1. This makes me wonder if it is utterly necessary for students to fail once in order to make progress in their courses. Why is faculty not providing such strategies from the very beginning or sometimes they are not even mentioning them at all?
1.1. Is it because professors are considered to be subject matter experts and once an expert it is easier to ignore context, make wrong assumptions and struggle to explain less complex topics?
1.1.1. Is this an opportunity for learning centers across universities in the U.S. to provide professional development workshops for faculty?
1.2. Is it possible to implement techniques like the ones presented into the curriculum instead of being an arbitrary decision made by professors?
1.2.1. Do students have access to these metacognitive strategies at their school’s learning centers?
1.2.1.1. Are the learning centers the ones in charge of filling in the gaps in student’s lack of metacognitive strategies?
2. WillI faculty benefit from being acquainted with the various definitions of learning only in terms of research or is this an opportunity to provide faculty with different perspectives that will help facilitate learning in their classes?
3. Knowing we face these obstacles with AI, and also knowing that AI is an incredible tool that we cannot hide or ban from students, the task of preparing students to properly utilize this tool is the responsibility of educators. One of the solutions posed by Tufekci was “flipping the classroom”: having students use AI as a research tool at home and composing original essays/work in class with support from peers and a teacher. I wonder what other strategies are being effectively implemented to incorporate AI into the classroom?
3.1. What are the practices that teachers and designers of educational experiences can implement, keeping in mind that students must “learn how to learn”?
3.1.1. Could some of these practices account for the fact that the educational landscape is now inextricable from AI?
4. I agree with Tufekci (2022: Technologies like ChatGPT will liberate us to use more complex skills. I also agree with Plato: something is lost with the introduction of new technologies. It is important for us to think about what is being lost when evaluating new technologies for learners and also to think about what can potentially be gained. Do you agree with my statement?
4.1. What is one thing that can be gained from using generative AI? What is one thing that might be lost?
5. The idea of biases in the AI system comes up in my mind how can we fix this problem within the education system so we can use it in class?
6. I find it very interesting to debate how we are able to measure something that we can’t quite define.
6.1. When reading the “Embracing Multiple Definitions of Learning” article, I was thinking about McGuire’s study cycle. Would her metacognitive learning strategies be considered learning through experience?
6.1.1. Could learning be viewed as moving to the next level of Bloom’s Taxonomy with specific subject matter?
6.2. While we can teach students to meaningfully engage with materials and give them study skills, would our assessments have to remain as they are in order to ensure they are still passing these benchmark tests?
6.2.1. Consider McGuire’s metacognitive learning strategy of homework as an assessment. Would this be an act of learning through the experience of working through a problem without the guidance of an answer key at your fingertips? Or an act of assessment? Could the answer be both?
6.2.2. Instead of re-programming the grade-focused poor student habits of high schoolers once they reach the collegiate level, why can’t we start teaching them to learn younger? Why can’t this prerequisite of “concentrated, joyful work of real learning” be implemented in high school if not younger?
6.2.2.1. Additionally, even if we expose students to metacognitive learning strategies in high school, without the shock of lower test scores that they face in college, would any of them implement these methods?
6.3. McGuire’s example: if an athletics coach randomly assigned to teach science knows that through shallow memorization, their students could get all A’s and make them look like a good teacher, what would motivate them to challenge their students to become active participants in their learning at the risk of lowering those scores?
7. When we embrace a novel technology that we are not accustomed to, can it alter the way we learn and process information at a neurological level?
7.1. Did the transition to using the alphabet and learning through the written word rewire our brains in ways that our ancestors could never have envisaged?
8. Is the act of creating something without truly understanding it new? If not, is there something unique about this phenomenon when it comes to large language models and other generative technologies?
8.1. How do we reckon with the ethical concerns of these predictive models being released to the general public when the way they function remains unclear?
8.2. When it comes to bias in a model (or a textbook or any other tool used in the classroom), who needs to be harmed in order for the tool to be determined unreleasable or unusable?
8.2.1. What are the origins of the biases that these tools take on? In other words, whose biases are they?
8.2.1.1. How are things further complicated by the fact that we cannot attribute the output of a LLM-based technology to a specific author in the way that we can a textbook?
9. What is the role of educational institutions in reckoning with the past, present, and future inequities associated with technologies like ChatGPT?
9.1. When we use tools like ChatGPT in light of OpenAI paying Kenyan workers less than $2 per hourLinks to an external site. to moderate its content, which people are we deciding to value?
9.1.1. And when we consider the environmental impactLinks to an external site. of these technologies, can we really afford to go back to basics — or do we need to develop a new framework for thinking about technology and ourselves?
9.2. Should the primary emphasis still be accepting these tools into classrooms and teaching students how to use them?
9.2.1. Is there a place for critically examining the ethics of using these technologies in the first place? Is it possible to do both? What are alternative approaches to this issue?
10. What will happen to departments rendered counterproductive because of the impact of AI in those fields (eg: marketing, finance, etc)?
10.1. If AI is better than humans at creating marketing materials or code software because of its process of analyzing large data sets, as mentioned in the ARSTechnica article, how are students in the field affected and how will universities adapt to the changes?
11. John Oliver humorously asked on his shows, “If AI can do what humans can do only better, and I am a human, what exactly will happen to me?” This question encapsulates the blend of fascination and apprehension surrounding the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI).
11.1. As a teacher, I find it equally challenging and daunting to grasp that "No one on Earth fully understands the inner workings of LLMs." Therefore, how and when can we extensively discern and mitigate its potential risks?
11.1.1. how do we effectively measure actual learning?
11.2. How can the educational community navigate these challenges? Balancing the utilization of AI's potential benefits while downplaying its dangers and upholding ethical standards in development and application is a formidable task, especially considering the "black box" problem associated with AI.
12. One algorithm or system doesn't work for everyone. Just like in the Domain of Learning by Robert Gagne talks about how we can expect to employ the same kind of test item, or question, to determine whether a student has learned an item of knowledge.
12.1. Also, one question I was thinking about is if we start using AI as a tool to teach, will this become a privilege for some people? Because we know not all schools have the same resources. Will this make the gap bigger?
12.2. Are we combining the skills from the book “Teach Students How to learn by Sandra Maguire” with AI? For example, one skill she talks about is “Doing homework without using solved examples as a guide”. Can we use AI to help students come up with an example better fit for the student's understanding?
12.2.1. If we are using AI as a tool to teach students or use it in class what are we teaching exactly or how?