AI in Education. A Gift or a Curse?

With the rising use of chatbots, like Chat GPT, gaining mainstream popularity in recent years, there has been increasing skepticism by many educators across the country when considering how, or if, to implement artificial intelligence tools in schools. Perhaps one of the most notable instances of this institutional resistance came in January 2023 when the country’s largest school district, New York City Public Schools, banned students from using ChatGPT, only to walk back their decision in May of the same year. Instead of attempting to stop the wave that is A.I., New York City Public Schools decided to redirect their efforts towards a more innovative approach to integrating AI district wide. While NYCPS is just one example of how it looks for new technological waves to crash into old systemic shores, this is no new phenomenon. The truth is, innovation takes courage and commitment to scale. Many high school students matriculating during the 1990s and 2000s experienced the slow pace of change, when the world wide web started to seep its way into schools. According to the U.S. Department of Education, while the percentage of public school instructional rooms with internet access grew from 3 percent in 1994 to 93...