High School AI Training Reveals Gap Between Student Awareness and Hands-On Skill

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A community service initiative at SMAN 3 Ternate City tested the integration of artificial intelligence into high school history lessons, revealing that high student awareness of generative AI does not equal operational mastery. Conducted by researchers Abd. Rahman and Rusli Muhammad Said from Khairun University, the August 2026 project evaluated how 12th-grade students interact with OpenAI’s ChatGPT when analyzing historical events. While all participating students had previously heard of AI tools, post-training surveys showed that only 14% possessed the practical skill to use ChatGPT effectively for academic tasks. The initiative demonstrates that integrating AI into secondary education requires structured, hands-on guidance to turn passive familiarity into meaningful historical literacy and critical thinking.

Modern secondary education faces a dual challenge: students often view history as a passive subject driven by memorization, while teachers grapple with incorporating rapid advances in educational technology into the classroom. Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT present opportunities to create interactive, personalized learning environments by summarizing complex narratives, simulating historical debates, and outlining analytical essays. However, without formal training, students risk using AI unethically or over-relying on unverified outputs. Bridging the digital skill divide through practical AI literacy training is essential to prepare students for tech-driven academic and professional environments.

To address these challenges, the Khairun University team designed an interactive training program for 50 12th-grade students at SMAN 3 Ternate City, located in South Ternate. The intervention combined theoretical instruction on digital literacy, live software demonstrations via interactive LED screens, and hands-on practice sessions using personal laptops and mobile devices. Participating history teachers acted as classroom facilitators. Following the training sessions, researchers collected empirical data using structured questionnaires, direct observations, and quantitative survey instruments to assess changes in student capabilities and attitudes toward AI.

The evaluation revealed distinct patterns in how high school students adopt generative AI technology:

• The Competency Gap: Following the training, 14% of students (7 participants) demonstrated full capability in operating ChatGPT for historical research. Meanwhile, 46% (23 participants) were categorized as beginners who had just learned about or tried the tool, and 40% (20 participants) remained disinterested or entirely unfamiliar with the platform.
• Gender-Based Adoption Dynamics: Survey metrics across 31 female and 19 male students revealed clear differences in tech engagement. Female students showed higher initial willingness to experiment (22.6% in the "just tried" category versus 15.8% for males) but displayed higher overall indifference toward AI adoption (32.3% versus 26.3%). Conversely, male students showed high curiosity but lagged in practical trial, with 42.1% remaining in the "just familiar" stage.
• Impact on Student Engagement: Qualitative feedback showed that AI integration boosted learning motivation by converting text-heavy history lessons into interactive dialogues, Q&A simulations, and structured essay planning sessions.
• Risks of Unguided Use: Researchers noted that unguided AI exposure increases the risk of academic plagiarism, information copying without comprehension, and passive reliance on inaccurate digital outputs.

These findings indicate that schools cannot assume students naturally understand how to apply digital tools to academic subjects. Educational institutions and policymakers must transition from one-off technology introductions to sustained, practical AI curricula that emphasize information verification and critical analysis. Tailored teaching strategies are also necessary: female students benefit from learning interventions that highlight the practical relevance of AI in academic growth, while male students require structured laboratory practice to convert interest into technical capability.

Highlighting the central finding of the initiative, the researchers noted: "The integration of digital technology and artificial intelligence can serve as an alternative solution to strengthen the quality of history learning in secondary schools, provided that teachers remain central in guiding students to use these tools critically and ethically".

Author Profile

Abd. Rahman, M.Pd. Researcher and academic staff member in the Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB) at Khairun University, Ternate, Indonesia. His work focuses on digital history education, instructional technology, and secondary school curriculum innovation. Corresponding email: randy5eman@yamail.com.

Article Source

Journal Article Title: Socialization of Digital-Based History Learning and Chat-GPT to Students of SMAN 3 Ternate City
Journal Name: Indonesian Journal of Society Development (IJSD)
Publication Year: 2026
Volume & Issue: Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 405–422
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/ijsd.v5i4.41

Official URL: https://journalijsd.my.id/index.php/ijsd/index