I'm not asking you to get from point A to point B. I'm asking you to get some exercise. - ThreadSky

annmlipton.bsky.social • 6 days ago

I'm not asking you to get from point A to point B. I'm asking you to get some exercise.

This is bleak reading

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I AI-proof most of the writing tasks in my first year seminar. I explain why this is so important for learning how to structure their own arguments for different situations and to help them master sentence and paragraph structure. Even good high schools fail to do this well. I get no complaints…yet.

annmlipton.bsky.social•6 days ago

how do you ai proof?

dhfeldman.bsky.social•5 days ago

I regret using the term "AI-proof," and the current versions of AI have made this system less foolproof. Alas.

In brief, I constrain students to write within perspectives that Chat may not fully comprehend (yet). So if I ask them to write a short case history of a particular college or university,

dhfeldman.bsky.social•5 days ago

2/ and I do this in my first year writing seminar, I tell them to use the analytical framework of a particular book we're reading and develop their argument to reflect that author's ideas. I also tell them to criticize that framework, and this can throw a bit of a monkey wrench into AI (I think).

dhfeldman.bsky.social•5 days ago

3/ I have seen Chat do a decent job of identifying the thematic structure of a book, and it can write a history within those themes, but AI still seems weak at writing an evidence-based analysis. It slings around lots of jargon. In other words it dances at a high level of generality. Chat still

dhfeldman.bsky.social•5 days ago

3/ uses repetitive assertions as an argument, which is what we would expect with an LLM. Unless you tell it otherwise it thinks Wikipedia offers sufficient factual evidence and source material. It is still not particularly good at identifying the right contemporary scholarship to bolster a case.

jessemerle.bsky.social•6 days ago

I had the same question!

momsthoughts.bsky.social•6 days ago

I went to college before there were personal computers. Lol. 🤣We did research the old fashion way.

And then we had to type it. With no typos. I don't even remember where I got the typewriter from. Lol. Good times.

sarabwarf.bsky.social•6 days ago

I wish that I had understood this better when I was in K-12. I always thought “show your work” and “revise your draft again” were stupid; if I have the answers you want, what does it matter how I got there? But, of course, the getting there part was the key.

proflouisjim.bsky.social•6 days ago

And with GenAI, they may not even be the “answers”. The car isn’t taking you to Point B—it’s taking you nowhere.

ncweaver.skerry-tech.com•6 days ago

I'm HOPING my current assignment for programming has that inadvertantly. There is a LOT of shitty old C++ code out there, and I'm requiring the students to use agressively MODERN C++ instead...

louisingenthron.bsky.social•6 days ago

I remember debates over whether using calculators was cheating on math.

God, I feel old.

maddog5.bsky.social•6 days ago

More and more people are using AI in their daily lives. It started out doing searches and doing research. I think there is a downside but I don't see anyone stopping it The human brain will become increasingly obsolete.

professorlaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

Now, as that student said why they couldn't use their car to get from A to B...

You have to learn to drive the car before you are allowed behind the wheel - just like learning a subject.

Use AI after you know the subject!

notoriouscrk.bsky.social•6 days ago

Just like a calculator.

michiganarchist.bsky.social•6 days ago

We shouldn't be using it at all for the horrific effects it has on the environment.

professorlaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

Agreed, but its there and it is being used. So, a prohibition of it won't stop its use and that being the case, I am trying to make a plus out of a negative.

professorlaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

As a history professor, I have had to adapt to the saying, “If you can beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

I incorporate AI into my research assignments. They're going to use it, so why not have them use it for learning rather than cheating? As a 55-year-old professor, this is a tough reality to swallow.

szbalint.eu•6 days ago

AI: Innovative excuses for people trying to avoid work, even against their best interests (when that work is about learning and gaining experience)

realindependent.bsky.social•6 days ago

“In a bizarre twist it was later revealed that the professor used AI to AI-proof his assignments.”

birchbot.bsky.social•6 days ago

My grad school professor put it one way when I was frustrated with progress on a group project: Sometimes the process IS the product.

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