Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine

Post by ghusto » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 6:20 PM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #608

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…

> The fact that AI can do your homework should tell you how much your homework is worth. I mean... if you removed the substring "home" from that sentence, is it still true in your opinion? That is, do you believe that because AI can perform some task, that task must not have any value? If there's a difference, help me understand it better please.

No that's not exactly what I meant. It's not that "If AI can do X then X is worthless", but rather in _this_ case it's inappropriate.

Homework should be a part of the collaborative process of learning (as others above have already elaborated on). If teachers are having a problem with AI generated homework being submitted, it shows that the system is broken because they couldn't have been collaborating with students on their learning then.

Post by ghusto » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 6:27 PM UTC

camjw wrote: post #392

jmmcd wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that AI can do your homework should tell you how much your homework is worth. A lot of people who say this kind of thing have, frankly, a very shallow view of what homework is. A lot of homework can be easily done by AI, or by a calculator, or by Wikipedia, or by looking up the textbook. That doesn't invalidate it as homework at all. We're trying to scaffold skills in your brain. It also didn't invalidate…

Completely agree - I always thought the framing of "exercises" is the right one, the point is that your brain grows by doing. It's been possible for a long time to e.g. google a similar algebra problem and find a very relevant math stackexchange post, doesn't mean the exercises were useless. "The fact that forklift truck can lift over 500kg should tell you how worthwhile it is for me to go to a gym and lift 100kg." -…

If the judge of your fitness took into account only the amount you could lift, then sure, why not use a forklift.

This is what's happened in education. The education system is not concerned with teaching you to learn, or even teaching you, it's concerned with grades.

As many have stated here, homework is practice for the student, and can be helpful in learning. However, it's given out as something to grade without any collaboration on the learning experience.

By the way, I'm ranting about all this as someone who did very well in both high-school and university, so I feel somewhat justified in calling bullshit on the whole thing.

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

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