This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s senior fall editorial intern Arianna Nahim. Find her on Instagram at @ariannanahim. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
As an individual living in 2024, I am no stranger to society’s technological advancements. Specifically, as a student studying in 2024, I am no stranger to how these advancements have made it significantly more accessible for students. Worldwide, students acquire technological assistance for assignments like tests, papers, quizzes, and more. Some may argue that in today’s world, it is easier than ever to be an honors student. Honestly, I go back and forth on whether this argument holds up. On the one hand, you have students studying levels of math at earlier stages, and on the other, you have those same students failing out of classes for plagiarism. I mean, it’s got to the point where things like syllabuses, internship forms, and academic competitions have to specify that usage of AI is prohibited. Specifically what has popularized this issue is Chat-GPT, a large language that seems to have the answer rapidly everywhere for everything, and can also complete just about any task.
Does More Technology Always Equate To Being Bad?
When the calculator was invented, I’m sure some people were concerned. If we hand students a machine that completes all arithmetic tasks, how will they learn? Will their intelligence dwindle? But here’s how that advancement did not equate to a loss in skill in students everywhere.
When we enter grade school, this magical device isn’t just handed to us; we are sent on our way. First, we must learn how to correctly complete the necessary steps to understand what to input into a calculator. This is precisely the mindset students need to adopt when they turn to Chat-GPT for academic assistance. It should be a place where students can seek out extra help, not a magic robot that will do all the work when they don’t want to. As someone who has used Chat-GPT, I have found that there is actually so much it can do, rather than just spitting out a vague essay that also often lacks substance.
Is It Possible To Use AI Ethically?
Now, the ethical use of AI is tricky. I mean, just using ChatGPT daily equates to the daily households’ energy consumption of 30,000 households, an abysmal carbon footprint in an already delicate environmental state. However, no one is going to stop using this technology anytime soon or anything that is environmentally devastating. But I digress. Here are the ways today’s students should use Chat-GPT to take advantage of today’s advancements and maintain academic integrity.
The First Use: Study Guides
For many people studying at university, the learning curve involves adjusting to an educational routine that offers less academic support than high school. In high school, many of us were used to hand-holding throughout our studies. High school teachers hold tutoring themselves frequent study sessions, but most importantly, study guides. They are really a student’s best friend before a test. This sadly becomes an infrequent luxury in college. But there is a solution. With your notes, you can input them into Chat-GPT and request a study guide be made. You can completely customize the study guide as well. Whether you want to adjust the difficulty level or format of questions, it can do that. You can also request an answer key at the end of the questions given to you. If you want to take it a step further, input your readings and request exam-like questions for that, too! This has made me feel infinitely better going into exams and made me personally feel more prepared.
The Second Use: Grading
For me, my most immense anxiety being in classes is not knowing what grade I’m going to get after turning something in, like a paper or project. Luckily, though, almost every professor nowadays provides students with an accessible assignment rubric. So, after you’ve finished your paper or project, you can input it right into Chat-GPT along with the rubric. After you have your materials ready, request that it be graded according to the rubric. But before you submit your request, be sure you’ve specified notes on strengths and room for improvement. Also, be sure that you specify that it does not simply make the corrections for you but instead just points them out; that way, your work remains original. In a similar way, some students use external academic support platforms like do my project to better understand complex assignments and improve their structure, while still ensuring their final work reflects their own ideas and meets academic integrity standards.
The Third Use: Study And/Or Daily Schedule
To me, university life is hectic and exhausting. Our lives were so scheduled and built in high school that we may have had trouble remaking that same structure. I know that especially for my Computer Science friends or even myself (a certified grade-A procrastinator), we often wonder how we are expected to fit in academics, a social life, hobbies, and a job. Many of my own friends pull frequent all-nighters just to keep up with the demanding expectations of university. So, this is an excellent tip for those of us who sometimes wish we could go back to when our parents told us when it was time to do homework and when it was time to go to bed. Simply request a daily schedule from Chat-GPT. You can make your customization as well. You can have your schedule consider commitments like scheduling classes or meetings and necessary things like meals, preferred wake-up time, and bedtimes. You could even be so detailed as to request a certain number of hours of sleep in your daily schedule. The best part is that you can also have it create built-in study and academic work time. This is a great way to keep procrastination at bay.
Ideally, this AI thing is an issue we don’t want to deal with. However, it’s here, not going away, and it’s time to deal with it. I believe it has been proven repeatedly that resisting change only makes that change more difficult. Instead of villainizing and putting AI on the pedestal of being forbidden, we should encourage more positive usage, such as the ones listed above. When we do this, we take away that AI stigma and teach students how to work well with advanced technology rather than abuse it to the point of having a just plain incredible tool ostracized.
What is your experience with AI as a student? Do these seem like good ideas? Let us know.
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