OT: Wildly off-topic giggle for the teachers

[HuskyNan]

Had to post it because it made me laugh out loud

 

[Bone Dog]

I would kill for a student like Hector!

 

[CL82]

The thing is, he's not wrong and his writeup shows familiarity with the material and the ability to apply it within a modern context.

And a semi related note, I wonder how teachers will adapt to AI, which allows for individually tailored answers to any question. In the past, teachers could just search for familiar structure to see if someone pulled an answer off the Internet, but now, AI can tailor each answer separately. For example, "write a high school level 500 word paper on Milton's Paradise Lost using modern references to highlight key points." That query would generate a very solid paper that would be very difficult to detect.

The purpose of education is not to attain a specific grade, although that's always a goal, but rather to experience critical thinking and learned how to structure a persuasive writing. Those are absolutely critical life skills that I worry about being lost when at 11:55 on the night before a paper is due, a student can put a short question into AI and have it generate the work that is needed for the following morning.

 

[Ozimoto]

That is pretty amusing. Now, if they would just learn how to spell...

As for the advent of AI and it's impact on education, on old co-worker of mine used to say "it's all well and good until the machines realize they don't need the soft, chewy center anymore." And then you have the Terminator.

 

[CL82]

That is pretty amusing. Now, if they would just learn how to spell...

As for the advent of AI and it's impact on education, on old co-worker of mine used to say "it's all well and good until the machines realize they don't need the soft, chewy center anymore." And then you have the Terminator.

I'm less worried about the revolt of the machines and more about the inherent laziness of people. For the most part, if you give people the opportunity not to think, they won't. That's a bad thing.

 

[Crossover]

The thing is, he's not wrong and his writeup shows familiarity with the material and the ability to apply it within a modern context.

And a semi related note, I wonder how teachers will adapt to AI, which allows for individually tailored answers to any question. In the past, teachers could just search for familiar structure to see if someone pulled an answer off the Internet, but now, AI can tailor each answer separately. For example, "write a high school level 500 word paper on Milton's Paradise Lost using modern references to highlight key points." That query would generate a very solid paper that would be very difficult to detect.

The purpose of education is not to attain a specific grade, although that's always a goal, but rather to experience critical thinking and learned how to structure a persuasive writing. Those are absolutely critical life skills that I worry about being lost when at 11:55 on the night before a paper is due, a student can put a short question into AI and have it generate the work that is needed for the following morning.

Geesh, some people don't know how to giggle!

 

[Skeets]

Think back 50 or 60 years ago at the dawn on calculators. AI is like a calculator on steroids. Can kids today take the square root of a number without a calculator? Does it matter? Maybe in the near future we will regard AI the same way, or turning into mush is how the human race ends.

Does anyone know the Latin for "I don't think therefore I am mush"?

 

[HuskyNan]

Think back 50 or 60 years ago at the dawn on calculators. AI is like a calculator on steroids. Can kids today take the square root of a number without a calculator? Does it matter? Maybe in the near future we will regard AI the same way, or turning into mush is how the human race ends.

Does anyone know the Latin for "I don't think therefore I am mush"?

ChatGPT's Impact On Our Brains According to an MIT Study

The study, from MIT Lab scholars, measured the brain activity of subjects writing SAT essays with and without ChatGPT.

time.com

 

[CL82]

Does anyone know the Latin for "I don't think therefore I am mush"?

I do not, but in French it would be "Je ne pense pas donc je suis bouillie."

For what it's worth, I told my kids growing up that the ability to do math in your head is a hugely important skill that has a major impact everywhere from the grocery store to the boardroom.

 

[Bone Dog]

For what it's worth, I told my kids growing up that the ability to do math in your head is a hugely important skill that has a major impact everywhere from the grocery store to the boardroom.

I tell my students this every day. It’s not about being able to find bargains in the grocery store, though that’s certainly handy. It’s mainly about having a nimble mind. They don’t hear this enough. What they get instead is the lazy invitation to dismiss all difficult subjects by saying “When am i ever going to use this?”

 

[Bigboote]

For what it's worth, I told my kids growing up that the ability to do math in your head is a hugely important skill that has a major impact everywhere from the grocery store to the boardroom.

Probably 20 years ago I was getting something at a fast-food place on the New Jersey Turnpike. The cashier handed me my food, said that’ll be (say) $7.89, and I gave her a ten. Just as she put it in the till there was a power glitch that shut off the registers. She said we couldn’t do the transaction. I told her just to give me $2.11. She was absolutely incredulous that I could do that in my head.

I didn’t tell her that every so often I time my driving for ten miles of so and calculate my speed. To keep my brain active (and just for fun).

 

[CL82]

Probably 20 years ago I was getting something at a fast-food place on the New Jersey Turnpike. The cashier handed me my food, said that’ll be (say) $7.89, and I gave her a ten. Just as she put it in the till there was a power glitch that shut off the registers. She said we couldn’t do the transaction. I told her just to give me $2.11. She was absolutely incredulous that I could do that in my head.

I didn’t tell her that every so often I time my driving for ten miles of so and calculate my speed. To keep my brain active (and just for fun).

For a second, I thought you had the same experience that I had. I don't remember the prices anymore, but say for the purposes of this example a burger, a Coke, and an order of fries all cost a dollar each. I had a clerk tell me that my order of those three items was $10. I looked up at her and said which check the price again I believe you're mistaken. She just looked down at the register and said "it says $10." I said "well, if each item costs a dollar then three items would cost three dollars, right? If you add in tax, that would be $3.20. She looked back down at the register back up at me and said "it's on special." I laughed and said "that may seem special to you, but it doesn't feel all that special to me." At that point, her manager came over apologized and rang up the items correctly.

The thing that fascinates me was her utter inability to recognize that a mistake had been made. To her if "the machine" said a specific price was due that's what it was, and it really didn't matter to her if it didn't make mathematic sense.

 

[WiseWillie]

For a second, I thought you had the same experience that I had. I don't remember the prices anymore, but say for the purposes of this example a burger, a Coke, and an order of fries all cost a dollar each. I had a clerk tell me that my order of those three items was $10. I looked up at her and said which check the price again I believe you're mistaken. She just looked down at the register and said "it says $10." I said "well, if each item costs a dollar then three items would cost three dollars, right? If you add in tax, that would be $3.20. She looked back down at the register back up at me and said "it's on special." I laughed and said "that may seem special to you, but it doesn't feel all that special to me." At that point, her manager came over apologized and rang up the items correctly.

The thing that fascinates me was her utter inability to recognize that a mistake had been made. To her if "the machine" said a specific price was due that's what it was, and it really didn't matter to her if it didn't make mathematic sense.

Whoa. Translate that to what will happen when clerks start using transactional machines that are sold as "AI-enhanced super calculators". Will human rational intervention be recognized and accepted or will AI have the last word? Stay tuned.

 

[Sargassoc]

The thing is, he's not wrong and his writeup shows familiarity with the material and the ability to apply it within a modern context.

And a semi related note, I wonder how teachers will adapt to AI, which allows for individually tailored answers to any question. In the past, teachers could just search for familiar structure to see if someone pulled an answer off the Internet, but now, AI can tailor each answer separately. For example, "write a high school level 500 word paper on Milton's Paradise Lost using modern references to highlight key points." That query would generate a very solid paper that would be very difficult to detect.

The purpose of education is not to attain a specific grade, although that's always a goal, but rather to experience critical thinking and learned how to structure a persuasive writing. Those are absolutely critical life skills that I worry about being lost when at 11:55 on the night before a paper is due, a student can put a short question into AI and have it generate the work that is needed for the following morning.

Many of us are moving back to pen and paper with students. It's almost like flipping the classroom in some ways. It will require us to be nimble and pivot quickly (kind of like basketball?), but most of my colleagues and I are thinking about it, and working together to be find new and resilient ways to teach kids how to think, to write, and to craft logical arguments.

When I was in college, I wanted to live in the senior apartments in my last year. They seemed cool. My dad simply told me, "You'll have your whole life to live in an apartment, but only four to live in a dorm." That really made an impact on me. Our students will have their whole lives to work with AI, but only four years (I teach high school) to learn how to hone those incredibly important thinking and writing skills-- and I'm here for it.