EllieCusick

With the words “academic integrity” engraved in the minds of every girl’s brain, it is clear cheating is in no way tolerated at Marian. Marian is not unique in its emphasis on maintaining academic integrity, but the fear of plagiarism within every teacher around the globe is only growing. New artificial intelligence websites and apps may pose a threat to all English and writing classes. By simply typing in a prompt, within seconds these resources produce essays that aren’t detected for plagiarism on websites such as Turnitin.com. But the question is, how big of a threat are these new AI writing tools to Marian? 

Although AI writing resources certainly introduce a new level of cheating to students, Marian girls are already learning that they can do better than a computer. English teacher Mrs. Alee Cotton heard of these AI resources and decided to take a unique approach to dismantling the threat they pose to maintaining academic integrity in her classroom. With her students, Cotton experimented with ChatGPT and evaluated essays the website produced. “The paper doesn’t go anywhere, it’s very surface level, and they [students] can see that, which then builds confidence in where their writing is,” Cotton said. 

Cotton is not impressed, and she’s not the only one. After Cotton showed her class the essays ChatGPT produced, senior Reese Mueller decided she would never consider giving the website a chance. “Marian girls have a much stronger voice, more personality and better word choices,” Mueller said. She quickly identified several MLA and formatting mistakes within the essay. 

“There’s just not as much heart to it,” she said. While everyone sees a threat to academic integrity, Mueller merely saw a resource that provides repetitive, unnatural and overall unimpressive essays. 

Although AI resources are spreading nightmares throughout schools around the world, Marian girls remain confident in their own abilities. 

“We want you to develop a written voice that you feel confident in; AI cannot compete with your unique thoughts,” Cotton said. With students like Mueller recognizing the several faults within AI resources, Cotton’s hopes for Marian girls remain achievable

Using a software called Ryter, we asked AI to write the same cautionary article about AI,  academic integrity and English teacher Mrs. Alee Cotton’s Class. Here is what it generated: 

(unedited)

 

"As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow in the field of academics, teachers must assess the potential risks. Most notably, plagiarism presents a huge concern for educational institutions. Mrs. Cotton cautions students against using on-line AI writing programs to produce their own essays as these tools can potentially be used to generate content that is not their own.

It ‘s essential for all educational institutions to ensure that proper academic integrity is maintained by using strict measures to discourage cheating and plagiarism while maintaining a supportive learning environment. 

Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly popular in the educational realm, particularly for writing tasks. 

With AI-powered tools designed to help students compose great essays and articles, many students are turning to AI for assistance with their writing projects. However, since AI cannot judge the integrity of a student’s work and could potentially lead to plagiarism problems, teachers must caution their students against using these programs. 

With that in mind, Mrs. Cotton has made it a priority to discuss academic integrity with her classes and advise them against using AI-based writing programs as it could greatly undermine the academic standing of both the writer and their paper itself."