As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools rises, the accountability placed on students to complete their school work without using AI is questioned. Buffalo High School has taken it upon themselves to have Bison Online students come into the school to take tests and assessments. Sidney Driver has an idea on why this is.
“I think a challenge is the use of AI or other devices helping out people do tests or assessments,” Driver said. “Then with people doing presentations, I’m not sure how well that can go if kids are just doing presentations at home or if they’re doing it online.”
AI has been one of the biggest challenges for schools to overcome all around the world. Some teachers at Buffalo High School worry that students are not learning in the classes that go toward their career.
As a result of AI doing a student’s school work for them, they may not survive in the real world and have the “real world” experience that they need to grow. This also goes for how students write, like grammar, punctuation, and their own voice. Not the voice of an AI bot.
“I think that it is important for students to struggle through assignments from time to time so that they can work through the learning process,” said Alexis Burgess ’28.
Teachers at Buffalo High School have made action to prevent the use of AI in school. English Teacher Ryan McCallum created a browser extension, called WriteCheck, which is dedicated to helping teachers see details about how students are creating documents. The extension is designed to help teachers see strengths in students’ writing, but it also flags suspicious behavior, including the use of AI or software that writes for students over time.
However, the use of AI in some classes could potentially help students learn more, like the foreign language classes. They could use AI language tools such as “Talkpal” and “Pratika” that allow you to speak with the AI. This could be potentially very helpful in these classes since students have the task to verbally speak for their assessments. Take Spanish, for example, where a student needs to move and talk a lot. This can be especially helpful for students because even though the language is learned, they may never have the courage to speak it in front of other people.
“Well, I know for some classes like English, if they find any trace of AI, they will give you an immediate zero,” Arianna Kwatera ’29 said. “And you’re not allowed to redo that test that you’re supposed to take that day.”
When Bison Online students come into school to take tests, they can come before school, after school, or during BASE. There haven’t been many students coming into school yet to do so.
“It would primarily be set up to do during the school day,” Cox said. “But we do have with our LLC staff scheduled time before and after school, as well as a variety of times that kids could take tests. They could take them during BASE.”
Accountability and the use of AI are hot topics when concerning Bison Online students this year. With the use of AI becoming increasingly common, teachers and administration are taking action to prevent cheating and do what they can to set students up for success in the real world. Many actions have been put in place to prevent it, but ultimately it comes down to the student to have accountability with their own learning and future.
