“… it also will separate you from your students” I decided to finally ask students how they felt about all things AI in education last week, not really knowing what they were going to say. They had a lot to say—and the message was ridiculously clear. thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/what-my-st... - ThreadSky

marcusluther.bsky.social • 4 days ago

“… it also will separate you from your students”

I decided to finally ask students how they felt about all things AI in education last week, not really knowing what they were going to say.

They had a lot to say—and the message was ridiculously clear.

https://thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/what-my-students-had-to-say-about

Comments

sgprilliman.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thank you for this! I think the student perspective has been ignored and/or assumed to be 100% positive.

elizabethwithaz.bsky.social•4 days ago

My students are also concerned about environmental impacts.

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

That definitely got brought up, especially in conversations amongst students in small groups.

disneyoldsters.dissky.com•4 days ago

I love that he points out the fact that these tools were created unethically- that is not discussed enough

kod0n.bsky.social•4 days ago

What a terrific dialog. It’s important to distinguish between what students do (e.g., develop ability to reason, think critically) and what teachers do (create the best possible learning environment with meaningful feedback). Your engagement is compelling. Great insight on potential separation

imeanwegotguys.bsky.social•4 days ago

This is excellent, thank you. I just shared it with my colleagues.

prakashph.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thanks Marcus for putting this out there. Did you also share this with your students as well?

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

They got to see all the results!

ethorntonghs.bsky.social•4 days ago

So I'm gonna self-own for a moment. I do feel a nasty precedent/double standard is set when we tell kids not to use AI, then we do it (especially as a Spanish teacher, grading an assistant w/ a Gemini created rubric when I harp abt GT isn't good) That said, I begrudgingly used it this year due to 1/

ethorntonghs.bsky.social•4 days ago

Sheer mental overload/exhaustion. So, my question is, what is the plan to reduce the systemic problems occurring in K12 ed that make teachers & students alike go for the ease/convenience of AI so there's more to stand on than shaming teachers that use it on the internet?

ethorntonghs.bsky.social•4 days ago

And I say this as someone who has engaged in passive aggressive pedagogy shaming. But, do you wanna do that, or have teachers/students feel more confident in their product/process & have the time to produce where they don't need it.

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

Just seeing this—and definitely want to give as full of a response as possible. Very much value your feedback!

Three things come to mind as a response for me:

#1 - the intent of the post (and yes, intent doesn't excuse impact) was to basically say "here's what my students are saying," and [1/5]

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

...I edited out a lot of my reflections, since I wanted it to be more about what students said/shared.

#2 - While I am critical of a few specific practices around this (ex: not disclosing usage of AI to students/families) I still fully admit that this is a new landscape we are learning to [2/5]

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

...walk, and I tried to link at the end to some educators I very much respect who are making different choices than I am—and I am sure getting great results! I do think it's important, tho, to be able to say "here is a practice I think is good/bad" and have those conversations, which are hard! [3/5]

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

But most importantly #3 - you are 100% right about our profession being under-resourced/supported, and every teacher has to make the choice they need to in their context. That said, I go back to what @marcwatkins.bsky.social said last summer a lot, too, in that our response to unsatisfactory [4/5]

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

labor conditions in our work has to be to address those labor conditions, not to "fill that gap" with AI tools—which feels like a slippery slope that very much worries me.

Finally, I really appreciate your response—I do hold critiques but I will keep trying to get better at expressing them 🙏

randallphysics.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thank you for sharing this!

jenjennings.bsky.social•4 days ago

I loved “…if this continues we're gonna end up like the humans in Wall-E.”

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

Heard that from multiple students in different class sections 🤖

thevogelman.bsky.social•4 days ago

These are critically important conversations to have and having them with kids is the most important part 👏🏻 I’d love to see how they feel about students using AI to work in assignments or lessons about how to do that transparently…perhaps an upcoming post?

marcusluther.bsky.social•4 days ago

While I'm not doing this in my classroom right now (only a few weeks left!) I do believe they'd be interested in the option of taking more courses in technology literacy + building that awareness overall, both on ethics around it as well as implementation.

(And I'll keep reading what others share!)

thevogelman.bsky.social•4 days ago

I also think discussing the huge range of activities under “using AI” is important to incorporate. Live demonstration if various uses too…I’ve done this and had students write their opinions on the use they just witnessed on the screen. Powerful conversations!

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