It is worthwhile spending some time on social media to see the relentless bombardment faced by students from influencers peddling AI tools that straddle the line between aiding study and blatantly enabling cheating. These influencers flourish is contradictions and promise the moon: complete your homework in five minutes flat, forget about ever attending another lecture, let AI take up the pen for you. In each pitch, the essence of learning is overshadowed by a pervasive call to save time. Welcome to the dizzying world of AI influencer culture, where the pursuit of profit drives companies to use influencers as direct conduits to push their products onto students.
Thanks for this insight! I’m interested in how technology and social media detracts from the capability for deep work, and how we can strike an effective balance to harness tech to illustrate novel thinking.
" I hope Ashley recovers from her concussion shortly and is able to resume her coursework, but it looks like it hasn't impacted her ability to produce content and promote it online to her audience." lol
Some of the tools and features that I've seen are a lot like "productivity" tools in the workplace: otter ai, grammarly. It will be hard (but not impossible) to separate the tool from the use/intention in classrooms.
Lots to unpack here. From my very specific vantage point as an independent HS teacher, we are not seeing this (yet), at least not in my school or most of our peer schools. I'm going to go out on a limb and say some of this is the (understandable) fault of colleges for not tackling the issue head on - the absolute crickets at most educational institutions on AI use provides a gigantic hole for students to crash through - how are individual teachers supposed to completely upend decades of educational practice overnight in the absence of any guidance by administrators? The Stanford study (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/technology/chatbot-cheating-schools-students.html) from earlier this year seemed to suggest that cheating has not changed much as a result of AI. Time will tell how accurate that is and whether the trend holds true. But I think the larger issue is the glut of AI products saturating the marketplace making it impossible for the average educator, let alone administrator, to figure out which ones might be worthwhile. Enterprising and resourceful students are going to be in the driver's seat until schools step up and have an honest conversation about all the pedagogical implications of genAI and I'm just not seeing it.
I strongly recommend this excellent historical survey of higher ed in America. It suggests that higher ed has either rarely or NEVER been about undergraduate learning--instead, it's been about undergraduate networking, about community boosting through athletics, and in one particular period (from the atom bomb in WWII until the 1960s revolt against Vietnam), about defense department funding for research.
Thanks for this insight! I’m interested in how technology and social media detracts from the capability for deep work, and how we can strike an effective balance to harness tech to illustrate novel thinking.
" I hope Ashley recovers from her concussion shortly and is able to resume her coursework, but it looks like it hasn't impacted her ability to produce content and promote it online to her audience." lol
Some of the tools and features that I've seen are a lot like "productivity" tools in the workplace: otter ai, grammarly. It will be hard (but not impossible) to separate the tool from the use/intention in classrooms.
Great read!
Oh no.... thanks for doing this work!
Lots to unpack here. From my very specific vantage point as an independent HS teacher, we are not seeing this (yet), at least not in my school or most of our peer schools. I'm going to go out on a limb and say some of this is the (understandable) fault of colleges for not tackling the issue head on - the absolute crickets at most educational institutions on AI use provides a gigantic hole for students to crash through - how are individual teachers supposed to completely upend decades of educational practice overnight in the absence of any guidance by administrators? The Stanford study (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/technology/chatbot-cheating-schools-students.html) from earlier this year seemed to suggest that cheating has not changed much as a result of AI. Time will tell how accurate that is and whether the trend holds true. But I think the larger issue is the glut of AI products saturating the marketplace making it impossible for the average educator, let alone administrator, to figure out which ones might be worthwhile. Enterprising and resourceful students are going to be in the driver's seat until schools step up and have an honest conversation about all the pedagogical implications of genAI and I'm just not seeing it.
"I've not got an hour to watch this video" - he's far too busy making TikToks
I strongly recommend this excellent historical survey of higher ed in America. It suggests that higher ed has either rarely or NEVER been about undergraduate learning--instead, it's been about undergraduate networking, about community boosting through athletics, and in one particular period (from the atom bomb in WWII until the 1960s revolt against Vietnam), about defense department funding for research.
https://www.amazon.com/History-American-Higher-Education/dp/1421428830
This context makes the challenge of promoting the value of learning seem nearly impossible, I fear.
I’ve been trying to run down some of this info—thank you for collecting it here!!