AI in Nebraska education: Parents, teachers and students grapple with artificial intelligence in schools

Nebraska Public Media News is taking a look at how artificial intelligence is impacting classrooms across Nebraska, from kindergarten through higher education. This is the first story in a series that will explore several areas of AI in education, including school policies on AI, how educational institutions are implementing the technology and the safety concerns around it. Some interviews for this reporting were found in Nebraska Public Media News’ recent AI in Education survey.

Megan Wissing’s daughter, who is heading into first grade, has trouble saying the letter “L.” When she and her mom sing the song “Baby Beluga” together, she’ll say “Bewuga” instead.

This was one example why Wissing didn’t want her daughter graded by an artificial intelligence tool. She said she found out Omaha Public Schools, where her daughter is enrolled, uses a fluency-grading AI tool called Amira. Wissing amended her daughter's individualized education plan to ensure she’s graded by a teacher.

“A computer doesn't have a brain. It doesn't have eyes. It can't see that she's putting her tongue in the wrong spot to make a certain sound,” Wissing said. “But a teacher can.”

A spokesperson with Omaha Public Schools said Amira is not used for any grading and does not replace teacher-led group instructions. The spokesperson said it’s an additional tool for independent reading practice with targeted feedback.

The use of artificial intelligence is growing in classrooms, with national data showing more teachers and students are using it. According to a Center for Democracy & Technology survey, 83% of teachers reported using ChatGPT or another generative AI tool in the 2023-24 school year. That’s up from 51% the year before. Results from a Pew Research Center survey showed more than half of teenagers say they used an AI chatbot to find information or get help with schoolwork.

Data also shows that the younger age groups tend to know and utilize artificial intelligence more. In Nebraska, about 47% of adults have heard or read about artificial intelligence. While 64% of those ages 19-44 have heard a lot about AI, those numbers dwindle in older populations. Roughly 43% of those ages 45-64 have heard about it, while only 20% of those 65 and older have.

Wissing, who also teaches sixth grade in a different district, said she believes AI can be a useful tool, but it shouldn’t be doing the work for the student. She noticed when students were using Grammarly, an AI editing software, they weren’t learning how to properly write.

“I have sixth graders that don't capitalize the beginning of their sentences,” Wissing said. “I have sixth graders that don't know to capitalize the letter ‘i’ when it stands alone. The computer has been doing that thinking for them for so long that they're not doing it themselves.”

That’s a common perspective among teachers. Kimberly Ramirez, a high school teacher with two kids of her own, said she explains to her 14-year-old how she can tell when students are using AI rather than learning the skill on their own.

“I've talked to my oldest about using it appropriately, how you still have to check your work. You still have to make sure that they're your ideas,” Ramirez said. “I've also talked to them about AI chatbots and how those can be pretty dangerous too, especially if you get into foreign territory in the conversation.”

According to national data, almost 80% of parents say they are OK with their teenager using a chatbot to search for information, but only 18% say they are all right with their child getting emotional support or advice from a chatbot.

Ramirez said she hasn’t seen her children using AI that much in school, but she does see her students use it for Powerpoint presentations and essays. She said she’s interested in how AI may help her tap into her creative side as she aims to make her class materials look nice.

“In an ideal world in my mind, teachers would be implementing it more but have obviously more education on how to use it, more workshops and whatnot,“ Ramirez said.

She added that she wouldn’t want teachers to feel like they have to use AI, but rather know it’s there and have the proper training for it if they decide to use it.

Ethics, inaccuracies raise questions

Jordan Martin, who will start his first year as the high school business teacher at Wilber-Clatonia Public Schools, said artificial intelligence is helping him develop some of his materials, like coming up with wrong answers for multiple-choice questions on tests. He taught social studies for several years in Colorado Springs and in Wilber, and now, he has to start over with creating lessons for a new subject.

He does question where the line needs to be drawn, though.

“I have worked with teachers who have admitted to me that they will have AI grade essays that they need to look over,” Martin said. “There comes a question at that point, is there an ethical line that we've breached there?”

Martin said teachers need to model acceptable AI use for students. He outlines his expectations at the start of each school year, and reiterates those expectations for each project.

“I think our job as teachers is to really communicate that line of like, look, here is how you can use this in a way that is ethical and is good, and here are the ways that are unethical and are cheating,” Martin said.

He said while some students tend to use AI correctly, like helping with a complicated math problem, he mostly sees students using it to get all the answers for an assignment.

“Just as we all would, they're trying to find out what is the best shortcut to get the answers that they need,” Martin said.

While national data shows 64% of teenagers ages 13-17 use AI, a survey focused on higher education and AI found that 90% of college students reported using AI in class. However, 65% of college students and educators said they were concerned that AI can sound confident when it is inaccurate.

Andy Udby, an undergraduate student studying wildlife management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said he’s tried to get training on using AI but feels it hasn’t been helpful. He recounted an experience at a summer workshop on machine learning and climate science where they showed students what to input into ChatGPT and what the output looked like.

“I was just sitting there like, well, I don't know what good output looks like because this is a student workshop,” Udby said. “I'm here to learn what the good output is, but they just told us it gives good output, and at no point did the professors really stop to explain things.”

He brought up several concerns with how professors were utilizing AI, including one professor who would answer his questions using an AI chatbot, which made him feel dismissed.

Udby was also in the one chemistry class to pilot an AI tool called ALEKS for assignments and tests. However, when Udby would get three questions wrong in a row, it would put him in a 15-minute timeout that Udby didn’t really have time for with a family, job and religious obligations. His professor couldn’t do much about it.

“UNL needs to be, not just buying these tools, but also actually taking the time to teach its instructors how to, not just use them, but use them empathetically and humanize the process,” Udby said.

ALEKS is one of the learning tools on the approved list for University of Nebraska faculty to use. There’s also a systemwide policy on ways faculty can utilize AI tools, which includes using it to “enhance or improve assignments.”

Udby clarified that he isn’t anti-AI, though. He just wants to make the choice for himself.

“I feel like we need to be skeptical about it. Being skeptical of things as an EMT really helped me in my last career and really helped other people,” Udby said. “I don't see why we can't have this same sense of safety for a technology that we are overhauling our entire society for. I don't condemn people who are using it, and I'm not saying smash the machines. I just wish we were going about it in a better way.”

Avoiding artificial intelligence

Scout Traxler, a second-year fashion design student at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, called generative AI “horrendous.” Traxler said it takes away jobs, is terrible for the environment and doesn’t make sense in creative fields like fashion design.

“The entire reason I fell in love with a creative field is because you get to do the art, you get to create,” Traxler said. “Whether it's physical medium or digital or whatever it may be, you're partaking in the act of creation. You are putting yourself, your soul, into something for others to see, or maybe not for others to see, maybe it's just for you to see, but still, you're doing something that's supposed to be personal. It's supposed to mean something, whatever that meaning is, however nonsensical or practical it may be.”

Traxler recalled a fellow student who used artificial intelligence to complete a final project for a class, which was to design a collection based on a period in history.

“Someone, instead of doing the work themselves, they just typed it into ChatGPT or whatever they used and had it generate all of their looks for them,” Traxler said. “They seemed completely unashamed of this. When they were presenting their final project, they said it very upfront.”

Traxler doesn’t use AI at all.

That’s something Wissing is looking to do this year in her classroom. Actually, she plans to go tech-free. Students will even handwrite essays.

“I know kids are gonna be like, ‘You're gonna make me write all that stuff?’ Yes, we're gonna write all that stuff,” Wissing said. “You need to learn how to draft essays. You need to learn how to fix your spelling on your own because if you are writing a note to someone, handwritten, and they can't read it, or they don't know what you're saying, you're only failing yourself.”

Wissing plans to buy Ticonderoga pencils with the green metallic connecting the eraser, which she said are every teacher's favorite pencil, as incentives for students throughout the year. If they can keep the pencil without breaking it or losing it, they’ll upgrade to another color. She even bought fun pencil toppers.

“Any way that I can, either with my daughter, with my students — maybe it's because I'm old and curmudgeony— but I love the old-school style of learning where you have the textbook and you're reading, and you're taking notes, and you're writing,” Wissing said. “I think that when we do that, it helps us learn. It helps our brains grow rather than just again going through the motions of, I'm doing this just to do it. I'm not learning anything, but I can just do it, so I can get through it.”

Wissing hopes to see schools implement more training on AI to help both teachers and students navigate the technology as it continues changing.

“I think it's important for kids to know what it is, to know what it's capable of doing,” Wissing said. “But, kind of like a driver's license, you need the proper training to use it.”

This is the first of five stories from Nebraska Public Media News about artificial intelligence in education. Look for more stories as they publish here.