We need to change the way we teach

Since ChatGPT was announced by OpenAI on November 30, 2022, education has fundamentally changed, just like many other aspects of our daily lives. When the company announced the multimodal language model GPT-4 just a few months later, the quality of AI tools became so good that they could be used in everyday life. Suddenly, we no longer had to click through dozens of links to find an answer on Google, especially after Google announced the so-called Search Generative Experience at Google I/O in May 2024, where an answer is generated at the top of the search results.

The first reaction of many schools was to ban AI tools such as ChatGPT from OpenAI, Claude from Anthropic, and Gemini (formerly Bard) from Google. Many schools blocked AI tools from their networks, and Italy even went so far as to ban ChatGPT entirely. These actions were mainly taken out of fear and panic, because suddenly any student could generate essays in seconds for free. However, these measures did not help much. A survey among American students showed that in April 2023, just a few months after the introduction of ChatGPT, 58% of students used the immensely popular AI product, of whom 38% did so without their teacher's permission. This shows that these measures are actually difficult to enforce, and students use it anyway. Because, let's be honest, AI is just incredibly useful.

I think that in education, there is still far too much focus on AI with this initial shock reaction, and far too little attention is given to how AI can actually be used positively to help students. This technology is going to fundamentally change the world, and it already has, but education, in my opinion, is still too much stuck in the "AI is scary" phase, or AI is even completely overlooked. In both scenarios, this does not benefit the student or the education they receive. The danger of ignoring AI is significant. If the use of AI is not openly discussed, it is likely that students will misuse the tools by submitting AI-generated essays, homework answers, and book reports.

Fortunately, awareness of AI is growing, and some teachers are even using it during lessons, but in my opinion, this should not remain with a few teachers per school; it should be used and, more importantly, understood by every teacher. That is why I support a mandatory, nationwide AI course for teachers in the Netherlands. This does not mean that every lesson must be generated by AI starting tomorrow, but that there is understanding of what the tools can do, what they cannot do, and how they can be applied.

In addition to awareness of AI, openness is also important. Talk openly with your students about how they use AI and what impact it has. Besides being used for school, tools like ChatGPT and Claude are unfortunately also often used as a companion, friend, and psychologist. This is a very worrying trend, and there are already many people, mainly teenagers, with an AI addiction. AI tools can provide more personalized answers than ever before, and the more you chat with them, the more personalized the answers can become, making them even more dangerous. This can lead to serious mental health issues, such as the 14-year-old Sewell Setzer, who committed suicide after an emotional interaction with the popular AI role-playing platform Character.AI.

I have mostly talked about the dangers and negative aspects of AI so far, but the technology also has an incredible number of positive sides. For example, ChatGPT with the "Study and Learn" function does not provide answers but guides the user to an answer. This can be extremely useful if a student does not understand something because the AI can tailor the answers on a micro-level to the student, optimizing the information density as much as possible. This also means that the teacher needs to multitask less, and students have to wait less for proper, solid explanations that match their exact level.

I envision a future in which learning methods do not follow a generic curriculum, nor three separate ones, but where every assignment is generated on a micro-level for the student, and teachers gain precise insight into what the student struggles with and what can be done about it. The AI would then be used as an assistant, not as an agent that does everything for a student. There would also be awareness of AI. Not everyone needs to use it equally intensely, but there must be understanding of what AI can and cannot do. Additionally, more AI-proof assignments will need to be devised. Writing essays and stories is no longer contemporary, but assignments such as oral defenses are much more important. It does not have to be perfect, but the focus is on every student doing what they are good at and putting in effort.