Nearly 15 years ago, I argued for putting laptop computers or tablets in the hands of every reading-age public school student, figuring students should learn to use the tools they would need to succeed later in life — and it wouldn’t be pencils and paper.

I thought digital devices would better engage students with interactive learning apps, a world of information at their fingertips and up-to-date e-textbooks instead of musty old physical primers.

Thanks to inexpensive Chromebooks and tablets, computerized learning has become a fixture in the schools as educators and students try to catch up with losses in reading and math proficiency during the pandemic.

But in a troubling development owing to the recent wide availability of powerful artificial intelligence tools, students are using their computers to cheat as much as to learn — especially in letting chatbots do their reading and writing assignments for them.

Teachers, frustrated with complex and time- consuming software to help detect AI-generated essays, are increasingly turning to an old-school practice to prevent digital fakery: the pencils and paper I was wrong to dismiss.

The New York Times reported that many teachers now require students to do their writing assignments by hand and in class. Instead of being instructed to spout facts about the subject, they’re asked to write about how they relate to the subject. This requires them not only to know the facts, but also apply them under the teacher’s eyes.

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A major problem is that kids so seldom write by hand these days — some schools don’t even teach cursive handwriting anymore — that their scribbles are barely legible.

Some defend the AI dependence, saying it’s a waste of time to write something yourself when AI can do it for you — the same as was said about math when calculators came into common use.

But while calculators can save the grunt work of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing by hand, you still have to understand math to solve problems with numbers — calculators or not.

It’s the same with writing. Chatbots can spew formulaic recitations of facts and analysis on any subject, but meaningful writing is more about communication than recitation. To communicate well, you must clearly understand your voice, what you want to say and how to use your words to express both. AI can’t do this part for you.

Good writing requires knowing how to work with primary information sources, but AI when carefully applied can legitimately be used for research, and educators should teach this. The best chatbots are like Google and Wikipedia on steroids.

AI can also be useful in refining what you write as long as you know your writing well enough to distinguish between refinement and rote gobbledygook.

I often run my column through an AI summarization tool before sending it in. If the summary makes sense, likely so does the column. If the summary is unclear, I probably have more work to do.

But for the foundational learning on how to use the written word to communicate what’s in your heart and mind, there’s no better way than hunching over a notebook with pencil in hand.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.