MHS teacher Christopher Shuckhart, at center, answered questions from Marshall School Board members about the use of AI programs in schools, during a work session on Monday.

MARSHALL — Artificial Intelligence programs have potential as classroom tools – but they also make it easier for students to cheat on writing assignments, Marshall Public Schools staff said Monday.

Marshall High School teacher Christopher Shuckhart said he’s seen a growing number of students turn in AI-generated assignments.

“It’s really ballooned,” Shuckhart told Marshall school board members. “I’ve probably caught five in the last week.”

Teaching students to use AI tools ethically will likely be “the big hurdle” facing teachers, Shuckhart and MPS district technology staff said. Staff and school board members talked about AI use during a work session Monday afternoon.

“There are different benefits to using AI,” said MPS director of technology Todd Pickthorn. “But there are also potential risks.” While AI tools could help provide frameworks for things like quiz questions and assignments, they can’t be trusted to provide accurate information. There’s also a potential for programs to collect student data without permission, Pickthorn said.

MPS Superintendent Jeremy Williams said district staff have done a lot of work and discussion on AI training and best practices.

“I think our conversation is, how do we embrace it, how do we use it so it will be helpful for students?” Williams said.

Pickthorn presented a list of best practices on AI use for teachers and students at MPS. Checking AI-produced work for biased or inaccurate content was at the top of the list. Pickthorn said it’s recommended for students and teachers to use an “80-20” approach for AI, meaning that AI can be used for your initial work, but you need to make sure you are checking your work and adding your own perspective to the final 20% of the project.

Shuckhart said for him, using judgment was important both in using AI tools, and checking whether students were abusing them.

“The difficulty with student work is, you can’t prove that it’s AI-generated,” Shuckhart said. Even entering student assignments into programs designed to identify AI-generated writing isn’t always accurate. “What it’s come down to with me as a language arts teacher is, student voice and trust,” he said. Shuckhart ends up checking to see if a writing assignment sounds like the student who turned it in.

In addition to recommending that AI only be used as a starting point, Pickthorn said it was also important to make sure that identifying personal information like names or addresses are not submitted into an AI program.

Pickthorn said MPS worked to help train teachers on AI tools as part of the district’s response to the new technology. About 40 teachers got instruction at an August workshop, he said.