Perhaps we should reconsider the purpose of teaching. If one does not want to learn, why are we teaching them?
Because it is necessary, think about toilet training a toddler.
Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
111–120 of 672 posts
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#112Perhaps we should reconsider the purpose of teaching. If one does not want to learn, why are we teaching them?
> Perhaps we should reconsider the purpose of teaching. If one does not want to learn, why are we teaching them?
Certainly there's something to be said for reconsidering much of the purpose (and mechanisms) of post-secondary education, but we often 'force' children and young adults to do things they don't want to do for their own good. I think it's better we teach our children the importance of learning - the lack of which is what results in, as another commenter puts it, students viewing homework as "something they have to overcome"
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#113The idea with calculators was that as a tool there are higher level questions that calculators would help you answer. A simple example is that calculators don't solve word problems, but you can use them to do the intermediate computations. What are the higher level questions that LLMs will help with, but for which humans are absolutely necessary? The concern I have is that this line doesn't exist -- and at the very b…
Those higher level questions are likely outside the scope of the class. Like write a novel or something like that.
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#114The fundamental question that AI raises for me, but nobody seems to answer:
In our competitive, profit-driven world--what is the value of a human being and having human experiences?
AI is neither inevitable nor necessary--but it seems like the next inevitable step in reducing the value of a human life to its 'outputs'.
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#115One of the most offensive words in the anthropomophization of LLMs is: hallucinate. It's not only an anthropomorphism, it's also a euphemism. A correct interpretation of the word would imply that the LLM has some fantastical vision that it mistakes for reality. What utter bullsh1t. Let's just use the correct word for this type of output: wrong. When the LLM generates a sequence of words, that may or may not be gramma…
Thank fuck for saying this
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have an Accessible Testing Center that will administer and proctor exams under very flexible conditions (more time, breaks, quiet/privacy, …) to help students with various forms of neurodivergence. They’re very good and offer a valuable service without placing any significant additional burden on the instructor. Seems to work well, but I don’t have first hand knowledge about how these forms of accommodations are v…
Yes I think the issue is as much that open tasks make learning interesting and meaningful in a way that exams hardly can do. This is the core of the issue really. If we are in the business of teaching, as in making people learn, exams are a pretty blunt and ineffective instrument. However since our business is also assessing, proctoring is the best if not only trustworthy approach and exams are cheap in time, effort…
You can’t expect all students to learn without being forced to, no matter how much that’s literally the point of them being there.
They’re kids, and they should be treated as such, in both good and bad ways. You might want to make exceptions for the good ones, but absolutely not for the average or bad ones.
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#117Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have an Accessible Testing Center that will administer and proctor exams under very flexible conditions (more time, breaks, quiet/privacy, …) to help students with various forms of neurodivergence. They’re very good and offer a valuable service without placing any significant additional burden on the instructor. Seems to work well, but I don’t have first hand knowledge about how these forms of accommodations are v…
Yes I think the issue is as much that open tasks make learning interesting and meaningful in a way that exams hardly can do. This is the core of the issue really. If we are in the business of teaching, as in making people learn, exams are a pretty blunt and ineffective instrument. However since our business is also assessing, proctoring is the best if not only trustworthy approach and exams are cheap in time, effort…
> If we are in the business of teaching, as in making people learn, exams are a pretty blunt and ineffective instrument.
I'm curious: what is fulfilling in your job as a math teacher? When students learn? When they're assigned grades that accurately reflect their performance? When they learn something with minimal as opposed to significant effort? Some combination?
I always thought teacher motivations were interesting. I'm sure there are fantastic professors who couldn't care less as to what grades they gave out at the end.
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#119The fundamental question that AI raises for me, but nobody seems to answer: In our competitive, profit-driven world--what is the value of a human being and having human experiences? AI is neither inevitable nor necessary--but it seems like the next inevitable step in reducing the value of a human life to its 'outputs'.
Someone needs to experience the real world and translate it into LLM training data.
ChatGPT can’t know if the cafe around the corner has banana bread, or how it feels to lose a friend to cancer. It can’t tell you anything unless a human being has experienced it and written it down.
It reminds me of that scene from Good Will Hunting: https://www.imdb.com/de/title/tt0119217/quotes/?item=qt04081...
Re: Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe schools and universities need to stop considering homework to be evidence of subject matter mastery. Grading homework never made sense to me. What are you measuring, really, and how confident are you of that measurement? You can't put the toothpaste back into the tube. Universities need to accept that AI exists, and adjust their operations accordingly.
Grading homework has two reasonable objectives: Provide an incentive for students to do the thing they should be doing anyway. Give an opportunity to provide feedback on the assignment. It is totally useless as an evaluation mechanic, because of course the students that want to can just cheat. It’s usually pretty small, right? IIRC when I did tutoring we only gave like 10-20% for the aggregate homework grade.
I can say that making my homework part of my grade is a great way to actually get me to do it.