HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — Technology continues to evolve in the education system.

“We think about learning styles, differences in learning styles, technology has been very helpful in managing those differences. And really bringing more nuanced understanding of particular topics and areas from a more, you know, very traditional teacher-student format, to really involving the world and integrating world facts and issues into pedagogy,” said Dr. O’Shan Gadsden, the chair of Hampton University’s psychology department.

He said virtual learning, smart boards and data analytics are adopted to enhance the learning process.

Artificial intelligence platforms are also used as a learning tool.

However, AI platforms like ChatGPT have been banned from several schools across the U.S. ChatGPT is a chatbot that generates human conversations.

Some schools fear students would use the platform to do their homework or write their papers.

During the 2022-2023 school year, a Texas A&M professor wrongly accused an entire class of using ChatGPT on final assignments.

“Students may not be using them as a resource. They may be using them as their as their primary source. And so I think it’s really important that we develop and we are developing here at Hampton, rules and regulations and procedures that will help students understand that these are resources. But that the process of learning and internalization calls for effort, calls for honesty, and calls for academic rigor that doesn’t change as a consequence of adding AI or other technological platforms to their study or to their academic production,” Gadsden said.

He said there are learning breakthroughs that come from the platform if used responsibly.

“It allows students to get further perspectives in ways that they may not get from the instructor or adds on to their own learning process,” Gadsden said. “I think about psychology for example, great opportunity for students to use AI and ChatGPT as a way to further understand the research process, to get ideas about particular topics that they may have not had access to. So it can expose them to very knowledge bases, and ideas in which they can begin to or deeply think about and integrate into their own academic process.”

At the K-12 level, Hampton City Schools say it’s monitoring AI use and exploring ways to teach students to use it responsibly.

Portsmouth Public Schools considers the use of AI chatbots as plagiarism.

Meanwhile, Virginia Beach City Public Schools won’t provide access to it at school or on school devices, but has guidelines for parents whose kids use it at home.

Overall, Gadsden believes technology in education is moving in the right direction.

“As long as we have those procedures and policies in place that allow students or individuals to maintain intellectual curiosity,” he said. “That allow students to maintain academic rigor, that these are sources, resources that we are utilizing and integrating in the context of our own mind and our own thinking. And the product that we give ourselves that we produce is an integration of that.”