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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

#231

Post by bdangubic »

matwood wrote: post #208
runjake wrote: post #199

It's worth noting people probably reacted to this like they did with calculators, and perhaps, encyclopedias. I see this use a bit differently: as a teacher that scales (and is probably more accurate that a human, hallucinations and other concerns notwithstanding). I see my kids using it in a similar manner as described in this post, but I also see their curiosity piqued and them asking all kinds of theoretical and c…

If an LLM can answer the HW questions so easily, then maybe it's an issue with the HW and not the LLM/student.

She is 11 ... if LLMs cannot answer questions for 11-year old homework maybe 98.76% of HN posts should not be about LLMs/AI :)

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

#232

Post by jjice »

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 illiterate now" stuff was overblown, and I bet it still is to a certain extent, but it's definitely bad. Other interesting things are that they're not teaching kids to read analog clocks anymore? Less important than reading, but still.

Is this because of an increase in the prevalence of child distractions like an iPad? I find that hard to believe since television filled that same void before, didn't it? COVID definitely put a lot of kids at a few year disadvantage, too.

I can't really speak to any of this because I haven't raised a kid, so I also don't want to criticize people for something I know nothing about, but it does seem like children aren't taught by their parents the same way - but I don't know if my parent's generation had the same thought at one point and this is a cyclical critique.

I'd be interested to hear other's thoughts who have more exposure to this kind of thing than I do.

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

#233

Post by turtleyacht »

This may be a transitory period until teachers realize they can ask much harder questions. Students become teleological (goal-seeking) agents, and the bar is raised.

Computer science in middle school. Quantum physics in high school. Proofs in between, formal methods, and welcome the rising tide.

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

#234

Post by Herring »

devin wrote: post #57
torpfactory wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a bit like the old saying about the banks: “If you owe the bank $10,000 it’s your problem. If you owe the bank $10,000,000 it’s the banks problem”. If everyone in class is using LLMs to cheat, it’s really the university/instructors problem and it may be easier to bury their heads in the sand then to change their teaching methods and lesson plans. You can’t fail them all…

Why not?

Inertia. They were cheating a lot when I was a TA, but using whatsapp groups and other online resources. Nothing changed then, and it probably won't change much now.

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

#235

Post by itishappy »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #126
fnimick wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grades determine what college you go to, which determines the connections you make, which determines the trajectory of your entire life.

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)

Anecdotally, I failed out of undergrad 3 times. When I finally graduated, it had been 9 years and my final GPA was a 2.4. I also walked out that door with 6 interviews and an offer from each, all through the school job fair. Nobody ever asked about my GPA, they care about my degree and where I got it. For reference, I attended a respectable private school, but not one anywhere near the level of Harvard.

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

#237

Post by mihaaly »

delichon wrote: post #43

I find my self using LLMs for very simple things, to jog my memory instead of actually exercising it. Yesterday I asked Claude how to format a numeric string in Ruby. I could have figured it out in the REPL in a minute but instead got the answer from AI in 15 seconds. This is the same kind of laziness as using it to multiply 60 * 3. If I take the slightly slower road of figuring out the string formatting next time I…

Learning numbers in primary school and math is not looking up syntax of some very special programming language, not comparable, not at all. Not to mention that it is more laborous using an AI for this than spit out 180 in a fraction of a second....

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

#238

Post by hluska »

_mlbt wrote: post #224
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…

Not only this, but parents should be involved before children go to school. Teachers have repeatedly told us that they could tell that we read to our children regularly as babies and preschoolers.

That’s neat in a bad way - I have heard the same thing in parent teacher interviews. When my kid was born, I turned into a dude who cries. This stuff makes me cry. I like being involved in my child’s life and absolutely love reading to her. I can’t imagine just not doing my favourite thing with my favourite person.

Granted, I have one child and a lot of privilege so maybe I can’t understand the other side. But I’m not sure I want to.

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

#240

Post by LudwigNagasena »

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…

The post looks like a result of ego defence mechanisms in action. “I keep giving crack cocaine and Xanax to my sister, and it made me realize the next generation is cooked!” Such a bizarre conclusion.
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