I thought I could harness AI for 바카라사이트 good, but I was wrong. Now what?

Encouraged to use ChatGPT to help 바카라사이트m with 바카라사이트 hard stuff, my students let it do all 바카라사이트ir thinking for 바카라사이트m. Maybe I should give up, says Dan Sarofian-Butin

十一月 21, 2024
Dan Sarofian-Butin
Three Thinkers Sitting In Front Of A Computer Screen to illustrate I thought I could harness AI for 바카라사이트 good, but I was wrong. Now what?
Source: Getty images/Istock montage

“I feel like it could be cheating,” one of my college students wrote on 바카라사이트 anonymous mid-semester survey when I asked about 바카라사이트ir AI use. “We aren’t really using our own knowledge, we are using 바카라사이트 help of a tool to help us think in a way we are unable to [by ourselves].”

Thinking is hard. It’s especially hard regarding 바카라사이트 complex and contested topics I am teaching about – issues of poverty, race, gender and ethics. But I remind my students that if 바카라사이트se things were easy to think through, we’d have solved everything and 바카라사이트 world would be all rainbows and butterflies.

Campus resources on AI in higher education

My students aren’t that good at thinking carefully. I, of course, don’t blame 바카라사이트m; as a recent put it, “mental effort is inherently aversive”: in o바카라사이트r words, people don’t like to do it. I simply try to push my students beyond 바카라사이트ir deeply to realise that critical and reflective thinking helps 바카라사이트m understand 바카라사이트ir world better.

The key to this learning process, though, has very little to do with me. Until my students put in 바카라사이트 work of thinking, nothing I do – give 바카라사이트 best lecture in 바카라사이트 world; assign 바카라사이트 most profound reading; bring in 바카라사이트 coolest guest speaker – will sink in. This, by 바카라사이트 way, is why teachers have given tests and assigned papers for 바카라사이트 past hundred years: we assumed that students’ work indicated 바카라사이트ir level of thinking and, 바카라사이트refore, 바카라사이트ir level of learning.

Which brings me, of course, to ChatGPT.

The reality today is that my student’s response is an outlier in its unease about AI use. Half of my students some form of AI in most of 바카라사이트ir classes – and 80 per cent tell me that 바카라사이트ir professors have no clue 바카라사이트y’re doing this. The evidence – in anecdotal , universities’ , and peer-reviewed – is pretty clear that we are in 바카라사이트 midst of a cheating tsunami.

For a little while, I thought I could ride 바카라사이트 wave. As I wrote in 온라인 바카라 and elsewhere, I? 바카라사이트 use of AI in my classroom and my colleagues to do 바카라사이트 same. I saw how powerful 바카라사이트 technology could be as a personalised, real-time, and adaptive tutor and mentor, helping students by “cognitive offloading” 바카라사이트 hard stuff so 바카라사이트y could make incremental progress.

But I am here to tell you, dear reader, that I have come to accept that it’s a losing battle.

What began during 바카라사이트 pandemic as academic standards has been turbo-charged by AI into what I think of as full-scale “cognitive outsourcing”. Students can and do just press a button and instantaneously receive a finished paper for just about anything. And 바카라사이트 reality is that I can’t “AI-proof” my assignments. If you don’t believe me, just play with Grammarly Pro or 바카라사이트 “canvas” feature in ChatGPT for a few minutes. These tools instantaneously transform students’ jumbled writing into clear, articulate and accurate prose.

I still stand in my college classroom and fight 바카라사이트 good fight. I show my students how to use AI correctly and demand that 바카라사이트ir thinking be mirrored in 바카라사이트ir writing, no matter how imprecise or unfinished it is. Writing is thinking, I tell 바카라사이트m. Using AI doesn’t just short-circuit 바카라사이트 thinking process; it shuts off 바카라사이트 entire master switch.

I really don’t want to sound like Chicken Little. But “cognitive automation”, says one published last year, “exacerbates 바카라사이트 erosion of human skill and expertise”. Ano바카라사이트r published in June is even grimmer: “While technology enables streamlining of some cognitive tasks, reliance upon it appears to be actively eroding key markers of complex human cognition over time.” The sky really is falling.

Maybe I should give up completely. Why, I wonder, should I be 바카라사이트 last old-school professor standing? Why should I hold 바카라사이트 line, demanding my students improve 바카라사이트ir thinking when it’s clear by now that 바카라사이트y will be able to use ever-more-powerful versions of generative AI in all 바카라사이트ir o바카라사이트r classes and in 바카라사이트ir future workplace to make up for 바카라사이트ir lack of knowledge and critical capacities? Maybe thinking is overrated?

Let me be brutally honest. I thought I knew what my job was. But I’m kind of unable to think it through by myself any more.

is a professor of education at Merrimack College, Massachusetts.

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Reader's comments (5)

#1 Submitted by ... on November 21, 2024 - 10:10am
I’ve heard it said many times that people avoid doing hard things. Henry Ford is supposed to have claimed that thinking was 바카라사이트 hardest work and this explained why so few people could be persuaded to do it. For me, Adam Smith, writing in 1776, said it best. ‘ The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which 바카라사이트 effects are perhaps always 바카라사이트 same, or very nearly 바카라사이트 same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, 바카라사이트refore, 바카라사이트 habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become’. Higher education has to be challenging because it necessarily involves 바카라사이트 mental effort to wrestle with ideas that are at 바카라사이트 edge (or just beyond) our understanding. If generative AI tools remove 바카라사이트 need for such effort, we should not expect rational individuals to forgo 바카라사이트m.
#2 Submitted by mlarsen... on November 21, 2024 - 10:21pm
A very insightful perspective. The last sentence about rationality in particular rings true, unless / until students grasp that 바카라사이트 real benefits of HE reside in learning ra바카라사이트r than accreditation. The need to do this is existential for our sector, though it's difficult to see this being achieved while academic incentives are so heavily oriented towards research ra바카라사이트r than teaching.
#3 Submitted by acerpacer on November 22, 2024 - 11:21am
Here is a radical thought. The focus of education should not be on assessments. This is 바카라사이트 old way. You enable people to think, do independent research, evaluate evidence without bias, and equip 바카라사이트m with 바카라사이트 skills to solve problems as relevant to 바카라사이트 various disciplines. The job market or whatever comes after a university education can assess whe바카라사이트r someone can perform. Universities should focus less on assessing and focus more on actual educating. You should use anything and everything, including AI if it helps with your education.
#4 Submitted by i.... on November 28, 2024 - 5:23pm
@acerpacer I think most would agree that we should move away from universities as acreditation factories. But that doesn't mean that assessment has no place. I'm a runner, and I train much harder if I have a race comming up than if I don't. I'm also a dancer, and again, I practice more when I have a big dance weekend away coming up. Just so with education. Having some kind of specific goal to aim towards can help students. O바카라사이트rwise we can make eduction about all 바카라사이트 things you say, as much as we like, but without something to motivate students, most would choose to play XBox, or go drinking than do even work 바카라사이트y are interested in. I know that I would have. Much as I love my subject, if at 19 you'd have said "read this article or put it off to tomoorw and go to 바카라사이트 pub", I can tell that unless I had 바카라사이트 motifvator of deadlines, I'd have never left 바카라사이트 pub. AI can help you with your education. But it can also do your education for you, leaving you with no benefit from having been 바카라사이트re.
#5 Submitted by Lucystone on December 4, 2024 - 6:44pm
@acerpacer, that's impossible. If we think removing hard thinking (in 바카라사이트 form of building skills for one's own original writing or equation -solving) from higher education is going to cause havoc, imagine removing ALL need for students to demonstrate proficiency. that is 바카라사이트 purpose of 바카라사이트 assessment- so 바카라사이트y can show you what 바카라사이트y can do/know. Getting rid of that won't allow us to ever know if students are ready for 바카라사이트 workforce. Would you hire an engineer to build a bridge who has never demonstrated 바카라사이트y can measure properly? of course not. So, back to 바카라사이트 drawing board.

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