ChatGPT Ate Their Homework!
I came across a video someone posted on Bluesky the other day. Unfortunately I didn't save it and I can't find it for this post, so I'll describe it. It showed a university teacher berating her entire class for their use of ChatGPT.She yelled at them, saying every single student had submitted the same badly written, AI-generated answer—and that it was wrong.
Yeah... this is a thing.
I don't teach public school here, I'm told by some of my high school teacher friends that many of their students just submit ChatGPT answers for all homework. And half the time when I check English papers for them that their students submitted, either they are completely wrong in a very typical Japanese way or they sound exactly like something ChatGPT would spit out.
Is this important? Does it matter?
I’m not sure it does. But let’s explore it.
First of all, I don't think attacking ChatGPT or AI in general is really going to do us much good. It is here to stay and no amount of complaining of how it's "destroying education" is going to change anything. When writing was invented, the need for memorizing disappeared. When calculators came around, slide rulers vanished. The old way might always be better in some ways, but once the cat is out of the bag we can never put it back. Rather than complain and resist, we need to continue to move forward and find new solutions.
Kids are always going to cheat. When I was in school we cheated by finding the smart kid and copying his answers to homework. So nowadays there is no need to find the smart kid—just ask AI. That's the poor kids. The rich kids, they just show up and do badly but daddy's money ensures they pass everything.
Again, does this matter? Intelligence matters for some things, absolutely, but does homework actually foster intelligence?
Homework is practice. Ideally it could be used for self-study and for learning new things, but realistically, unless a student's intelligence and motivation is already high, they aren't going to be willing or able to learn much on their own. Teachers are aware of this and so almost all homework is repetition. Even essay writing homework is often used as just a practice exercise, in that the actual position taken in the paper is less important than the simple practice of writing and forming an argument or a central position.
Practice is good, no argument. For the less academically gifted kids, practice is essential. There is just no other way to internalize some things or conceptualize understand how they work without doing it a bunch of times. Believe me, this was how I passed all my physics classes in university. Even if you can understand something in reading or listening, that understanding often seems to evaporate when it comes to actually doing it yourself, unless you practice it many many times. That's basically math homework, where you are given pages and pages of equations, but it also holds true in other subjects.
Gifted kids don't need any of this practice. They are the kids who immediately grasp everything the teacher says and can reproduce it perfectly on the test. So does it matter if these kids cheat on homework?
On the other end, the struggling or unmotivated kids are not going to understand no matter how much practice they do, so does it matter if these kids cheat on their homework?
The targets of homework are always the kids in the middle. The ones who are bright enough to succeed if they practice, but not so driven that they’ll practice on their own. For them, homework matters. But they’re also the most likely to cheat if given the chance. That’s just human nature.
How do we square this circle?
I think the only way forward is to change homework. Teachers will have to do more of that practice in class, and with pen and paper instead of allowing kids to use their tablets. This would mean less lecture time, but could improve learning. We might also need to replace repetition with conceptual understanding, teaching why things work instead of just drilling answers.
Instead of teaching kids to memorize that 4×4 = 16 by practicing it many many times (just to pick a very simple example), teach them why it works and some tips to help remember it. Tips like teaching that if you have 40 + 198, just change it in head to 40 + 200 then subtract 2. Much easier!
Again, simple examples, but maybe teaching needs to change to this kid of thing. Instead of forcing kids to practice with homework and memorize by way of that practice, teach understanding and tips. Simply put: teaching needs to evolve from rote to insight.
I know there is a "no homework" movement in some schools, so maybe this idea is catching on already.
Anyway, I'm just exploring ideas here. No definite conclusions, just ideas. What do you think? What are some of your thoughts on the matter?
❦
 |
David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Mastodon. |
You received an upvote of 90% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!
Please remember to contribute great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag to create another Precious Gem.
I am still on the fence about the use of AI in school. My son teaches college courses and he is overly frustrated with how many students are using ChatGPT for writing papers and other assignment responses. As far as homework, I would like to see smaller classrooms, with more individualized assignments based on the student abilities and skills. Yeah, I know, it is a pipe dream, but would be nice.
Absolutely. Unfortunately we just don't have enough good teachers for that. To get that we may have to implement AI at the other end. I wonder if that would be possible... human teachers, but AI designs homework tailor made specific to the student's abilities and at just a high enough level that they are forced to learn but also don't become frustrated.
haha now there's a pipe dream!
We need a radical change in the way education is imparted...
Absolutely!
Starting on hive, we could offer micro credentials to students for being part of our collective...
That would be cool if we could manage to do it!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialInteligence/comments/1k6z0rt/chatgpt_ate_their_homework_what_ai_in_education/
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @flummi97 ) sharing the post on Reddit as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com. Otherwise, rewards go to the author of the blog post.
This is an interesting post! I sometimes watch and read about the opinions of those types of teachers and professors. It must be tough for educators who have to provide official documents or verify students' scores...
In my class, I don’t limit my students from using AI for their homework. I don’t place restrictions on how they choose to learn. Even when they use AI to check their answers, they still practice writing.
When I worked in public schools, however, educators were required to limit students’ access. Since ChatGPT came out, I’m not sure how strict the rules have become... because I’ve since left that position. I imagine some strict teachers still give strong warnings to their students. hahaha...
As a neurodiverse person, AI supports my daily life a lot more than the analog lifestyle we had many moons ago.
The good and the bad of it often make us think deeply… 🤔 Thank you for sharing such a great topic!
I don't know elsewhere, but at least in Japan kids are told not to use any AI, but... of course they do. I like your philosophy of not restricting it. I think we can't go backwards, so we need to learn how to adapt education for the era of AI.
Teaching does need to evolve to the current environment, if it doesn't it will become less meaningful and help less students. I've always felt the brighter students should be in a separate class so they don't become bored and lose interest. That happened to me through most of high school in subjects without advanced placement. The regular students should be in an environment that helps them learn, whether it be in classroom doing the work vs at home. Plus simple tricks like you mentioned should be taught from day one.
AI will be a universal way to cheat going forward, and soon they may be able to dumb it down in writing skills to sound like a dumb college kid. The world is changing and everyone needs to keep up!
Yeah, I support separating class by academic ability. Unfortunately that is even less of a thing in Japan than it is in the US.
I think eventually the solution will probably involve more personalized education using AI, but we won't get there for awhile, and teachers and schools who fight against all AI will only make this change more painful.
Sad part is most of the teacher's over the age of 40 will fight it tooth and nail. Some of the younger one's may too fearing it will possibly cause them to lose their jobs.
The AP classes here in the US really saved me in high school. Anything that was really slow I didn't do as well because I was bored beyond belief. I really should have been offered the option to test out with a GED one or two years early, but back then they refused to offer that choice. Good old 1980's!
The sad truth is most teachers are just not very good. This isn't to say they don't have the ability to be good teachers, but the low pay, micromanagers with a list of requirements, and monster parents have beaten out all ambition and at this point they are just phoning it in, waiting for retirement, rarely even bothering to update decades old lesson plans. I agree they will fight—not because they disagree with using AI as a tool but just because it is change and change will require them to actually do some work.
The system really is ripe for change. I'm surprised this old Prussian school system has lasted as long as it has. I hope AI is the catalyst to really revolutionize education.
yup.. the cat is out of the bag!! I initially disliked AI a lot, but the I saw lots of artwork and cool things it can do. I'm coming around slowly. As long as they don't have super strength and built with guns.. maybe it will be all good. :)