Students in Sammamish push boundaries of appropriate AI use
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, from powering chatbots to assisting in healthcare to simplifying online marketing.
One sector being transformed by AI is education. Today, the use of AI by Sammamish students ranges from a helpful study tool to concerns about taking detrimental shortcuts in learning.
Without defined policies in place, students and educators have different views on the balance between responsible use and over-dependence on AI in the classroom.
Eilene Klaka, a computer science teacher at Eastlake High School, is cautious about AI’s role in learning. She said that AI can be a helpful tool but warned against over-reliance.
“It should help guide you, but it shouldn’t be doing everything for you,” Klaka said.
According to Klaka, AI is a useful educational tool if used responsibly. Comparing it to calculators, she explained that while students can rely on technology for efficiency, they still need to understand the underlying concepts to fully utilize the technology properly.
“As long as students are using [AI] in the right way, then I think it’s actually helpful,” Klaka said. “Where it becomes a handicap is when they rely on it too much and don’t actually put in the work anymore … and that’s handicapping them because they’re not actually being taught the skills that they need to succeed later.”
Klaka’s perspective seems to be playing out at local schools. Some students are indeed using AI as a helpful tool to accelerate or reinforce their own learning.
Tanush Bhatia, a junior at Skyline High School, uses AI to create new practice problems.
“For chemistry, I ask it for example problems, practice problems and things like that [to] review,” Bhatia said.
In another use case, Om Vyas, a sophomore at Eastlake High School, has utilized AI daily to find and learn about internships faster.
“[ChatGPT] leads me to lots of links and lots of opportunities,” Vyas said. “It gives a very good debrief of what each website contains.”
However, some practices may veer close to what could be considered over-reliance.
Krishna Arun, a sophomore at Eastlake, has started using AI after class to answer questions when his teacher is not available.
Arun said he preferred the 24-hour availability of an AI tutor.
“When I’m not in class, if I have to choose between emailing the teacher and [them] responding the next day at 7:00 am or getting an instant response, I’ll use the instant,” Arun said.
Other students are using AI to simply do the work for them, thus depriving them of a chance to engage in the process of learning.
“I write all my essays with [GPT] o1 or o3 mini, both of which are undetectable by AI detectors,” said a junior at Eastlake who requested anonymity. “I take robust measures to ensure my safety online and my record at school.”
At an institutional level, there is little formal guidance on AI use in classrooms. While the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has issued recommendations, Lake Washington School District does not mention explicit policies regarding AI in its student handbook.
Jennifer Rubin, Senior Researcher at foundry10, an education research organization, pointed out that one of the biggest challenges in promoting responsible AI use is the lack of enforced rules.
“There hasn’t been set policies across school districts, schools, and even classrooms. And I think that leaves a lot of confusion for students to understand the role of AI at school and in their personal life,” Rubin said.
