HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — ChatGPT launched to the public three years ago, in November 2022, sparking artificial intelligence’s rapid rise into mainstream work and culture around the world.
That fall was also when most current high school seniors started their high school journeys. In that time, AI has become both popular and problematic for students.
Denver7 spoke with several high school seniors and a teacher from an English class at Mountain Vista High School in Highlands Ranch about the evolution of AI in the classroom. The students in the class are concurrently enrolled at Arapahoe Community College, which sets the curriculum.
“When I started high school, AI wasn't really a thing yet,” said Mark Afonichev, one of the students in the class.
“It was hardly even like talked about, because it was just so mediocre,” added Natlie Faulkinbury.
“I think the teachers knew nothing about it, so kids were using it to just completely write their assignments and stuff,” Jordan Yerxa said.
Now, there’s no avoiding it.
“It helps a lot with, like, not spending a lot of time researching, going through so many different articles,” said Robert Lavacchi. “You can find an article that is like, for your topic, and then you can yourself, can go through the article and, like, make sure everything's good, without just trusting it.”
Avani Alderette said it helps her in math class.
“If I don't understand it, I’ll tell AI to go through the steps and show me how to do this,” she explained.
Yerxa estimates “at least 80%” of his 12th grade peers are using AI for school-related tasks.
“It's just, like, so accessible to everyone,” he said.
It also helps teachers like Shannon Vance, who teaches English, debate and public speaking.
She told Denver7 it helps her with generating questions, lesson plans or sample thesis statements.
“I could sit in there and work on it for an hour, or I could have it generated on a topic in 20 seconds,” she said. “So to me, yeah, like the kids are saying, it does save time, but I'm not also trying to learn how to write a thesis statement, where they are learning how to write.”
Denver7 reached out to the Douglas County School District to understand where they stand on the use of AI. Here's what they said:
“The district encourages the use of Google Classroom and Brisk, which are education-specific platforms that staff can use with curricula to help with lesson planning and test creation. The district is also supportive of staff using AI tools such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT for professional purposes, with discretion.”
Douglas County School District
“I don't think AI is entirely bad," Vance added. "And I feel like there is definitely opportunities that exist for where it can be incorporated well into education, but I believe that I'm seeing a lot of misuse of it in my classroom.”
Vance and other teachers use technology provided by the district, part of the school’s online learning management system for assignments, to flag parts of assignments believed to be AI-generated. Several students were flagged after a previous assignment earlier this semester.
“I don't like to have to punish the kids with taking off points on their on their work, but if they're not doing their own work, then I don't see any other way around that,” she said.
“More teachers are starting to get into it and test your work on AI content,” said Afonichev. “Makes a lot harder for people who want to cheat and do zero work.”
The students have mixed feelings about how accurate the software is at detecting AI, but it is something they now have to keep in mind. The process can also add more work for teachers like Vance.
“I have to constantly stop and check for AI and then verify it against what the student's saying,” she explained. “This last essay, I probably spent, I would say, close to 90 hours outside of my work hours, just tracking down, talking to students, emailing parents with this. So it's not fun… I would just rather them do their own work and learn.”
Students admit they see their peers often get over-reliant on AI.
“People can get A's on every single one of their like, busy work assignments, and they get a 55 on the test because they have no idea what they're doing,” said Lavacchi. “The AI just did everything for them. They have no learning there.”
Faulkinbury said it’s been “quite interesting seeing the scramble [of] people trying to do stuff without having to work, and teachers wanting the kids to learn.”
With the technology rapidly improving, that scramble has a long way to go.
“We as teachers need to know how to incorporate it better,” said Vance. “I think we need to have a lot of patience with it, but I think we also need to hold people accountable.”
“Some people are just like, ‘Oh, let me take the easy way out,’ and some people actually use it to help them,” said Alderette.
“It’s definitely not going anywhere,” said Yerxa. “It's only going to get harder to not use it.”
