We’ve had many conversations around AI at Nueva: teachers put notes about ChatGPT on syllabi and specify how AI should or should not be used on different assignments. But despite these conversations, we haven’t moved very far past talking and into action. Although I personally don’t have much experience with AI tools, I see AI being used all the time: to complete whole assignments, yes, but also to generate ideas for, make improvements to, and heavily edit projects. Even in class discussions, which are supposed to be spontaneous and organic, students use AI to give them insights and responses.
This is about more than just cheating: it is about an unhealthy emphasis on product over process. By using generative AI tools as a crutch, we are losing the ability to work—to trust our own knowledge, skills, and the process of learning.
That journey of learning can only take place when failure and imperfections are embraced, knowing that from failure comes improvement. Too frequently, students turn to AI not because of some malicious compulsion to cheat, but because they are afraid of not scoring full mastery on a rubric. But by taking intellectual shortcuts in this way, they miss the opportunity to make the mistakes necessary to cultivate a growth mindset: to revel in making work that is both authentic and, often, imperfect.
If Nueva wants students to truly develop their growth mindsets and embrace failure and struggle on the way to mastery, it needs to intentionally create the spaces for them to do so. Refusing to fully confront AI with classroom changes goes against our mission as a school.
Those active changes would look like using Blue Books (paper examination books)—or their modern equivalents, lockdown browsers and remote proctoring services—to bolster our own academic integrity and safeguard the deep, explorative learning that is so precious and integral to Nueva.
These tools don’t only remove the potential for AI use—they also remove the many other distractions enabled by Internet browsers. Studies have revealed that the average adult switches tabs roughly every 40 seconds, and that it can take more than 20 minutes to properly refocus after each switch. Chopping up work in this way promotes a fragmented state of mind, hijacking our already-deteriorating attention spans.
Furthermore, it shouldn’t be the job of teachers to spend their time and energy policing whether or not a student used AI. Detection tools can’t be wholly relied upon, and so the specter of potential AI use creates a culture of distrust among students and teachers.
Lockdown browsers and remote proctoring solutions aren’t perfect solutions, though, and they aren’t applicable everywhere. Although they remove distractions and ensure honesty while they are being used, they aren’t effective for the long-term group projects that are a key component of many Nueva courses.
Instead, we should be using lockdown browsers or Blue Books to write in-class essays and shorter assignments. Assessing on paper (and not just for STEM classes) is especially effective, and can accommodate a wider range of assignments than a lockdown browser. For homework, remote proctoring services—where students’ screens are recorded as they work—allow for accountability while also enabling larger-scale projects.
When limited in this way, we are forced to cultivate our ability to formulate and articulate original arguments, often under time pressure or less-than-ideal circumstances. And changing the medium doesn’t necessarily mean changing the motive. Moving towards more in-class assessments won’t destroy Nueva’s progressive, exploratory ethos. In fact, our philosophical aversion to standardized testing, rote memorization, and learning without purpose and reflection makes us an ideal kind of institution to try lockdown browsers, Blue Books, and remote proctoring.
Such tools are an important step on the way to cultivating an environment that holds true to our values: one where students feel truly empowered to take the long route to deep, rewarding learning, not bypassing challenges for the sake of convenience and a better grade.
