With generative AI technology at their fingertips, teachers in the know could see more time off, as the technology helps them prepare tests, write lesson plans and even grade papers.
However, there’s a trade-off, according to a new report: teachers believe it can give their students a leg up, too.
According to digital curriculum provider Imagine Learning’s The 2024 Educator AI Report: Perceptions, Practices, and Potential, some 55% of the American educators surveyed suggested AI will have a positive impact on their classroom.
Sixty-eight percent of the U.S. teachers polled said they’d use AI to organize student data, while nearly the same percentage, 67%, think it will be helpful in creating instructional material.
Sixty-five percent think AI can help them with grading — in fact, 38% are already using it for such. AI use in the classroom has jumped 18% since the fall of 2023, the company says.
That said, 84% are worried that their students will use AI to cheat — up from 72% in 2023 — and 74% say their students’ writing abilities will suffer when they can just prompt an AI system with “Write me a book report about Catcher in the Rye.”
So just as your teacher once telling you that you have to learn math because “you won’t always have a calculator” — hello, smartphones — maybe this next generation of teachers will have to say, “You need to learn to write a letter because your AI won’t always be there.”
Then again, AI is also just an app away.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.