Entry Log #3: AI
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LOCATION - The Starship: Literacy
TRANSMITTER - Cadet Antonis Ybarra
Message goes as follows:
It is no question that the Starship: Literacy is a titan of innovation. Inhabiting the crew and providing them with the machinery they need to do their jobs is no easy feat. This machine feeds off of our progress and guides us towards wherever we need to go next, but shortcuts are a dangerous thing. Many times, myself and the other cadets find ourselves struggling because of the technological advances we are afforded. It is both our greatest resource and most dangerous weapon.
AI is useful for a number of things, however, I believe it holds no merit when it comes to teaching writing. Writing education often comes with the footnote of exploring one's own voice, but using a machine to teach this idea seems redundant. AI acts as a collective of voices, ideas, and strategies when it is prompted to do so, but cannot surpass its preset limits. These limits evolve only with time and innovation which is by no means slow, but none of it could outpace the process of the human mind. If anything, AI should be used as a tool in only the most fitting of circumstances and not used to mentor a student. It is a tool, not a role model.
Of the readings offered this week from the higher ups, the articles discussing the different areas of limits or thriving of AI served the most use. Their analyses of the shortcomings of AI resonated with me most as it discussed a number of areas not previously thought of too commonly within a classroom. From privacy, private ideas becoming public access, lack of exercise to the brain, and even the detrimental impacts on the environment, these areas must be acknowledged whenever discussing the presence, validity, and stake of AI. I myself have seen many students fail and succeed in the pursuit of using AI instead of their own brain. While often beginning as a tool, it can slowly descend into a state of reliance. Humans desire ease, machines provide the means.
Many of these cadets who used AI in this way got varied results. Some failed out of their assignments and went home, others were praised for their innovation and received high marks. In the end, no matter what the outcome, no real thought was put into the work. My brain steams and smokes when looking for credible sources; it churns when trying to find the right words. I cannot begin to count the amount of tears I shed whilst trying to stay ahead of the curve and on top of my work. But, at the end of it all, I can confidently say that it was my work and my work alone that earned me the score I received. However, AI and its uses can and will evolve. I simply hope that it will lead us towards the horizon's sun, not a black hole.
I look forward to further correspondence.
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ReplyDeleteLOCATION - A Cozy Bedroom
TRANSMITTER - Cadet Adam Jaye
Message goes as follows:
You provide a lot of good insights about where AI is, where it's going, and why it is so easy to consider falling into its grasp. I'd like to focus on your point specifically about how putting one's voice into their writing is often part of education, but more-or-less an afterthought rather than a goal. If exploring all of our writers' varied identities and voices was a more crucial part of writing curriculum, perhaps they wouldn't be so tempted currently to give those voices away to our technological overlords. When we have spent years pushing students through the machine of education toward the factory model of the "good (i.e. mindless) citizen," can we really be surprised when they find comfort in the computer programs we act like they are?
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I can definitely understand your side, and I agree. You captured perfectly the one thing AI cannot do, provide human thoughts and feelings. We cannot replace the way people think and feel. When a student copy and pastes rather than writing from their own thinking, it discourages them from critically thinking and putting emotion into their writing. I do think it should be shown in the classroom for students to understand the dos and don'ts of it, it definitely should not be used on assignments or to replace writing on their own.
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ReplyDeleteLocation - A comfortable shoebox apartment
Transmitter - Cadet Gayle Houck
Message:
I love your blog it is so much fun. I agree with you, that AI is useful in some aspects, but not the classroom. I like all of the points you made that AI causes to our brains and spaces. My favorite part of what you said is about ease and how machines give that to us. We have this continued conversation of talking about how we got used to the internet. Yet, look at what that did to us. We don’t search books to find the answer, we can google it. All of this technology has made it easier for us yet has diminished a lot of our critical thinking skills. How can we blame anyone though with the lives we live. Isn't it easier to have someone you tell you about the right thing after watching the wrong thing happen over and over again? We share a lot of the same views on AI, and it is really interesting to see how you see it in classrooms.
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