AI in education: How faculty are learning to use, teach the technology
EDINBORO — Artificial intelligence can help educators create and update lesson plans and complete other peripheral tasks so that they can focus more on teaching and research.
It can help students gather information needed to complete assignments, check their grammar and format their work in alignment with style guides.
It also can help students cheat.
Colleges and universities are scrambling to educate themselves about the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence and how to harness it to improve teaching and learning.
"It's the hottest topic right now in education," said Camille Dempsey, director of Pennsylvania Western University's new Center for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies and associate professor of education at PennWest's Edinboro campus.
The biggest challenge is that artificial intelligence is developing so fast that most educators can't keep up with it.
"It is one of the fastest-growing technologies I've seen my lifetime. The other two that were transformational were the mobile device and the internet. AI is moving way faster, and it's way more powerful," Dempsey said.
PennWest's Center for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies is being designed by faculty, staff and students at all three of the university's campuses to give faculty the tools, understanding and training to incorporate AI in teaching and to help students to become proficient, ethical users of AI, both in learning and in later careers.
Expected to be operational this spring, the center additionally will help governments, industry, nonprofits and other community partners leverage the time- and cost-saving opportunities of AI.
"School districts are contacting us because they want to know how to advise their teachers on using it and how they work with students so students are using it correctly," Dempsey said.
Educators' No. 1 concern with artificial intelligence is that students will use it to cheat, according to a November 2023 Microsoft report on AI in Education.
Forty-two percent of U.S. and international educators surveyed for the report indicated that they worry that artificial intelligence will increase student plagiarism and cheating, such as using AI to write reports and essays.
Students' No. 1 concern with AI is similar. Fifty-two percent of student surveyed indicated that their biggest worry is that they will be accused of plagiarism and cheating.
Cheating concerns generally arise when there is a lack of direction on how a student can use artificial intelligence, said Dempsey, who is a faculty research fellow in AI through the International Society of Technology in Education. She also is a fellow with the EDSAFE AI Alliance, a coalition of organizations focused on fostering the safe and equitable use of AI in education, according to the group's website.
"Students don't know what they don't know," Dempsey said. "Just like the rest of us, they are exploring it; they're trying to figure it out, too. That's why having professional development for teachers and universities and schools is really important because it's easy to fall into saying that something is plagiarism when the reality might be that the professor or teacher doesn't have an AI policy," or students aren't properly citing AI use.
The key to using AI in education and in other applications is to remain in the pilot's seat, Dempsey said.
"Don't give up your human brain. AI certainly can make our lives easier in many ways, but I would never rely on it 100%. I think of AI not only as a teaching assistant but also as a co-pilot. It's assistive; it's assisting what we do."
Admission apps: Saving students multiple applications and fees, 'widening the net' for colleges
Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Student cheating remains a concern as educators learn to embrace AI
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
33 minutes ago
- Forbes
How Microsoft Is Reimagining The Future Of Work Using AI
| Jun 10, 2025, 03:30PM EDT Microsoft's CMO of AI at Work, Jared Spataro, explains why AI is the single most important technology for businesses navigating today's volatile landscape.
CNET
38 minutes ago
- CNET
Create a PowerPoint With AI: How to Do It With Prezi AI
Have you ever spent hours perfecting a slide deck, only for it to be unused or be over the top? There's a way you can bypass working long hours and just whip something up in the theme you want, fast: use artificial intelligence. AI tools can be your best coworker in a bid to impress without burning out -- saving you hours of obsessing about presentations so you can focus on delivery, not design. While Copilot in Microsoft PowerPoint is one choice, I also found a dedicated AI presentation maker. What is Prezi? Prezi AI was the tool I chose after a Google search for what to use to make a presentation. I liked that it sounded Aussie (we shorten the names of everything), and the pricing is accessible. It has a free basic version and various tiers that range from $19 to $39 per month. I went with the mid-range, because the lowest tier didn't come with infographic capabilities. It's $29 per month with a 14-day free trial. Prezi AI promises to create "your best presentation in minutes." Let's see about that. Getting set up with Prezi AI I signed up to Prezi AI Premium and put a reminder in my phone about the free trial end date. I was prompted to enter information about the presentation, so Prezi AI could suggest content and design ideas. You can also upload a PDF, which can be helpful for the AI or skip this step for now and choose a template. Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET For the sake of this example, I pulled out some initial brainstorming work I did for a creative campaign that I wanted to present to an agency client. I used this text box to tell Prezi AI what I was looking to achieve. First Prompt: "I want to professionally and creatively present my initial thinking on a campaign for Zayed National Museum in the UAE. I want to combine my notes with the strategist's notes so I can present my idea by telling a story and taking them on a journey. I prefer a minimalist, elegant design. Do you need me to upload the document?" I quickly found out that it's not really an AI chat tool, because it generated a mock design without answering my question. Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET Instead, I saved all the notes into a PDF and re-created the prompt. Prezi AI only uses text content, so don't upload graphics or charts. Refining and finalizing your AI slide deck I liked how it created a "storyboard" presentation, but some of the imagery was off. For example, it had photos of Steve Jobs and the Bucket List movie with Morgan Freeman -- likely because it features a trip to Egypt, although still very off-brand for a UAE campaign. An image of Steve Jobs was an odd pick for the AI tool. Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET I also added these two sentences to the original prompt: "Only use imagery from this website: Incorporate all of the text from the PDF and don't add more to it." Again, it was way off brand, mostly because AI has a hard time understanding cultural sensitivities and nuances. It also even included an image from Pixar movie The Incredibles. Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET I didn't love the output, as it had a hard time following simple instructions like "only include the copy from the PDF," so I picked the one I preferred the most and edited it -- plugging in critical copy it missed and removing images. How long does it take to make an AI presentation? It took me about 30 minutes to make all the tweaks it needed, and while that wasn't ideal, it still would've taken me much longer to put together an initial deck like this. I would've agonized over the design. It's certainly not perfect, but it's better than wasting precious time trying to do it from scratch. Here's an example slide I didn't have to change: Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNET I also liked how the slides move from one to the next, not just swiping to the right but interactively moving like along a map -- you can check it out here. And the more you use AI programs, the more they learn about your style preferences, making the editing process easier each time. Just always make sure you check the words and images it produces. Other AI tools for PowerPoint presentations There are a lot of options out there, but here are some of the PowerPoint-compatible slide generators available. Most have a free tier, or a free trial:
New York Post
44 minutes ago
- New York Post
OpenAI's Sam Altman privately meets with NYC business moguls, touts AI's power to boost economy
OpenAI boss Sam Altman met with New York City business leaders at a closed-door event on Tuesday — and talked up artificial intelligence's potential to jumpstart the city's economy, The Post has learned. Altman, whose firm recently secured a $300 billion valuation, was interviewed by Hearst CEO Steven Swartz for about 45 minutes at the fireside-chat style event and laid out his view about how AI would rapidly progress over the next three years, sources told The Post. The high-profile guest list at the event, which was hosted by the Partnership for New York City, included billionaire KKR cofounder Henry Kravis, Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer, Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau and PFNYC boss Kathy Wylde, the sources said. Advertisement 3 OpenAI's Sam Altman touted AI's potential for the NYC economy. Getty Images When reached for comment, the Partnership for New York City confirmed that 100 of its members were in attendance to hear Altman. '[Altman] projects that New York will see enormous economic benefits from leading in AI, so long as the state continues to embrace the rapidly changing AI sector and does not seek to over-regulate it,' the organization said in a statement. 'He described the importance of educating students and the workforce on how to use AI tools to enhance their own performance and take advantage of the improvements in quality of life that AI can help them achieve,' the statement added. Advertisement OpenAI's chief economist Ronnie Chatterji was also on hand and gave a presentation on AI's potential to boost productivity in the workforce. OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment. Alongside Altman's speech, OpenAI also shared an economic report on its business ties to New York while touting the city's potential to 'become a global capital of the Intelligence Age, with artificial intelligence generating significant revenue, jobs and growth.' Advertisement 3 OpenAI Sam Altman warned against over-regulation of the AI sector. REUTERS 'Even in moderate forecasts, economists estimate that AI could raise productivity growth by a few percentage points,' said the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Post. 'If the US economy were to grow just 1 percentage point faster every year, compounded over a decade, we'd be nearly $3 trillion richer – more than the annual GDP of New York State,' the report added. OpenAI's report touted high levels of AI adoption in New York. The state ranks second in the country in terms of the number of developers currently building using OpenAI's AI framework, trailing only California, according to the report. Advertisement 3 Partnership for New York City CEO Kathy Wylde was in attendance. Bloomberg via Getty Images The company said it has more employees at its SoHo office than at any other physical location outside of its San Francisco headquarters and has 'room to triple in size' in NYC. New York City also ranks as OpenAI's top market in the world by active enterprise users of its technology, with Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Oscar Health among its customers. On a consumer level, New York ranks third in the country behind California and Texas for weekly active users of its ChatGPT chatbot.
