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Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

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Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#441

Post by mrweasel »

bearjaws wrote: post #417
anal_reactor wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their bullshit is a waste of life and won't lead them to a meaningful existence as a professional programmer That's where you're wrong. Being a professional programmer is 10% programming, 40% office politics, and 50% project management. If your student managed to get halfway through college without any actual programming skills, they're perfect candidate, because they clearly own the 90% of skills needed to be a pr…

> Being a professional programmer is 10% programming, 40% office politics, and 50% project management. I'd say that really depends on your job. At smaller companies, your job will likely be 60% programming at a minimum. Only at ~100 employees do companies fall into lots of meetings and politics.

Hence my personal policy of never working for a company with more than ~100-150 people.

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#442

Post by masfuerte »

ghaff wrote: post #96
barry-cotter wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> proctoring services have tiny incentives to catch cheaters. Cheaters have massive incentives to cheat. If they don’t catch them they don’t have a business model. They have one job. The University of London, Open University and British Council all have 50+ years experience on proctoring university exams for distance learning students and it’s not like Thomson Prometric haven’t thought about how to do it either, even…

And I daresay most of the corporate certs from companies like Microsoft and Red Hat are probably have pretty well-proctored exams too. To what degree their processes are applicable to a University environment I don't know.

I took one last year. Microsoft offer a choice of remote proctoring or in-person at a Pearson VUE test centre. I chose the latter.

You put your stuff in a locker. They compare your face to some official photo ID and take your photo. You sit the test. They print out your results along with your mugshot. That's it. It was very painless.

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#443

Post by Der_Einzige »

raincole wrote: post #99
blitzar wrote: post #32

How did we solve this when calculators came along and ruined peoples ability to do mental arithmetic and use slide rulers?

We banned it. Yes, that's what we did and are still doing. Most grade schools don't allow calculators on basic arithmetic classes. Colleges don't integrate WolframAlpha into Calculus 101 exams. etc.

Which is extremely stupid.

I want my math graduates to be skilled at using CAS systems. Yes, even in Calculus 1.

The lack of computer access for teaching math which objectively is supercharged by computation is a massive disservice to millions of individuals who could have used those CAS systems.

I don't want my engineers solving equations by hand. I especially don't want anyone who claims to be a "statistician" to not be skilled in Python (or historically, R)

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#444

Post by aerhardt »

snickerbockers wrote: post #277

I think we (as in, the whole species) need to reflect on what the purpose of education is and what it should be, because in theory there's no reason why anybody should pay for a college tuition and then undermine their own mastery of the subject. Obviously 90% of the student body sees it as a ticket to being taken seriously by prospective employers and the other 10% definitely does not deserve to be taken seriously b…

You mean the 10% who really want to learn should give up and embrace the degree mill merry-go-round game?

I’m as cynical as they come, but even that’s a bit too much for me.

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#446

Post by Der_Einzige »

Aeolun wrote: post #123
andoando wrote: post #98

Perhaps we should reconsider the purpose of teaching. If one does not want to learn, why are we teaching them?

To avoid November 6, 2024?

Those protestors mostly went to government schools, and were likely radicalized because of their time in them. Being in school doesn't make the hate in your heart go away. It forces you to rub shoulders with the exact kind of people you believe are subhuman - and even gives more ammunition for them to use in their mind when arguments against racism are made to them.

There's a reason why conservatives are so obsessed with school choice, LGBT book bans, etc.

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#447

Post by Traubenfuchs »

lisenKaci wrote: post #445

Maybe switching it up could work. What if learning happened at home with the use of AI and "homework" happened in class under supervision?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom

I wrote my master thesis about that.

It‘s an old idea.

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#448

Post by vonneumannstan »

stackedinserter wrote: post #390
datadrivenangel wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did once have a Physics lecturer say " When I took Quantum Mechanics back in my undergrad, I got an A but didn't actually understand anything" and then in the same lecture 20 minutes later: "What part of this do you not understand?" when the entire class was just blankly looking at the whiteboard.

Seriously, what so non-understandable in first 20 minutes of QM?

They never implied it was the first 20 minutes of the entire course

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#449

Post by nathan_compton »

TheFreim wrote: post #10
nathan_compton wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger problem is that kids can just hand write an essay that an AI gave them. I teach at a university and I just scale my homework assignments until they reach or exceed sightly the amount of work I expect a student to be able to do with AI. Before I would give them a problem set. Next semester homeworks will be more like entire projects.

Punishing honest students by ensuring that they will fail unless they cheat is an absurd solution. In school I went to great lengths to do my work well and on my own. It was disheartening to see other students openly cheat and do well, but at least I knew that I was performing well on my own merits. Under your system, I would have been actively punished for not cheating. What's the point of developing a cure that's w…

It isn't a punishment if the AI is doing the work. The goal is to make students utilize the skills they will need now that AI can supplement their abilities.

Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

#450

Post by vonneumannstan »

aerhardt wrote: post #437
ghusto wrote: post #374

I've always though that the education system was broken and next to worthless. I've never felt that teachers ever tried to _teach_ me anything, certainly not how to think. In fact I saw most attempts at thought squashed because they didn't fit neatly into the syllabus (and so couldn't be graded). The fact that AI can do your homework should tell you how much your homework is worth. Teaching and learning are collabora…

Current AI can ace math and programming psets at elite institutions, and yet prior to GPT not only did I learn loads from the homework, I often thoroughly enjoyed it too. I don’t see how you can make that logical leap.

Its a problem of incentives. For many courses the psets make up a large chunk of your grade. Grades determine your suitability for graduate school, internships, jobs, etc. So if your final goal is one of those then you are highly incentivized to get high grades, not necessarily to learn the material.
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