A deadline tonight
Coursework is due at midnight. You have notes and a plan and no finished text. AI could produce something publishable in a minute.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
A personal statement
You have written a draft. It is honest and a bit clumsy. AI could make it read beautifully.
What is the right use?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
One question covers most cases: was the thinking you are being assessed on done by you? Using it to explain, quiz or check does not fail that. Having it produce the work does.
Find out the actual rule
Policies differ by school, subject and teacher, and they change. Assuming is how people get into trouble; asking takes a minute.
Say what you used
Where declaration is allowed, declare. "I used it to check my structure" is almost never a problem. Concealment is what turns a gray area into misconduct.
What you lose by outsourcing
Writing is how you find out whether you understand something. Outsourcing it feels efficient and removes the mechanism that was doing the learning.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Which Side of the Line?
Sort by the thinking test.
Was the assessed thinking done by the student?
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
You are not sure whether a use is allowed. What is the safest move?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Find the actual rule
- Find out what your school’s policy actually says.
- Find out whether it differs by subject.
- Write down one use you were unsure about and ask about it.
Why: Most misconduct at this age is not cheating. It is assuming a rule that turned out to be different.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Ask whether you did the thinking being assessed.
- Find out the actual policy rather than assuming.
- Declare what you used. Concealment is what makes it misconduct.
For the grown-up
A blanket ban at home is not enforceable and pushes use underground, where no judgement gets developed. Teaching the line is more protective than prohibition.
The thinking test transfers to university and to work, where the rules will be different again but the underlying question is the same.
The point about writing being how you discover whether you understand something is worth making explicitly. It is the real cost of outsourcing, and it is invisible until an exam.