The Ethics of Generative AI in the Classroom

This mini-lesson is designed to be adaptable. You can use the activities in sequence or choose a selection best suited to your classroom. It includes:

• 3 activities
• Student-facing slides

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to “computer systems that can absorb information, process it, and respond in ways similar to humans,” according to the Foreign Policy Association. ¹ The tasks AI can be trained to complete range widely, including recommending a new TV series to you based on your viewing history, driving a car, or evaluating a medical x-ray to determine whether your bone is broken. 

Generative AI is a subset of AI that can learn to create entirely new images, audio, or text using vast amounts of training data. Examples of generative AI programs that have been in the news include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which creates text in response to questions and prompts, and DALL-E, which creates new images that correspond to a text-based prompt.

While AI-generated content may resemble art or speech created by humans, AI programs are not conscious and do not learn in the same ways humans do. These programs actually work like a sophisticated version of the auto-complete program you might have built into your text or email. They learn patterns from their training data and use that to create plausible responses to prompts. The more data they are trained on, the better they are at creating content that mimics human-generated content.

Generative AI has been used to create overviews on topics, essays, and artwork, but the information it generates is not always correct. Generative AI’s capabilities to complete some school assignments have raised questions around how schools should regulate the use of these programs and how curriculum might need to change to reflect this new reality.

• 1Sandy Ong, Great Decisions High School: Artificial Intelligence (Foreign Policy Association, March 2021), 2.

Begin by asking your students to read the text below. This text can also be found in the student-facing Slides and the “Additional Context & Background” section of this mini-lesson.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to “computer systems that can absorb information, process it, and respond in ways similar to humans,” according to the Foreign Policy Association. ¹ The tasks AI can be trained to complete range widely, including recommending a new TV series to you based on your viewing history, driving a car, or evaluating a medical x-ray to determine whether your bone is broken. 

Generative AI is a subset of AI that can learn to create entirely new images, audio, or text using vast amounts of training data. Examples of generative AI programs that have been in the news include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which creates text in response to questions and prompts, and DALL-E, which creates new images that correspond to a text-based prompt.

While AI-generated content may resemble art or speech created by humans, AI programs are not conscious and do not learn in the same ways humans do. These programs actually work like a sophisticated version of the auto-complete program you might have built into your text or email. They learn patterns from their training data and use that to create plausible responses to prompts. The more data they are trained on, the better they are at creating content that mimics human-generated content.

Generative AI has been used to create overviews on topics, essays, and artwork, but the information it generates is not always correct. Generative AI’s capabilities to complete some school assignments have raised questions around how schools should regulate the use of these programs and how curriculum might need to change to reflect this new reality.

Once students have finished reading, watch a clip from Forbes video Generative AI Is About To Reset Everything, And, Yes It Will Change Your Life (0:00-1:07)

Then, ask your students to respond to the following question using the Think, Pair, Share strategy:

What impact do you think generative AI might have on schools and the way people learn?

• 1Sandy Ong, Great Decisions High School: Artificial Intelligence (Foreign Policy Association, March 2021), 2.

Place students in small groups and ask them to read through three approaches that schools might take related to generative AI. After students read each approach, they should discuss the reflection questions that follow. The approaches and prompts can also be found in the Slides for this mini-lesson.

Approach 1: Students should be banned from using generative AI. Teachers could use the following strategies to enforce this policy:

• Use AI detection programs and penalize students who use generative AI to complete assignments. 
• Create assignments that generative-AI programs can’t complete, for example, by asking students to include personal connections in their writing or artwork. 
• Ask students to complete all writing or creative assignments under supervision during class time.

Reflect:

• What are the potential benefits of this approach?
• What are the potential downsides?

Approach 2:  Students should be allowed to use generative AI for specific purposes, but not to complete entire assignments. Teachers should specify acceptable uses (for example, writing an email or brainstorming ideas for an assignment), as well as unacceptable uses (for example, using text generated by an AI program in an essay). Teachers could use strategies listed in the first approach for preventing students from using generative AI when it is not allowed.

Reflect:

• What are the potential benefits of this approach?
• What are the potential downsides?

Approach 3: Students should be allowed to use generative AI as they choose, as long as they disclose when they use it and take responsibility for the content it creates, including verifying all information.

Reflect:

• What are the potential benefits of this approach?
• What are the potential downsides?

When students have finished discussing each approach in their small groups, ask for volunteers to share some of their responses to each approach with the full class.

Explain to your students that you will co-create a sample class contract (a series of norms) that could guide the use of generative AI in a school that allows some use of generative AI. Given how rapidly school and district policies are changing on the use of generative AI, it may be more helpful to frame creating this contract as a learning exercise rather than the selection of binding norms for your classroom. If you have a class contract or policies related to plagiarism or cheating, you may wish to reshare these documents with your students to help them generate ideas for their sample generative AI contract.

Then, ask your students to work together in small groups to brainstorm a list of norms that follow your existing policies and guide when and how students can use generative AI. You may wish to share a selection of the following questions with your students to help guide their thinking:

• How could we extend our existing class norms or policies to the use of generative AI?
• When could using generative AI disrupt the trust between teachers and students?
• When could generative AI be a useful tool for learning?
• When could it undermine learning a skill or concept?
• When and how should students acknowledge their use of generative AI in their work?

Then, ask one person from each group to share their ideas for norms with the class. As students share, write down the themes you hear. Discuss and agree on a final selection of sample norms as a class.