Teaching Artificial Intelligence the Episcopal Way

Episcopal’s graduates’ achievements over time may be based in part on how well they work with technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI). To that end, Episcopal division heads and the Student Life office spent much time this spring and summer delving into the world of AI, how it works and what it does well, what it does not do well, and what it means for ESJ students as learners and even as humans. With questions from parents, faculty, and students around the use of AI for academic purposes, the school has developed a policy that is now available in the Student-Parent Handbook, as well as an outline for how faculty should approach AI in the classroom for grades six through 12.

The new handbook policy reads: “Our approach and philosophy regarding this type of content is authentic to the future our students will live and work in, but more importantly is rooted in our mission and our learner-centered approach to education. Episcopal will teach students to utilize machine intelligence ethically and efficiently, ensuring that our programs and pedagogy continue to emphasize the irreplaceable value of that which makes us human.”

“The most important word in our policy is ‘human,’” said Natalie Herford, Head of Upper School. “We are and our students are, first and foremost, human beings. No machine can take the place of our creativity, our joy for learning, our Harkness discussions, our imagination. But we can use AI for learning with parameters placed around it.”

Ultimately, the use of AI in an academic environment comes down to what is permitted by the faculty member in a certain instance, and how that permission is understood by the student. Therefore, the importance of clear and precise direction is imperative. The school defines unauthorized aid as using any non-approved resource without the knowledge or consent of the instructor, including but not limited to the internet; artificial intelligence for any subject; generative text; websites that change the tone or content of writing, using applications that provide instant results; and parent, tutor, or peer support; among other resources that have not been expressly permitted by the teacher in the text of the assignment. 

The Importance of Authenticity

Development of a hard line on what constitutes an authentic work by a student was part of the interdepartmental discussions this summer. Questions were developed that covered all the bases for how a faculty member should give direction. Students are now instructed to answer the following questions to ensure they have created authentic work and have met the expectations of the teacher and the Honor System.

• Is your work authentic? Was it created by you only and your own creativity? Did you follow the guidelines for the assignment as determined by your teacher?
• Did you use the application to check your solution or to understand the concept (ex. math or science)?
• Did you cite all of your used and unused sources?
• Have you documented all collaborative sources on the assignment? (ex. tutor, parent, peer, online source) 
• Did you have an unfair advantage over your peers?

Process Over Product

 In the past, much of grading has depended on the final product a student submits. With the development of AI, the process the student goes through to create that final product now becomes exponentially more weighty for the grade because the learning is now shown differently. Learning now has become the process, instead of learning being the final product. With AI, it is easy to turn in a polished product and learn nothing in the process. This is what ESJ is determined to protect against in a few different ways.

First, there will be required use of Google Docs (to check long blocks of copied text in the editing history), student ChatGP history checks, and existing detection tools. Finally, Episcopal is at an advantage because of the student-teacher relationships that are what make ESJ such a special community.

“We know our students,” says Natalie Herford, “so we know when all of a sudden an assignment is submitted that doesn’t seem to jive with a students’ normal work product.”

Positives of AI

There are positives to AI. Figuring out how to use them is a third piece of the puzzle division heads have been working on. Faculty who are early adopters of the technology have found AI is useful for problem set generation, brainstorming idea generation, and using AI as a tutor in certain circumstances. Faculty also use the misinformation AI produces as a learning tool as well – students are asked to correct, edit, and rework what AI spits out. This increases the emphasis on process, keeping the lesson learner-centered. 

“There is so much still to come with AI, both positive and challenging,” said Natalie Herford. “We will continue to tackle AI the ‘Episcopal way,’ ensuring our students are learning from it, that our grading system is reflective of the learning process, and that we use it as a tool instead of a crutch. The more comfortable our students are with many facets of AI, the better prepared they will be for their next steps after ESJ.”