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I’ve never been one to quickly embrace technological advancement - particularly if I don’t see the benefit of the update or don’t understand how the tech actually works. Example? I miss the days of installing a carburetor kit or using a timing light to tune an engine: carburetors and distributors made sense to me - they made sense to many of us, as a matter of fact. But those were the magical ‘80s. Since then, sensors and more sensors and computers and more computers have turned a motor into a mystery machine. I cannot argue the benefit of these tech updates - certainly, the modern automobile engine is more efficient and more reliable, but when the inevitable happens, and a warning light comes on, what do the vast majority of people think at that moment?
I’ll tell you what they think: they think, Huh? or I wonder what that light means? and What do I do now? and I guess I have to take this to the dealership. And the dealership mechanic will then plug the automobile computer into the dealership computer, and the dealership computer will “talk” to the vehicle computer, and the dealership computer will then “tell” the mechanic what electronic sensor or computer module is faulty, and then the dealership computer will go on to “tell” the mechanic how to remove and replace the part, step-by-step. Brilliant! Right? But wait… Who’s “brilliant” here? Who recognized and diagnosed the problem? Who has the know-how to make the repair? When the engine timing was off in my ‘74 Vega back in 1983, I knew it. When the carburetor would act up on my 12-year-old Blazer in 1988, I knew that too. When I needed to adjust the timing and twist the distributor, I would grab a timing light, a socket, an extender, a ratchet… When I replaced the parts in a carb, I knew what I had to do and what tools I would need (including a magnet to recover the screws I would drop). Hmmm. I cannot help but think that today’s mechanics are the tools; computers are reaching for us to unplug and replug modules and sensors because they cannot complete the task on their own (yet). Apparently, this is an acceptable situation - at least in the consumer motoring world. My hesitant and guarded attitude regarding AI and education is rooted in this fear: that the continuing development of a more efficient and reliable machine will reduce learners to tools, doing only what they’re told to do by the ChatBot, to complete only the simple tasks that the machine cannot complete on its own: “Learner, go to the printer, collect your assignment, and submit your assignment to the tray.” Perhaps that is hyperbole, and I apologize - I’m only human. Tony Wan, writing for EdSurge earlier this year, shares a perspective that reflects my automobile engine analogy conclusion: If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If a student uses AI to write and nobody notices, does it matter? I’ll admit: the latter question is hard for me to ask, as a former journalist here at EdSurge who built a career on writing. But AI writing is proliferating across professions. Marketers use it for advertising copy; financial analysts for synthesizing information. More than 4 in 5 teachers have used ChatGPT. Even in industries with stringent standards for human originality, AI is making inroads. The winner of a prestigious Japanese literary award used ChatGPT to write a portion of her novel. So what? We have no idea how an engine works or how to diagnose and repair problems. Is this situation a cause for concern? Have we lost an ability that minimizes us somehow? Apparently not. So what if we don’t write anymore? If machines contemplate and write for us, does that somehow stunt our thinking, minimizing who we are and what we are capable of? “So, what do we gain and lose when students use artificial intelligence to write?” Wan recognizes that writing via generative AI is here to stay, and that educators will have to prepare learners for this reality. However, his article hammers on the concerns educators should have as they embrace the application of AI in their classrooms, challenging them to recognize the benefits of writing, all aspects of writing: For many people, writing is the most brutal exercise in thinking. It reflects and tests our assumptions, pushing us to refine our ideas and uncover new ones. It leads us down rabbit holes that we have to crawl back from. It requires us to connect the dots and think about what makes sense or doesn’t, to transition between ideas and evidence, and to consider what makes the cut and what doesn’t. When AI is used as a shortcut, we lose some of these muscles, as painful as they are to build. We have some decisions to make, beginning with the answer to this question: How crucial is the process of thinking and writing to our learners and their development? If the answer is “not very,” then I reckon it’s open season on OpenAI. But if the answer is still “very important,” then we really need to take a step back and make certain we are not initiating practices that will leave our learners with no choice but to trust the intelligence of the machine. Don Hollister November 10, 2024 Check out Tony Wan’s Article: What Do We Gain and Lose When Students Use AI to Write? By Tony Wan Apr 24, 2024
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