Schnelle Acevedo: Welcome to Smart with Screens. I'm Chanelle Acevedo. For 14 years, I have been building digital marketing campaigns for Disney, Netflix, Amazon as a full-time content creator My job was to get you to click, scroll and engage with the content. Now I teach families and schools across New York City ⁓ how these systems work, the algorithms, the tricks, the psychology behind the screens. I'm Chanel Acevedo and let's get smart with screens. my kid comes to me the other day and says, mom, everyone in my class is using chat GPT for their homework, like everyone. And I'm standing there thinking, okay, this is a conversation that we need to have because here's the thing. We've spent this whole season talking about all of the scary stuff. The algorithms that manipulate you, the deep fakes that fool you, the scams that target you. But AI isn't just a threat, it's a tool. It's a really powerful tool that your kids have access to right now. And the question isn't whether they're gonna use it because they already are. The question is, are they using it ethically? Are they learning? Or are they just cheating with better technology? Today we're talking about AI ethics. What's okay to use AI for, what crosses the line, how we teach our kids to navigate this gray area. because unlike the clear cut lessons from previous episodes, like don't scam links, don't trust deepfakes, this one is a lot messier. This one doesn't have any easy answers, but we're gonna figure it out together. Let's get into it. So let's just say it out loud. Kids are using chat GPT and other AI tools to help do their homework. They're using it to write essays, solve math problems, create presentations, generate ideas, and teachers know it. Parents know it. Everyone knows it. But no one really knows what to do about it. Some schools have banned AI completely. No chat GPT, no AI tools. If you get caught using it, you fail. Other schools are trying to integrate it, teach kids how to use AI as a learning tool rather than pretending it doesn't exist. And most schools are somewhere in the middle, confused and trying to figure out policies on the fly. But here's what makes this really complicated. When calculators first came out, there was this same panic. Kids won't learn math. They'll just punch numbers into a machine. But we figured it out. We said, okay. You can use calculators for complex calculations, but you still need to understand the underlying concepts. You still need to show your work. You still need to know why the answer is what it is. AI feels similar, but it's way more powerful. A calculator can add numbers. AI can write entire essays that sound like a human wrote them. It can analyze literature, generate creative ideas, and solve complex problems. So the question isn't just, can kids use this tool? It's if they use this tool, are they actually learning anything? And here's my take as both an educator and a parent. AI is not going away, friends. It's simply not going away. the genie has been let out of the bottle. By the time our kids enter the workforce, AI will be integrated into almost every single job. Knowing how to use it effectively and ethically will be required as a skill. So banning it completely feels like sticking our heads in the sand. But letting kids use it to just do all their work for them, that's not preparing them for anything either. We need a middle path. And that starts with understanding what's ethical use and what's not. All right, so let's get practical. Where is the line between using AI as a tool and using AI to cheat? I'm gonna give you some scenarios and we'll walk through them together. So scenario one, using AI to generate an entire essay. Your kid has a paper due. They type the prompt into chat GPT, write a five paragraph essay about the great Gatsby's theme. Chat GPT writes the essay and your kid submits it with their name on it. Is this ethical? ⁓ No, this is plagiarism with some extra steps. Your kid didn't write it. didn't think through the ideas. They didn't engage with the material. They just copied what a machine generated. This is no different than copying from Spark Notes, you remember that? Or buying an essay online. It's cheating. Scenario number two, using AI to brainstorm ideas. Your kid is stuck on their essay, they don't know how to start. They ask ChatGPT, what are some themes in The Great Gatsby? ChatGPT gives them a list. The American dream, class and wealth, love and obsession. And your kid picks one, thinks about it, and writes their own essay with that information. Is this ethical? And I would say absolutely, with some caveats. is similar to talking to a teacher or tutor, ⁓ looking at study guides or discussing with classmates. They're using AI get unstuck, but they're still doing the thinking and the writing themselves. The caveat to this is... They still need to acknowledge that they used AI to brainstorm if that is required by their teacher's policy. Scenario number three, using AI to edit and improve writing. Your kid writes their essay, then they paste it into chat GPT and they ask, can you make this better? Improve the grammar and make it sound more sophisticated? Chat GPT rewrites the sections, fixes errors and enhances vocabulary. Your kid submits the AI improved version. Is this ethical? And this is where it gets kind of gray. Is this different from having a parent read over your essay and suggest changes? Is it different from using Grammarly? I think it depends on how much the AI is changing. If it's fixing grammar and typos, that's like spell check, right? What we did in our Word documents. But if it's completely rewriting your sentences and ideas, then that's getting into cheating territory for sure. The question is, is this still your voice? Is this still your ideas? you should sound like? Scenario number four, using AI to understand concepts. Your kid is struggling with a math concept. They asked chat GPT. Can you explain how to solve quadratic equations? Can you give me examples? ChatGPT explains the concepts, showing examples, helping them to understand. Then your kid does their homework on their own, using what they Is this ethical? Absolutely yes. This is using AI as a tutor. They're learning, they're understanding, they're still doing their own work. This is one of the most powerful and positive uses of AI for students. So where's the line? Here's my framework. ⁓ Using AI is when... ⁓ You're using it to learn, understand, or get unstuck. You're still doing your own thinking and work. You could explain your process and defend your ideas. You're being transparent about how you used it if required. Now using AI crosses into cheating when you're using it to avoid learning, you're passing off AI's work as your own. You couldn't explain or defend your ideas. You couldn't explain or defend what you submitted. You're hiding that you used it. The key question to ask is, would I be able to do this assignment without AI if I had to? Did I learn something new from this process? And if the answer is no, then you're probably using it wrong. Here's what I think we're missing in this conversation. If we're going to let kids use AI and realistically, we cannot stop them from using AI, we need to teach them how to use it well. Because there is a skill to using AI effectively and most kids don't have that yet. They need to learn the following. How to use good prompts. The quality of what you get from AI depends entirely on what you ask for. Learning to communicate clearly with AI is actually a very valuable skill. search ⁓ engine effectively. Remember when we had to teach people how to Google things? ⁓ This is the same concept. how to evaluate AI output critically. AI gets things wrong a lot. It makes a fax out of nowhere. You've experienced it, I've experienced it. It absolutely has its biases. It gives very competent answers to things they don't even know. Kids need to know that you can't accept everything that AI is telling you. You have to verify it, you have to check sources. Think critically over whether or not it makes sense. And if you remember our episodes on deep fakes and scams. We talked about not trusting everything that you see or hear. The same applies to AI-generated text. They need to know how to use AI as a starting point and not an end point. AI should be at the beginning of your thinking, not the replacement for it. Use it to brainstorm, use it to understand concepts, use it to get feedback, but then do the actual work of thinking, analyzing, and creating yourself. They need to know how to maintain their own voice and ideas. This is the big one. When you use AI to help with your writing. you risk losing your own voice and your own unique way of thinking. Kids need to learn how to develop their own voice first. before they start using AI to polish it. Otherwise, they'll just sound like everyone else who's using the same AI tools. And honestly, I worry about a generation of kid who has never learned how to struggle through a difficult assignment, who never sat with a blank page and had to figure out what they wanted to say. Because that struggle, that's where learning happens. That's where you develop critical thinking skills. And that's where you develop creativity and that's where you develop problem solving skills as well. If AI removes all the struggle, What are we actually teaching them? All right, so what do parents actually do with all of this? One, they need to have the conversation. Don't assume that your kid knows the ethics of AI use. Talk about it explicitly. Ask them, are the kids in your class using AI for homework? What's your teacher's policy? And what do you think is okay and what's not? Create a space for honest conversation. Don't make it punitive, make it exploratory. And that has been at the base of my digital literacy classes, especially when it comes to parents and their children. Creating a space for honest conversation is key to making sure that your kid is okay on these internet streets. Know your school's policy. Different schools have different rules. Some ban it completely. Some allow it with disclosure. Some haven't even figured out their policy yet. Make sure your kids know what their school's rules are and make sure you know too. Focus on learning and not grades. This is hard, I know, I know. But we're all stressed out about our kids' grades and college applications and so much more. But ask yourself. Would I rather have my kid get an egg using AI and learn nothing or struggle through a B and actually develop some skills? Long-term, the skills matter way more than the grade. Model ethical AI use yourself. And I'm talking to me. If you use AI for work, talk to your kids about how you use it and where you draw ethical lines. And I've done that myself. I used AI to draft this email and then I rewrote it in my own words. I asked AI to help me brainstorm ideas for this project, but I'm doing the actual work myself. Show them what ethical use looks like in practice. Teach them to ask the key question. Whenever they're about to use AI for school, have them ask, am I using this to learn or am I using this to avoid learning? If it's the latter, then you know what you need to do. And here's what I keep thinking about. Throughout the season, we've talked about algorithms, deepfakes, scams, phone bans, individualized needs, affirmations, all of these different aspects of living in a digital world. And at the core of it all is this question, how do we use powerful technology responsibly? AI is just the latest and maybe most powerful version of that question. We've raised kids in a world where they have access to tools that can write essays for them, create realistic fake videos, manipulate their emotions, target them with scams, connect them with anyone in the world, answer almost any question instantly. And that's incredible, but also really scary. The only way forward is to teach them how to use these tools ethically. Not because there's a rule against it, not because they'll get in trouble, but because they'll understand why it matters, why learning matters, why truth matters, why doing your own thinking matters. Because here's what I believe. The kids who learn how to use AI as a tool, who maintain their own voice, who do their own critical thinking, who use their own creativity, those kids are gonna thrive. I can guarantee it. The kids who use AI for replacement thinking. who let it do everything for them? Those kids are gonna struggle. And it's our job as parents and educators to help them know the difference. Thanks for listening to Smart with Screens. If you are a parent wondering if your kid is using AI for homework, they probably are. Have the conversation, make it about learning, and definitely not punishment. If you're a student listening to this, you know the difference between using AI to learn and using AI to cheat. Choose wisely. You can find more resources at bamdigitalmedia.info. And if you want to bring digital literacy workshops to your school or your PCA or your senior center, reach out. I'm Chanel Acevedo and until next time, let's stay smart with screens and honest about how we're using them.