Younger people tend to be early adopters of new technologies compared to older adults. Whatever headaches have been caused for parents in recent years with social media, video games and other technologies, they were manageable.
Now, though, a potentially civilization-changing technology, artificial intelligence, is having a direct effect on young peoples’ education in terms of learning methods and the ability to absorb not only subject matter material but also using reasoning and logic skills.
All of which is making for fretful days among parents and educators in Montgomery County because in Maryland’s most populous county a significant percentage of residents hold bachelor’s degrees or higher while Montgomery County Public Schools consistently receives high ratings and is recognized for academic excellence.
Some of the angst builds on already-deteriorating writing skills by students.
“They are so used to communicating via text, and in a way that doesn’t use punctuation,” said Shari Parry, founder of Montgomery County-based Parry Educational Consultants, in an interview. “When they are then asked to meet these grade-level standards in a more traditional way, families are concerned about an overreliance on use of technology, and how AI will translate into real-life skills.”
But school administrators who want to ban student AI use for coursework are fighting a losing battle, added Parry, who has 30 years of experience as a special educator and central office administrator in Montgomery County Public Schools.
“Where I’m moving with this now is that as educators and advocates, it’s in our interest to learn as much as we can, and teach students to use it responsibly,” Parry said.
Many teens admit — sometimes forthrightly and often reluctantly — they use AI to cheat on assignments, homework, or tests.
There are many generative AI models that can be used for free, most notably ChatGPT. The pioneering chatbot offers image and video generation and can be used through mobile and computer apps, as well as via ChatGPT.com.
How AI can be used properly and responsibly in Maryland public schools is the subject of legislation making its way through the state legislature in Annapolis. The State Department of Education would be required “to conduct an evaluation on the use and potential use of artificial intelligence in public schools,” under the bill sponsored by State Sen. Katie Fry Hester, a Democrat whose district covers parts of Howard and Montgomery counties.
The proposal would require a survey a local school systems to review current coursework AI uses and how it affects student learning, with a final report due by Dec. 15, 2026.
One aspect of the issue is ensuring public school students across all financial and income strata have similar opportunities to learn through AI, Fry Hester said in an interview.
“You don’t want this to widen the digital divide. You don’t want the school systems that have the most money to have an advantage,” she said.
Effectively using AI in public schools, Fry Hester added, is also figuring out what “only humans can do, that we should double down on. While also using AI to speed up schoolwork efficiency where possible.”
There’s already reason to think AI use in education has logical limits. A study in the journal “Nature Human Behaviour” by a pair of professors at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that subjects came up with a broader range of creative ideas when they relied on their own thoughts and web searches, compared to when they used ChatGPT.
Still, AI is fast becoming the norm in college coursework. Ohio State University is making AI literacy a requirement for all undergraduates, starting in 2025, the Columbus campus said in early June. The university’s new “AI Fluency” initiative includes hands-on workshops and a dedicated course, aiming to equip students to use generative AI responsibly in their chosen fields.
OSU, one of the nation’s largest universities, is the first school to do this. But college students from Montgomery County and across Maryland are likely to soon feel its effects, though some professors have been grappling for years with the role of AI in students’ coursework.
Issues of writing quality, or lack thereof, have been an issue since ChatGPT emerged in 2022 as the first widely available AI system, said University of Maryland, Baltimore County political science professor Ian Anson.
“It is revolutionary. I think it’s going to have an ongoing impact and upheaval on how we do things in the classroom,” Anson said in an interview. “The college student poring over the textbook for six hours is really not a reality anymore.”
College instructors need to think of how to best impart knowledge in hands-on ways that don’t get enmeshed in AI issues, since professors and administrators can find it difficult to judge how much of a student’s work is truly their own.
Finding ways to incorporate AI into classroom instruction across all grade levels, and in college, is key to developing a competitive Maryland workforce, said State Sen. Fry Hester.
“If we don’t, our kids are not going to be able to get jobs,” she said.
