WhatGPT? A Guide to AI

ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and other AI offerings are incredibly powerful tools that can help you gain understanding in tricky subjects… but their responsible use can be a tricky subject, too. When you’re hard at work on a paper or just trying to wrap your head around that last algebra problem on your homework, how do you know what is okay and what isn’t okay to use?

Well, first, make sure to defer to your school handbook and your teacher’s policies, which will eclipse all other advice on using AI tools. 

In the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, the 2024-2025 Student Handbook prohibits “using artificial intelligence tools, including but not limited to ChatGPT, to create content not original to the student.” Ok, what does that mean?

Depending on what your teacher allows in their classroom, this may mean that using artificial intelligence tools is completely off the table. That’s okay! There are many other resources at your disposal, and you can work with your library media specialists or your local librarians at the Canton Public Library or Plymouth District Library to find resources that do work within the parameters your teacher has set. For example, did you know HelpNow by Brainfuse, which you can access with your Canton Public Library card, has live tutoring from 2:00-11:00 PM and guides you can explore on your own?

That said, your teacher may allow you some use of ChatGPT and other AI tools if you use them responsibly. The best responsible uses for ChatGPT include things like asking ChatGPT to help you generate an outline, get ideas or a better understanding how something works, so long as you can understand the results you receive and put them into your own words. And, of course, cite your source!

Here is an example of what this might look like:

1. Ask ChatGPT for ideas for a paper about climate change. ChatGPT’s answer mentions the EPA, which sounds like an interesting angle. 
2. Ask ChatGPT what impact the EPA has had on climate change.
3. Look up articles about the EPA and climate change in Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints (with your CPL card); you can check the answers that ChatGPT gave in step 2 with what you find in this database and use the articles as citations in your paper.

And so forth, until you are finished with your paper. As a rule of thumb, so long as your teacher allows their use, AI tools are helpful for generating ideas, explaining things and organizing things. They may suggest information, but sometimes they will completely make information up, so it is always good to double-check information against a reliable source like those provided by your library.