AI and education: was the material learned by the student or not? For those with a strictly mechanical view of education, that’s the question du jour, and should lead to the banning of AI on campus. But for those who recognize AI a la ChatGPT may be inevitable, here’s a more flexible response:
“AI is not meant to avoid opportunities to learn through structured assignments and activities.”
This line comes from the AI policy for Tom Brady’s Ole Miss education class. His students discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the tools (“strong in summarizing, editing and helping to brainstorm ideas”; “poor at creating long segments of text that are both topical and personal”), put those in the context of academic honesty and devised the rules themselves. [WaPo]
Involving the students and treating them as responsible adults means discarding, to some small extent, the hierarchy natural to humans. It’s inspiring.
But will it really work? Or will the officious rigidity inherent in some teachers wreck it?
