Thanks for another very thought-provoking post. I agree with much of what you wrote, and your discussion of the production function left me thinking:
It is worth encouraging my students to engage in enriching and fruitful discussions with ChatGPT that don't necessarily yield polished homework assignments (b/c I want them to maximize learning not homework assignment production). So assign them that, routinely: i.e., have them submit the transcript of a 10-min discussion with the AI diving deeply into an interesting class-related topic of their choice, and then ask them to write a few sentences of ex-post reflection.
I think those can be but they’re still so easy to automate that it’s still challenging to get them to be focused on a way that is productive (has been my experience). But I agree that somehow getting them to use the chatbot conversationally, as part of a self teaching exercise, is worth considering.
I'm trying to do something like this for my upper-division undergrad Econ of Ed course this semester. (I'm having the students, before every class period, submit an AI transcript based on several "seed questions" I've selected.)
I don't see much point in trying to stop students from using these AI tools; it's impossible to monitor perfectly and Type I and Type II errors are both quite costly.
I agree with that — stopping them from using it is a waste of time. It’s hard for me to figure out the best use of outside tasks though, bc I do think spending no time on things isn’t useful for anyone. I’ve switched to being open to letting them do what they want to learn the material but focus more on quizzes and closed book exams. For now that’s my goal. See if maybe they can learn to use the tools to augment their ability to learn but then test the learning and not the learning tasks. Maybe multiple choice quizzes and enough of them
Thanks for another very thought-provoking post. I agree with much of what you wrote, and your discussion of the production function left me thinking:
It is worth encouraging my students to engage in enriching and fruitful discussions with ChatGPT that don't necessarily yield polished homework assignments (b/c I want them to maximize learning not homework assignment production). So assign them that, routinely: i.e., have them submit the transcript of a 10-min discussion with the AI diving deeply into an interesting class-related topic of their choice, and then ask them to write a few sentences of ex-post reflection.
I think those can be but they’re still so easy to automate that it’s still challenging to get them to be focused on a way that is productive (has been my experience). But I agree that somehow getting them to use the chatbot conversationally, as part of a self teaching exercise, is worth considering.
I'm trying to do something like this for my upper-division undergrad Econ of Ed course this semester. (I'm having the students, before every class period, submit an AI transcript based on several "seed questions" I've selected.)
I don't see much point in trying to stop students from using these AI tools; it's impossible to monitor perfectly and Type I and Type II errors are both quite costly.
I agree with that — stopping them from using it is a waste of time. It’s hard for me to figure out the best use of outside tasks though, bc I do think spending no time on things isn’t useful for anyone. I’ve switched to being open to letting them do what they want to learn the material but focus more on quizzes and closed book exams. For now that’s my goal. See if maybe they can learn to use the tools to augment their ability to learn but then test the learning and not the learning tasks. Maybe multiple choice quizzes and enough of them
Very helpful line of thought. I doubt I'm alone in wishing you could record your lectures and post them to the paid substack... 😀