Thoughts on Education

For example, we know that in-class lectures are not the most effective way to teach and that topics need to be interwoven together in order for students to retain what they know. Unhappily for students, however, research shows that both homework and tests are actually remarkably useful learning tools.

Some assignments ask students to “cheat” by having the AI create essays, which they then critique—a sneaky way of getting students to think hard about the work, even if they don’t write it. Some assignments allow unlimited AI use but hold the students accountable for the outcomes and facts produced by the AI, which mirrors how they might work with

Imagine introducing high-quality AI tutors into the flipped classroom model. These AI-powered systems have the potential to significantly enhance the learning experience for students and make flipped classrooms even more effective. They provide personalized learning, where AI tutors can tailor instruction to each student’s unique needs while contin

Cheating was already common in schools. One study of eleven years of college courses found that when students did their homework in 2008, it improved test grades for 86 percent of them, but it helped only 45 percent of students in 2017. Why? Because over half of students were looking up homework answers on the internet by 2017, so they never got th

And while I am sure that in-class essay writing will come back in style as a stopgap measure, AI does more than help students cheat. Every school or instructor will need to think hard about what AI use is acceptable: Is asking AI to provide a draft of an outline cheating? Requesting help with a sentence that someone is stuck on? Is asking for a lis

By the mid-1990s, calculators were part of the curriculum and were used to complement other ways of learning math. Some tests allowed them, some did not. A practical consensus was achieved. Math education did not fall apart, though debate and research continues today, a half century after the calculator appeared in classrooms.

To some extent, AI wil

The Homework Apocalypse threatens a lot of good, useful types of assignments, many of which have been used in schools for centuries. We will need to adjust quickly to preserve what we are in danger of losing and to accommodate the changes AI will bring. That will take immediate effort from instructors and education leaders and clearly articulated p

If you want to do something with AI, just ask it to help you do the thing. “I want to write a novel; what do you need to know to help me?” will get you surprisingly far. And remember, AI is only going to get better at guiding us, rather than requiring us to guide it. Prompting is not going to be that important for that much longer.

This doesn’t mean

Even slow-moving educational institutions are recognizing that teaching about AI will play an important role in education, with the US Department of Education suggesting, within just months of the release of ChatGPT, that AI will need to be embraced in classrooms.