Since the public debut of ChatGPT in November 2022, generative AI tools have been increasingly accessible to educators. Nearly three years later, it’s important to assess how this technology has been embraced by teachers and the challenges that persist.
Experts who participated in Education Week’s recent A Seat at the Table webinar series highlighted several obstacles preventing educators from fully leveraging AI. Chief among these are the lack of professional development opportunities and a general reluctance among teachers to embrace the technology.
Nevertheless, AI has proven to be a formidable ally for teachers, with increasingly sophisticated applications that support their work.
Educators are using AI tools to streamline time-intensive tasks, such as creating exams, developing presentation slides, and building grading rubrics in mere moments. AI can efficiently provide feedback on student assignments, draft individualized education programs for special education students, and assist with translation services.
Many educators are designing custom chatbots to mentor new teachers and coach students through job interviews. In an innovative approach, one district leader harnessed AI to develop a course introducing students to AI.
Moreover, teachers often utilize AI as both a personal assistant and a collaborative thought partner, engaging in dialogues with chatbots to determine content for newsletters and design lesson plans.
Enrique Noguera, the lead AI strategist and assistant dean at Passaic County Community College in New Jersey, shared his own successful experiences with AI during unexpected moments, like washing dishes at home. He described how he engages with ChatGPT to develop content and address specific lesson design challenges, collaborating rather than simply outsourcing the work.
Despite these advancements, many educators remain cautious about integrating artificial intelligence into their classrooms.
A survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center last summer revealed a divide among educators regarding AI’s future impact on teaching and learning. While 47% predicted negative consequences, 43% anticipated positive outcomes.
Insufficient Professional Development Stalls AI Adoption
A significant barrier to AI adoption in education is the lack of adequate support, including clear policies governing AI use for both staff and students, as well as professional development that effectively trains educators on available tools.
According to an October EdWeek Research Center survey, only 13% of respondents indicated that their district had well-communicated AI policies for both students and teachers. Additionally, 44% reported receiving no professional development related to AI integration in their roles.
While 29% noted having only one-time training, 19% received multiple sessions, and just 8% benefited from ongoing professional development.
Melissa Weatherwax, a learning coach and former K-12 teacher, emphasized the urgent need for greater professional development. She mentioned, “We find ourselves in a precarious situation where we’re using AI minimally but lack the profound understanding of its transformative potential in teaching and learning.”
If educators lack experience with AI, they won’t possess the knowledge necessary to establish guidelines or educate students about responsible AI use in their classes.
Even teachers who regularly integrate AI may struggle with teaching AI literacy or modeling effective usage. Weatherwax pointed out that many educators utilize AI tools tailored for K-12 settings and are not necessarily employing ChatGPT in their classrooms.
She expressed concern, saying, “We assign tasks to students and send them off, yet it becomes a chaotic environment where they can utilize any tools available to them beyond our supervision. How can we teach these essential skills when we lack access to OpenAI to demonstrate and let students experience it in our classrooms?”
As a result, many educators feel compelled to monitor students’ AI interactions using detection tools, which fails to capitalize on the opportunity to foster responsible technology engagement, as Weatherwax pointed out.
The Case for Tech Literacy Among That Skeptics
While a substantial number of educators harbor doubts regarding AI’s benefits in education, there is a consensus that this technology will inevitably reshape teaching practices.
A December 2024 survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that 90% of educators expect AI to alter the teaching profession to some extent. Among them, 42% anticipate significant shifts in the next five years.
AI presents both opportunities and risks, as its capabilities can lead to misuse, explained the webinar panelists.
Exemplifying this point, Noguera observed that both students and teachers might be inclined to delegate challenging cognitive tasks to AI. He cited Google’s NotebookLM, stating, “You can input a 1,200-page textbook into [the platform] and instruct it to condense this into a paragraph. While it performs the heavy lifting, it often prevents genuine engagement with the material, which can be problematic.”
Nonetheless, Noguera asserted that even skeptics of AI must learn to navigate its complexities. Understanding how to use AI responsibly is essential for all educators.
“AI is intuitively built to streamline processes and reduce workload. You can’t even begin to recognize this necessity unless you actively engage with the tools, and that’s simply a reality,” he said.
