Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Back to school discussions on use of AI

 Two to read: 

    That's a woodland aster. 
    That means you should start your school shopping, New England.



  • Subtitled "Here's your obligatory back to school take on AI, goddamnit." Kaya Oakes writes about the undermining of the teacher (professor)/student relationship due to generative AI: 
    Assuming all students cheat before you even meet them face to face reduces them to two dimensional caricatures, which they are not. They are humans who come to college with impostor syndrome, a queasy mix of hope and anxiety about the future, and, usually, a willingness to engage in challenging work in addition to an obsession with Labubus and Y2K fashion. They’re people, not a problem.

  • And there's an account of a good discussion (amazingly) in the New York Times Opinion section:
  • But I would say what I find most disturbing is that in some situations you are having students use ChatGPT or any other chatbot to write the paper. They’re then handing it in to a professor who is using A.I. to grade the paper. And it’s like, what are we even doing here anymore? You know, this is bots talking to bots. No one’s getting anything out of it.
    And I do think if we have to have a positive outcome of this new technology, it’s that I hope it forces educational systems to sit back and say: What are the values we are trying to inculcate in these students? What are — why are we here? What do we hope that they learn? What do we hope is happening in the classroom?


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