LESSON 11
Transforming Education?
Developed by Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West
"I think we're at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen. And the way we're going to do that is by giving every student on the planet an artificially intelligent but amazing personal tutor.”
AI has already transformed education.
With a push of a button, you can get ChatGPT to do your research for you. No trips to the library, no poring over articles, no struggling to make sense of technical jargon. If you so choose, it will even write your paper for you. No struggling to organize arguments, no finessing sentences, no late nights with a word processor.
Why should you bother with any of that? As teachers, here's our thought. When you write an essay, you learn to do research, read primary texts, organize an argument, hone your voice and figure out what you think.
But we admit: That's a pain in the ass. And so writing outside of the classroom is dying.
Instructors—ourselves included—are flailing about in an effort to adapt.
The skill of reading is threatened as well.
When we engage in the act of reading, we are not just processing the words in a linear order; we are thinking and synthesizing at the same time. AI summaries deprive us of that opportunity (as well as being inaccurate).
And of course writing conveys far more than the raw facts expressed. Tone and style are vital to the message. If writing enables a conversation between author and reader, AI summaries strip the author of their voice and make that conversation impossible.
So if AI is going to improve education, someone better figure out how it can provide benefits that outweigh the harm it is doing. If this is possible at all, the key will be to draw on LLMs’ greatest strength: allowing natural-language conversation with a computer.
For example, when you're learning a language, it would be best to practice with a native speaker—but that's not always possible. LLMs can simulate a conversational partner. Hallucinations aren’t so much of a drawback when you are trying to learn grammatical form rather than factual substance.
Or as another example, subject-specific tutors can answer questions from motivated students who are struggling to grasp specific concepts.
Education involves not only information and assessment, but also motivation. People are motivated by interacting with real people. Ten years ago, MOOCs (massive open online courses) were supposed to revolutionize university education—and by 2025, conventional classrooms were supposed to be a thing of the past. It didn’t happen. MOOCs don’t create the same sense of engagement that in-person classes do.
No one is going to be motivated by a robotic tutor the way they are motivated by curious peers and caring professors.
Yet many edutech proponents don't see that. Here's one such CEO:
I think it's adorable when people think we are going to fix education by improving teachers. Sorry, it's AI tutors or the slow death of civilization. Those are the choices....first step, stop teachers from teaching.
We could not disagree more vehemently.
Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way.
Despite all this, we see school districts racing to incorporate AI into their classroom, often advised by the very vendors that stand to make huge profits from the enterprise.
That makes us worry.
Teachers often fail to understand the technology that they are bringing into their classrooms; privacy issues arise and are often inadequately considered; there is little evidence about the educational value of AI tutors; the hype around AI pushes school districts toward hasty and foolish decisions.
And somehow, the people who develop these systems are incapable of seeing how dystopian it is to ask middle schoolers to chat online with an Anne Frank simulacrum who speaks in a bland American accent, has a penchant for therapist-speak, and professes interest in the mundane details of students' lives.
app.schoolai.com
app.schoolai.com
Let's be clear: Banning AI altogether from the classroom would be a mistake. It's an AI world now; education must prepare students to thrive in this world.
Students need to know the same things we are teaching in this course: when LLMs are helpful, when they are dangerous, and how to tell the difference.
Take a task like computer programming. LLMs can help skilled coders work faster and more effectively. But it's critical that the people using them (1) begin with good a foundation in programming, (2) understand how an LLM can help them, and (3) have practice programming with LLM assistance.
Or think about brainstorming. Many of our colleagues think that LLMs are great for helping them generate new ideas. We're skeptical. A substantial literature within psychology highlights the problems of design fixation and anchoring bias. People who are given a possible solution to a problem tend to be less creative at resolving it than those who have to work from scratch.
Ultimately, educators have to figure out how to get students to master basic skills, and also teach them how to use AI responsibility in their work. It's not easy, now that LLMs offer such tempting shortcuts.
PRINCIPLE
Generative AI has already transformed education, by undermining the processes of reading and writing as a core elements of teaching and learning. The bar is high if LLMs are going to provide a net positive impact on education.
DISCUSSION
What do teachers need to know before bringing AI into the classroom?
VIDEO
Coming Soon.
NEXT: The AI Scientist
Built with Shorthand