If you’re a teacher, beware of students submitting papers written with AI. It’s becoming increasingly easy for students to use AI to generate essays and other written assignments, and chances are good that at least some of your students are already doing it.
There are a few things to look out for that can tip you off that a paper may have been written by AI. First, check for any obvious errors or typos. AI-generated text often contains errors that a human writer would never make. Second, see if the essay seems to lack a personal touch. AI-generated essays can often be sterile and impersonal, so if an essay seems oddly impersonal, it may be a sign that it was written by a machine.
Of course, there’s no surefire way to tell if a paper was written by AI, but if you’re suspicious, you can always ask the student to explain how they wrote the paper. In any case, it’s important to be aware of the possibility that AI-generated papers are making their way into your classroom.
Not convinced? The text above the line was completely written with AI. Using a tool that shall remain nameless for obvious reasons, I simply entered the text “write a blog post warning teachers about students submitting papers written with ai” and voila: a great blog post that demonstrates the new world we’re entering. It’s literally that easy. Students can simply cut and paste a prompt or a question into the site and generate a coherent response. And if they don’t like it, they can refresh and it will produce a new set of text. All of this is based on an algorithm that predicts what the next word would be until it reaches a stopping point. Interestingly, the AI essentially told on itself, and you can see the evidence of its being written with AI within the text itself.
AI will certainly be changing the game for writers and teachers reading their writing. And all bets are off. Although this may be helpful with certain SCECH evaluations…
Bob Harrison
Instructional Technology Coach
Bob Harrison is the secondary Instructional Technology Coach for the Dearborn Public Schools. He has over 23 years of experience teaching science in high school and middle school, and has supported teachers, administrators, and students as the Tech Coach since 2015.
Bob is a member of ISTE and a participant in multiple online professional learning networks of instructional technology specialists. He tweets regularly from @bharrisonEDU, and co-hosts the podcast ArchiTECHs of Learning, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.
Contact Bob at harrisr@dearbornschools.org.