Delegating the Thinking Part
As the school season begins, teachers are developing assignments to assess the learning of students in their classrooms. The arrival of AI threatens some of the more traditional assessment techniques. Are AI tools such as ChatGPT simply another addition to the toolkit, much like calculators and spell check features were when they were introduced? Some universities think so, and are providing subscriptions for an educational version of the software to their students.
Even at the high school level, major writing tasks are assigned in the hope that students will consider the assignment, formulate a position and then back it up with intelligent, insightful arguments of their own. This is hard work. It takes time. If a student who uses AI to prepare an essay can be seen as smart because of the time saved, or dumb for missing the opportunity to learn something deeper.
Are the productivity gains from AI programs worth what is lost is in the process? Like any muscle, the brain needs exercise to remain in top condition. If we become lazy thinkers, relying on technology to do the hard work, technology will do more thinking for us. It’s fair to assume that we might not like where that leads.