As more RCHS students turn to AI for studying, brainstorming, and assignments, the question is whether this technology truly improves learning or actually hurts it.
Artificial intelligence has rapidly become a part of high school life. While some students use it as a helpful tool to clarify concepts or study for tests, others believe they should not use it at all.
The Ultimate ‘‘Study Buddy’’
For many students at RCHS, AI works as a personal tutor. One student, Jay Kamdar, a freshman at RCHS, shared that he mainly uses the technology to prepare for quizzes and tests. Instead of just flipping through textbooks for hours and memorizing everything word for word, he asks AI to generate custom practice questions, explain topics, give detailed summaries, and take interactive practice quizzes.
According to him, “the real power of AI is to help practice and study.” When he is confused by a lesson, he can ask continuous follow-up questions until he is completely ready and completely understands the lesson.
“There is a big difference between using AI to learn and using it to cheat,” he explained. He believes using AI to build study tools forces you to think, while using AI to write your essay or complete your assignments forces you to cheat your own learning process.
The Ultimate Solo Grind
On the other hand, there are also many students who do not use artificial intelligence at all. Aashvi Sheliya, a senior at RCHS, shared that she has never used AI and that she believes that AI is unreliable and not very helpful.
She says, “Although AI can generate practice quizzes and help clear concepts, that information cannot be reliable. AI scans a lot of random websites, with some being reliable, but some are completely unreliable. Also, the information it searches across the web does not necessarily match the concepts that your teacher is teaching you.”
When asked, “If you do not use AI to generate quizzes, what do you use to study that works as, if not more, effectively?” She said, “Some things that I personally do if I am studying for a quiz in which the information is in a textbook is that I reread the chapters and then I write down all of the key points, and then I memorize it and then quiz myself and repeat that process until I have memorized everything. Another way I study is by finding all of the key points and then making a Quizlet on it, so that I can memorize all of the material”.
The Professional Opinion
While students have different opinions on AI, RCHS math teacher Mr. Felder has his own perspective on how it should be used for studying. According to him, whether AI helps or hurts students depends on how they use it.
He compared AI to the answer key in a math textbook, explaining that “if you just don’t bother doing the problems, and just copy the answers from the back of the book into your homework, then it’s pretty clear that your learning will suffer.” However, if students do the work first and use the answers to understand their mistakes, “then it’s going to help a lot.”
Mr. Felder also believes AI can be useful for practicing and understanding difficult concepts. However, he warns that “sometimes AI is just plain wrong. Sometimes horrendously or comically wrong.”
He recommends that students ask AI to provide sources and then check those sources themselves. Ultimately, he says, “Whatever tools you use, just make sure you keep your focus on learning and understanding, rather than simply finding the answers a teacher wants to hear.”
