AI Policy

Every SHEEP class has an AI policy.

Can I use AI?

Yes and No. Programming and AI are intertwined.

Use AI

Please use AI chat applications like ChatGPT, Gemini, or others, to:

• Troubleshoot and debug a challenging error when you are stuck
  • Give it your error and ask why it happens
  • Use AI to learn, not to do it for you
• Generate static content
  • Generate images and text for a website
• Create ideas

Do Not Use AI

Do not use AI to:

• Build applications for you
• Complete your homework
• Do the hard parts

You must do the hard parts yourself. This is the only way people can learn.

Why not?

Using AI to complete assignments means the you do not learn to program, so in a sense, this is cheating. Because we home school, it's really stealing the growth that you should experience from yourself, and it's cheating your parents who paid for this course, and it's cheating your teacher out of a grade. In the class, other students who suffered through the difficult task of learning may end up with an inferior end-result, even though they will clearly be more successful in the real world, so in a sense it cheats them as well. And finally, this being a Christian school, I'll add that violating this rule is sin.

Computer Coding and Programming is a challenging class, meant to force a student's brain to grow in new ways. This produces long-term change, increasing intelligence for life, and teaching the students how to think logically. Using an AI assistant to get past a hard project takes away any growth they might earn.

What if I get stuck?

I will mention this about 100 times throughout the school year: Ask Me (Mr. Nathan). I have the answer to every coding problem you can come up with. I've been coding since before you were born. I'm an expert. I want to solve your problems. I want to help you succeed. I don't want you to be frustrated. I only want you to get a good grade and succeed at this class, and at life.

• How to ask for help

What if I use AI to do my homework anyway?

I waver between giving zeroes for insulting my ability to detect that the code was not written by a student, and wanting to give as much grace as possible.

Justice and mercy.

Please attribute which AI was used when turning in your code, and a percentage of how much was written by the AI assistant. Your code will be marked down by half of that value. The percentage may be calculated by amount of code, or by complexity of code, on the teacher's discretion.

In a 100 point assignment, if 100% of your code was written by AI, your maximum point value is 50. This is better than zero points, but is still a failing grade.

In a 20 point assignment, if 50% of your code was written by AI, your maximum point value is 15 points.