An AI threat to student thinking
But when teachers focus on thinking and learning, what students process, they want them to be themselves, to take in material and process it to build learning. In a sense, it champions Shirky’s “identity formation.”
AI is bringing new and onerous challenges to schools. If teachers choose to allow AI responses to assignments, informing and efficient as AI is, students will not engage in thinking and develop long-term learning, essential for problem solving. If students can get thru education without having to exercise critical thinking and address problems to be discovered and solved, they will not be educated. They will be clones to information retained (if any) from their AI papers.
In case you are thinking I might be a Luddite, I understand that teachers are having to come to terms about AI’s place in the classroom. Were I now teaching, I would acknowledge AI’s increasing participation in our lives and incorporate it in any way that works for me and my students. But I would do all I could to implement ways to assess my students thinking with in class writings and thinking, for example, incorporating blue books. For those who are not proficient in handwriting (which is becoming increasingly true) I would allow “typewriters,” i.e, computers or iPads with keyboards disconnected from the internet. And I would, as Shirky reminded me, implement authentic assessment practices developed by Grant Wiggins. (As an educational consultant, I employed Wiggins in my workshops.)
In his final sentence, Shirky writes, “But a return to a more conversational, extemporaneous style will make higher education more interpersonal, more improvised and more idiosyncratic, restoring a sense of community to our institutions.” And the same is true for the classroom.
Invite teachers you know to read my Blog, written with them in mind to provide hope in these troubled times.
