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My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

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Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#271

Post by itishappy »

MVissers wrote: post #123
itishappy wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't it be? Education's job is to prepare students for life in the real world, and life in the real world is often a competition with your peers. When I was in grade school (admittedly close to 20 years ago) we had accelerated and slowed tracks for students starting in 5th grade.

I mean, they should probably prepare people with knowledge of taxes and investing then. The competition is very obvious in societies with a lot of wealth disparity. In Europe there tends to be less disparity and less competition. US, China, India, UK, etc, much more disparity so it’s much more important for kids to be ‘top of the field’.

> I mean, they should probably prepare people with knowledge of taxes and investing then.

Fully agree.

> The competition is very obvious in societies with a lot of wealth disparity. In Europe there tends to be less disparity and less competition.

Fascinating observation! Wonder if that shows up at the school level as well? For example, In the US the highest/lowest performing schools tend to correlate to high/low income areas and have significant disparity in quality of education, and I expect this is a strongly self-reinforcing trend towards elite private institutions.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#272

Post by MichaelZuo »

htrp wrote: post #146
MichaelZuo wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This never made sense to me, Unless the child is a literal genius or very charismatic, wouldn’t they almost certainly have worse prospects after graduating in the 10th to 30th percentile of their class at Harvard than from the 80th to 90th percentile of their class at Boston U? (Assuming they could even manage to squeak into Harvard in the first placd)

No one cares about your gpa after 2 years of experience. All they will see is Harvard or BU

Who mentioned ‘gpa’?

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#273

Post by yodsanklai »

Interesting anecdote, but doesn't really tell much on gen alpha and impact of ChatGPT. There always have been disinterested kids who put zero effort in their homework. But there are also smart and curious kids who will use these tools to learn faster.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#274

Post by dcchambers »

jjice wrote: post #232
dcchambers wrote: post #219

I think one thing few are willing to admit is that a large blame for this can be placed on disinterested parents. Parents that believe it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. When kids are at home, parents should be involved in the learning process. You don't have to be a helicopter and monitor everything, but you should take interest in the work your child is doing. If you check in at least onc…

> Parents that believe it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. My sister works with kids on their speech at a school and she's said that it's _bad_ how many children can't read or tell you what letter their first name starts with. She says that the teachers are getting flack at parent-teacher meetings because of this, but those are things that their parents teach them! I thought the "kids are il…

> My sister works with kids on their speech at a school and she's said that it's _bad_ how many children can't read or tell you what letter their first name starts with

This just blows my mind. Literally the first thing I taught my Toddler once he started learning letters was how to spell his own name.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#275

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

dowager_dan99 wrote: post #190
abeppu wrote: post #159

I'm close to someone who teaches at a university, and they're making heavy use of in-room essays written in blue books. This ensures that the work is purely the students, but I think it also has the side-effect that the grader is also working manually. I kinda think maybe at earlier levels, most homework should be moved into the classroom and done on paper anyway? What's the point of homework if they're not going to…

If we flipped the lecture/homework system upside down it would first solve some of the major issues with how we deliver education, but as a side effect prevent the appearance of doing the work while really it's just the student mindlessly copying prompts and responses. Assign the material for outside the classroom. Use the in-person contact time to work through the problems, with a mix of small group, pairing and men…

This is good. I've never understood the value of watching a live lecture without interactivity. You might as well watch a video.

It works on multiple levels: it mitigates the cheating, but also takes advantage of the vast array of learning options available to replace the traditional lecture.

I cringe at the "small group" suggestion, although I acknowledge it's probably good to learn to coordinate with others. Rarely does it work out well though, in a classroom setting. I feel like what you're really learning is how to tolerate partners who are unwilling to cooperate.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#276

Post by danenania »

scld wrote: post #198
corysama wrote: post #185

Some 15 years ago I recall some schools in California bragging about their success in flipping the school schedule around. They had students watch lectures at home as videos. Then during class they did "homework". Seems like this method is going to become a necessity if students can just prompt "Hey GPT. Do my homework for me. Thanks." at home every day.

Or they can just do it all at school.

Seriously, they are already spending 6+ hours there. That's plenty of time if used efficiently.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#277

Post by dfxm12 »

gotoeleven wrote: post #270
dfxm12 wrote: post #262

Counterpoint: maybe, if anyone is even cooked, it is just this one student and not an entire generation. Go back generations and it was always something else ruining the youth: not playing outside enough, Internet, videogames, hip hop, playing outside too much, TV, rock & roll, books, etc. In my own studies and brief time as a tutor, you get students like this who just see school as an obstacle to something else. Eve…

Self-reported measures of well-being have been steadily decreasing. Mental illness has been steadily increasing. Maybe grandpa was right?

So is the stigma of mental illness. It is a good thing that people are more comfortable admitting that they are not OK, but I'm not sure the bearing of this on the current conversation.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#278

Post by cess11 »

I find "homework" more disturbing than kids figuring out ways to subvert the system they're forced into. Offloading state mandated education on parents without compensating for it is quite the policy, and likely accepted because most parents are afraid their kids will end up in misery if they refuse to or can't obey.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#280

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jjice wrote: post #232
dcchambers wrote: post #219

I think one thing few are willing to admit is that a large blame for this can be placed on disinterested parents. Parents that believe it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. When kids are at home, parents should be involved in the learning process. You don't have to be a helicopter and monitor everything, but you should take interest in the work your child is doing. If you check in at least onc…

> Parents that believe it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. My sister works with kids on their speech at a school and she's said that it's _bad_ how many children can't read or tell you what letter their first name starts with. She says that the teachers are getting flack at parent-teacher meetings because of this, but those are things that their parents teach them! I thought the "kids are il…

> Is this because of an increase in the prevalence of child distractions like an iPad?

There is a massive class discrepancy emerging between communities where kids are always on devices, at school and at home, and those where it is controlled. The crack pipe being in the pocket is functionally different from a heavy object at home.

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