his team and the work of individual teachers, he has made strides toward increasing the community’s understanding of the possibilities and complexities of generative AI in education.
“Schools are a little bit behind in defining how [AI] technology impacts our world, but we’re getting caught up,” Bevan said. “On Nov. 1 we brought in an outside speaker to just give an introduction to AI so that everybody who didn’t have a real great understanding was brought up to the same level of understanding.”
Following the introduction there were a series of teacher-led workshops to help educators explore ways they could use AI effectively. The faculty has also explored and discussed how to provide guidelines for students, and Bevan emphasized the importance of teaching students to use AI responsibly, as it is a tool that will play an integral role in their futures.
“I do anticipate at some point, and it might not be till the fall of next year, where we’re using some common language to let kids know when, [for example], you’re completing this large assignment in this class, here are two ways AI can be used and here’s all the other ways it cannot be used,” Bevan said.
Teachers are working to define clear boundaries for AI use as both a collective faculty and individuals. Bevan acknowledged concerns over academic dishonesty but sees AI’s potential to help students who struggle with tasks like brainstorming ideas.
“I do worry that it’s going to have a massive impact on the value of good writing,” Bevan said. “But I also recognize that AI can be a powerful tool for a student who’s trying to generate new ideas or start a paper.”
Instructional Technology Specialist Brian Calnan plays a key role in guiding teachers and staff on responsible AI use. He has seen both the benefits and negatives of using AI tools and has worked to create guidelines for teachers on which AI tools are safe and useful.
“AI is as smart as the person using it,” Calnan said. “It can help with brainstorming and refining ideas, but human reflection is still necessary.”
For science teacher Aimee Selby, AI has been beneficial for reviewing material in Forensics. For example, she wants to use AI to help generate ideas for students’ storylines for their evidence boards. While Selby doesn’t currently use AI to grade assignments, she sees its potential.
“I would love for the technology to grade lab reports and give feedback on them,” Selby said. “I think we’re a little far away from that, but I would certainly be open to looking at that and seeing what that would be like.”
Selby believes AI can be beneficial for helping students study.

“Sometimes students will say to me, ‘Oh do you have any more problems for me to do?’ and what I would like to be able to say is, ‘Search for your own problems,’” Selby said. “Not to be lazy, but I want them to see [AI] as a tool.”
While English teacher Seth Czarnecki has used AI to help him conceptualize his approach to designing the new environmental humanities course, he believes there are many ethical considerations for both students and teachers.
“I would say it is undoubtedly unethical for teachers to use AI to provide their students with feedback,” Czarnecki said. “Especially if they are not being clear that the feedback is coming from AI, if they are sort of passing that feedback off as their own, I think that is deeply unethical. I think, too, that the main part of a teacher’s job is to provide human feedback to their students. I think that’s true in English classes and on writing assignments, but just for anything I think students want to hear from teachers and receive their specific feedback, and there’s nothing specific about AI-generated feedback.”
While there are concerns about AI’s impact on student skills, there are numerous positive and creative applications.
Physical education teacher Kristen Morcone utilizes AI to create different ways sports can be played while also mixing up the rules.
“We were in our flag football unit and I felt like the unit was getting a little stagnant and I wanted to change up the rules a little bit or see if I could change the way we were playing to make it more fun,” Morcone said. “And so I asked an AI service how to make flag football more fun and it gave me like five ways to change the rules and it was a hit. ChatGPT said to change up the quarterback every single play and it’s honestly something I never would have thought of myself.”
For students, AI can be an invaluable resource when used correctly and ethically. Senior Peyton Brown has used AI to help generate ideas and create outlines for writing assignments.
“If you’re taught to use it correctly, it can be very beneficial for both students and teachers,” Brown said.
Freshman Chloe Lacasse has also used AI but in a different way than Brown. She put the content from class in an AI generator to save time in making practice problems to have more time working on the problems and not their creation.
“I’ve used Chat GPT to help me create a study sheet for a math test,” Lacasse said. “It was super helpful and gave me some good practice problems. It also created an answer key so I could check my answers after.”
According to Bevan and many teachers, as AI continues to evolve, its role in education will undoubtedly expand. The key is finding the right balance of using AI while maintaining a commitment to developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.