20 quotes worth reading about students using AI
/For students who do not self-identify as writers, for those who struggle with writer’s block or for underrepresented students seeking to find their voices, it can provide a meaningful assist during initial stages of the writing process. Inside Higher Ed
Let’s be honest. Ideas are more important than how they are written. So, I use ChatGPT to help me organize my ideas better and make them sound more professional. The Tech Insider
Students could (use AI to) look for where the writing took a predictable turn or identify places where the prose is inconsistent. Students could then work to make the prose more intellectually stimulating for humans. Inside Higher Ed
If you’re a college student preparing for life in an A.I. world, you need to ask yourself: Which classes will give me the skills that machines will not replicate, making me more distinctly human? A.I. often churns out the kind of impersonal bureaucratic prose that is found in corporate communications or academic journals. You’ll want to develop a voice as distinct as those of George Orwell, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe and James Baldwin, so take classes in which you are reading distinctive and flamboyant voices so you can craft your own. New York Times
Imagine if the platform extracted campus-specific information about gen ed and major requirements. It could then provide quality academic advice to students that current chat bots can’t. Inside Higher Ed
ChatGPT may be able to help with more basic functions, such as assisting with writing in English for those who do not speak it natively. Tech Radar
What if the platform had access to real-time local or regional job market data and trends and data about the efficacy of various skills certificates? It could then serve as initial-tier career counseling. Inside Higher Ed
On TikTok, the hashtag #chatgpt has more than 578 million views, with people sharing videos of the tool writing papers and solving coding problems. New York Times
The student who is using it because they lack the expertise is exactly the student who is not ready to assess what it’s doing critically. Some argue that it’s not worth the time spent ferreting out a few cheaters and would rather focus their energy on students who are there to learn. Others say they can’t afford to look the other way. Chronicle of Higher Ed
It used to be about mastery of content. Now, students need to understand content, but it’s much more about mastery of the interpretation and utilization of the content. Inside Higher Ed
Don’t fixate on how much evidence you have but on how much evidence will persuade your intended audience. ChatGPT distills everything on the internet through its filter and dumps it on the reader; your flawed and beautiful mind, by contrast, makes its mark on your subject by choosing the right evidence, not all the evidence. Find the six feet that your reader needs, and put the rest of your estate up for auction. Chronicle of Higher Ed
A.I. is good at predicting what word should come next, so you want to be really good at being unpredictable, departing from the conventional. New York Times
We surpass the AI by standing on its shoulders. Boris Steipe, associate professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto, for example, encourages students to engage in a Socratic debate with ChatGPT as a way of thinking through a question and articulating an argument. “You will get the plain vanilla answer—what everybody thinks—from ChatGPT,” Steipe said, “That’s where you need to start to think. That’s where you need to ask, ‘How is it possibly incomplete?’” Inside Higher Ed
Students can leverage ChatGPT as a tutor or homework supplement, especially if they need to catch up. ChatGPT’s ability to make curated responses is unparalleled, so if a student needs a scientific explanation for a sixth-grade reading level, ChatGPT can adapt. New York Magazine
The common fear among teachers is that AI is actually writing our essays for us, but that isn’t what happens. The more effective, and increasingly popular, strategy is to tell the algorithm what your topic is and ask for a central claim, then have it give you an outline to argue this claim. Depending on the topic, you might even be able to have it write each paragraph the outline calls for, one by one, then rewrite them yourself to make them flow better. Chronicle of Higher Ed
Marc Watkins, lecturer in composition and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi: “Our students are not John Henry, and AI is not a steam-powered drilling machine that will replace them. We don’t need to exhaust ourselves trying to surpass technology.” Inside Higher Ed
These tools can function like personal assistants: Ask ChatGPT to create a study schedule, simplify a complex idea, or suggest topics for a research paper, and it can do that. That could be a boon for students who have trouble managing their time, processing information, or ordering their thoughts. Chronicle of Higher Ed
Students who lack confidence in their ability to learn might allow the products of these AI tools to replace their own voices or ideas. Chronicle of Higher Ed
Students describe using OpenAI’s tool as well as others for much more than generating essays. They are asking the bots to create workout plans, give relationship advice, suggest characters for a short story, make a joke and provide recipes for the random things left in their refrigerators. Washington Post
Basak-Odisio will use it only, he said, if he has procrastinated too much and is facing an impossible deadline. “If it is the day or night before, and I want to finish something as quickly as possible — ” he said, trailing off. “But,” he added, “I want to be better than that.” Washington Post
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