Keep your eyes on your own paper. Doesn’t that sound cute and quaint in today’s world? Parents and teachers are less concerned about students peeking at each other’s papers—today’s urgent concern is cheating with AI chatbots. While educators and parents used to worry about students cheating off of one another, now whole classes are tempted to cheat off a machine.
AI, machines capable of replicating human intelligence, has opened up many new avenues for plagiarism and cheating within school or church settings. In particular, generative AI and its ability to produce highly specific content based off a simple prompt is creating new ways for students to bypass the effort of learning. If a teacher asks for a book summary—even with a specific requirement such as “give three examples of foreshadowing in book”—students can turn to generative AI with this prompt and get an essay in seconds. Similarly, if a pastor or youth ministry leader asks students to write a reflective response about their Christian faith, students may be tempted to turn to generative AI to get the job done quickly and easily.
While it is important for students to about these tools, it is deeply problematic for students to offload learning to these tools. Apart from getting the assignment done quickly and effortlessly, these students learn nothing from typing in a quick prompt and pasting the response into a document. Imagine the frustration of educators spending their time grading the work of robots all day long.
God’s Word offers some guidance for parents and educators navigating the challenges of AI plagiarism. In Ephesians 6:4, we hear an encouragement to work with young people so as to “…bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
The word ‘discipline’ is the Greek word ‘paideia’ and it appears elsewhere in Scripture. For example, in 2 Timothy 3:16, we hear this word in relation to the Word of God: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training (paideia) in righteousness…”
This word, translated as discipline or training, helps us understand something very important about education in general. It is far more than just passing a test, submitting an essay, getting a grade, or knowing information. Education is about formation. Education is about forming minds and souls, character and virtue. Turning to AI to complete an essay or finish a project undercuts formation—the job gets done, but the student gains nothing in the process.
Along with helping students understand the core problems with AI plagiarism, it is also good for parents and educators to gain some techniques to help protect against these temptations. Here are a few suggestions for how educators and parents can help students guard against the temptation to cheat with AI
Input, Not Output
Many schools and teachers have their own unique AI policy and guidance. However, a general rule for using AI in an ethical manner is for students to use it only for inputs and never for outputs. What exactly does this mean? Inputs include using AI to help with research, idea generation, and honing an argument. Many educators would consider these to be appropriate usages of AI. On the other hand, outputs involve using AI for composing texts and word-for-word content creation. This is where AI usage becomes plagiarism. Students need to cultivate the ability to arrange and articulate content in their own words. The output must come from their brains and their effort.
Time-Stamps
Many word processing programs can show a history of revisions made to the document. Educators and parents can access the revision history of a document to see the progression of a student’s work and writing. If the document has no history of revision and progress over an extended period of time, then its origins may be suspicious. Like they say in math, ‘show your work!’
Bring Back Oral Reports
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In the age of AI plagiarism, we could say that a five-minute conversation is worth a thousand words. Parents and teachers should encourage a practice of discussing papers and homework with students. Ask students to define certain words that they use—if the student cannot explain the words in their paper, then there is a problem. Ask students to explain a certain part of their argument—if this cannot be done, then the paper may be plagiarized from AI.
Slow and Steady Projects
Students are tempted to turn to AI when they are crunched on time. When a project is due all at once at the end of the semester, students may procrastinate until the very end. When time is short and the project is due, students may turn to AI to get it done quickly. Instead of having the project be due all at once, educators may consider having parts of the project due over the course of the Confirmation instruction, class or semester. This helps students manage time and avoid last-second temptations to cheat with AI.
Gone are the days of telling students to keep their eyes on their own papers. Instead of repeating old tropes and unhelpful guidance from long ago, parents and educators, pastors and ministry leaders can work to help students avoid AI plagiarism. Education goes beyond information and checking boxes—it is about formation and training of mind and soul, character and virtue. While God continues to call us to “…bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” the ways that we do this in the age of AI will require new approaches to the ancient task of education.
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