It’s the first question in every staffroom, and it deserves a straight answer: right now, a lot of learners are using AI to cheat. But not because the tool is evil – because no one taught them the alternative.
The cheating happens in the silence. A learner has ChatGPT open and a deadline tonight, and no one has shown them the difference between writing my essay for me and challenge my argument, find the holes, push me to a better draft. One outsources their brain. The other sharpens it.
Banning AI just pushes it underground and hands the advantage to the kids who ignore the ban. Teaching it works. That’s the heart of our free School Talk – book one and watch the room shift from getting away with it to getting good at it.