Learn to Turn it OFF
By Randee Baty at The Lukeion Project
Studies are already beginning to show that students using AI have a cognitive decline in their ability to complete assignments on their own. We are not willing to have that happen to our Lukeion students. We are continuing the mission we’ve had for 20 years to turn out well-trained, clear, and independent thinkers. Leave the AI for arenas other than homework.
But for students, that’s actually getting harder and harder to manage because AI has become pervasive in the digital tools we use, such as Word and Google docs, without our even knowing it. All kinds of AI are being subtly and not-so-subtly integrated into these programs. Students often truly believe that they didn’t use AI because they didn’t instigate a chat session with ChatGPT or with Copilot, but they were undermined by their own software. What can they do to prevent being accused of using tools they didn’t know they were using? Let’s go through how to turn all of that off, something that is required when submitting homework to The Lukeion Project.
First, let’s be clear about one common program that many students use. Grammerly is AI. 100%. If you run a paper through Grammerly, you are using AI and it will show up as such. No way around that. Other programs that are supposed to help with the same types of issues, such as Quillbot, are also 100% AI. They just can’t be used for homework at an AI-free school such as The Lukeion Project. For Lukeion homework, be sure that those types of programs are not running or affecting student work.
A good rule of thumb, anything that wants to write into the homework itself should not be used. We wouldn’t let students have other people complete their homework for them and allowing these programs to do so is the same idea as letting some other person do the work. Students need to learn how to write without these crutches. Proper punctuation and sentence structure, word choice and vocabulary, level of formality and point of view, organization and development of an argument are all things we are teaching explicitly and that students have always been required to learn without digital intervention. AI tools may not be available when they need them, and students must be able to produce strong writing without them.
How to use Microsoft Word without AI:
The obvious first thing to do in Word is to turn off Copilot. Versions of Word differ from computer to computer, but to turn off Copilot on mine, the path is File-More-Options-Copilot and then I just uncheck “Enable Copilot.” It’s easy and it stops Copilot from annoyingly asking me what I want it to draft for me when I don’t want it at all. But that’s not the end of the AI in Word.
Go back to Options and open the Proofing Menu. Go down to “Writing Style” and open the “Grammar and Refinements” menu. On that menu, leave basic things such as spell-check. That is a rule-based system. When you get down to “Clarity,” “Conciseness,” “Formality,” “Inclusiveness” “Sensitive Geopolitical References” and “Vocabulary,” turn all those off. Those are where Word wants to impose its will on you. These are the exact areas we’re teaching, and students should be learning to deal with them correctly on their own without Word telling them what’s right, what’s wrong, and what it prefers. Leaving them on could result in your paper showing up as AI written.
If you use Editor in Word, be sure you are only using it for spelling and light grammar corrections. Once you move into the rest of the things that Editor wants to correct for you, you are into AI.
Here’s the other problem with taking the suggestions of these programs at face value. They are often wrong or merely preferences. Each time I put something like “Write a 300-word paper…,” AI suggest I change that to “Author a 300-word paper…” or “Draft a 300-word paper…” Those make far less sense to me than just saying “Write.” It shows me how much control the program is trying to exert over my writing and frankly, it just makes me mad.
How to use Google docs without AI:
As with Word, basic spell check is fine. In fact, we hope students are using spell-check. That is a rule system, not AI. Keep the “show spelling suggestions” and “show grammar suggestions” on.
In the Tools menu, click on “Preferences.” Here is where you can tell it to turn off suggestions. Different versions of docs have different looks. Mine has “Show smart reply suggestions” which I have to disable not to be getting suggestions as you write. Yours may have things such as “Writing suggestions.” Turn that off. This is where you can also turn off things such as “Automatically correct spelling.” I don’t mind it underlining a word that it thinks is spelled wrong, but I want to make my own decisions about correcting it or not. These rule-based tools often have problems with foreign words or proper names, so don’t let it do anything automatically. Be in charge of your own paper!
In my version of Google, I have to explicitly turn on Gemini, Google’s AI, and I just don’t. Double-check that your version does not have it turned on by default or because someone turned it on, thinking it would help. If it is making suggestions, it’s turned on and you need to turn it off on purpose. Anything that says, “Help me write,” “make suggestions,” or auto-generates phrases or sentences must be turned off. If you see writing suggestions in light gray as you type, ignore them and figure out how to turn them off!
Smart students have been learning how to write well without AI intervention since writing began. You will too, and your assignments will be the better for having come from your brain and not a program that only knows how to search the web and pull things together from there. It’s fun to think! Enjoy knowing that you are producing your own work that is far superior to anything an AI program could give you.
