AI Answers
AI Answers
Brilliance doesn't automatically mean one will earn a degree. I know lots of smart people who failed out of college, or who simply didn't go. I know, unfortunately, lots of really, really dumb people who have graduated from college.
College isn't perfect. It is a system and people game it. Back in "the day" whenever that was, people stole the answer sheets or cheated off a neighbor's test. That was bullshit. Why cheat? College isn't a requirement is it? Unlike K-12 school, no one "has" to go to school. So, why the fuck would you come to school to cheat?
Just don't come. If you don't like what we are doing here, don't come. I don't want to eat squid, so I'm not going to a seafood place and be angry that I can't have a veggie burger.
Teachers don't like cheaters in general and they think the value of the degrees should mean something and so, to avoid this kind of cheating, teachers started giving out papers. There isn't a "right" answer on a paper or essay test. Each person has to write s/hi/er (this is a generic pronoun I use. I also use s/he/y and s/he/m) own answers and be judged on s/hi/er own ability to know the material or write a really good bullshit essay.
That was useful and it worked, but we don't really do long-hand essays anymore. Papers are typed. Notes are typed. Walk into a classroom right now and 99 percent of the people are typing notes on laptop, or tablet, or are recording the lecture so a talk to text software program will write them up later. I don't like this option by the way, not because that isn't' useful or super cool, but because like taking a picture of the notes on the board, it is too passive. Recording it and typing it up later is a great idea.
Technology has its place. I prefer to type. I love me some spell check. I am not trying to be that grumpy old man who hates all technology, but...
We have come to the point in time where the AI doesn't just dictate, with typos, it now writes "original" thoughts. I recently noticed that one student's email had one voice and s/hi/er academic posts had a different one. Sure, people code switch all the time, but when I asked s/he/m about it, s/he/y dodged the question, but suddenly s/hi/er academic voice as a little more raw. Yeah, the grade was lower, but the "real" person afforded me with the opportunity to engage in a real, meaningful, conversation.
It isn't all the student's fault. We've been told for decades now that education is a way to get trained to do a job, not a place to think big thoughts and grow. Thus, anything that isn't in the major is "a waste of money" and a scam. I totally disagree, of course. If I thought that were true, I would quit tomorrow and go back to farming.
I think education should train a person to do something. People who have a degree in say, history, should be historians. However, s/he/y shouldn't only learn history. A robust education allows people to do so much more. It gives people a place to talk about bit ideas and get lost in thought.
Unfortunately, today, because of the commodification of education people just want to rush through it. They have been convinced it is "just a piece of paper" that has less value than a take out menu. Instead of taking notes on Henry IV while reading it, a person can just ask a chat bot to write up a synopsis of it and later, a paper. Odds are, and I am just being honest here, that AI paper will likely earn a passing grade but the person will not have enjoyed any of Falstaff's jokes and, for me, that is the real crime.
I guess I would rather be wrong and learn something, than be "right" and learn nothing.
