I think the issue is that we start at different places. By now, AI has taken over higher ed (and it’s coming for high schools as well). Every student is using it. The question is therefore not IF we use AI, but HOW we use AI. I certainly haven’t solved it, but I’m working on figuring out how to use it responsibly and maximizing its power.
I was a chemistry teacher who wrote test questions that required essay responses. Will students in those circumstances need ChatGPT to answer those questions? I spent a lot of time coaching students on how to write short essay answers to such questions, even modeled good answers to model test questions. There is also a question of access. ChatGPT isn't free.
I'm so tired of pro-AI people telling me that AI is just inevitable and wonderful and brilliant and will make students better writers. This essay explains a lot of my thoughts about the whole debate. Our society is already having trouble thinking deeply about anything. AI is going to make us think algorithmacally instead of humanly. The whole ethos of AI writing is that writing sucks and doing your own thinking is too hard so let the AI do it for you. I'm going to get off the Internet now and go write in my notebook with a pen.
“But the product is not the point. The struggle, the growth, the learning, the human interaction, the heavy lifting is the point”
Yes to this! You can’t get good at anything without the challenge. If it isn’t challenging, then you aren’t learning (you already know it.) As a teacher, you have to provide students experiences where they struggle and then break through to authentic learning. It’s hard work for the student and the teacher!
Writing assignment: Describe why someone's salary depends on them not understanding the purpose of a writing assignment.
Hi Peter. Thanks for writing about my recent piece. I think, though, that you’re building a straw-man argument. I think your fundamental point is that writing is all about the process. Amen. We’re on the same page here. (Check out another one of my recent pieces that more or less says that too: https://www.educationnext.org/there-are-no-shortcuts-to-thinking-teacher-sees-promise-students-using-ai-learning-tool-artificial-intelligence/).
I think the issue is that we start at different places. By now, AI has taken over higher ed (and it’s coming for high schools as well). Every student is using it. The question is therefore not IF we use AI, but HOW we use AI. I certainly haven’t solved it, but I’m working on figuring out how to use it responsibly and maximizing its power.
Happy holidays!
Dan Sarofian-Butin
I was a chemistry teacher who wrote test questions that required essay responses. Will students in those circumstances need ChatGPT to answer those questions? I spent a lot of time coaching students on how to write short essay answers to such questions, even modeled good answers to model test questions. There is also a question of access. ChatGPT isn't free.
I'm so tired of pro-AI people telling me that AI is just inevitable and wonderful and brilliant and will make students better writers. This essay explains a lot of my thoughts about the whole debate. Our society is already having trouble thinking deeply about anything. AI is going to make us think algorithmacally instead of humanly. The whole ethos of AI writing is that writing sucks and doing your own thinking is too hard so let the AI do it for you. I'm going to get off the Internet now and go write in my notebook with a pen.
“But the product is not the point. The struggle, the growth, the learning, the human interaction, the heavy lifting is the point”
Yes to this! You can’t get good at anything without the challenge. If it isn’t challenging, then you aren’t learning (you already know it.) As a teacher, you have to provide students experiences where they struggle and then break through to authentic learning. It’s hard work for the student and the teacher!