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| Typically, we publish one TTT (Teaching, Tech, and Tidbit) every two weeks, featuring articles, resources, and more. During alternate weeks, we issue ‘In the Center,’ which highlights upcoming events.
I am breaking the cycle this week because Catherine Stuer shared such a fantastic New Yorker article that I wanted to get it in your hands as soon as possible. In ‘What Does It Really Mean to Learn?,’ Joshua Rothman explores the concept of “educability” as proposed by Leslie Valiant, recipient of the Turing Award in Computer Science. In short, the article gave me hope as we try to navigate the AI world that’s been thrust upon us. Hope that it is still useful to learn “useless” things. That the ability to integrate diverse knowledge over time, rather than mere cleverness, equips us to navigate unforeseen challenges, something AI cannot do. As an added bonus, there is a huge mic drop moment in the second to last sentence for those of us at places like Denison. It’s a short read or a nine-minute listen. Please check it out. Even though Rothman gives us hope and the importance of being the human in the loop, we must still face the challenge of convincing our students to embrace this vision and appreciate works like Middlemarch. Ethan Mollick’s recent post to One Useful Thing discusses the importance of homework and ways we might navigate this in an AI landscape- spoiler: things will have to change. Mollick’s piece reminded me of two caveats I’ve been sharing in recent AI webinars: Caveat 1- You get what you pay for. Despite what might seem counterintuitive, the legacy ChatGPT 4.0 ($20/mo) significantly outperforms the newer version, Chat GPT 4o. To truly understand ChatGPT’s capabilities, you must use version 4.0. This is why I am not creating any assignments that require AI, as students of means would have an unfair advantage over those of lesser means. Caveat 2- AI detection does not work. I’ll refer you to Mollick’s piece on this one. While no one asked for this new reality, and teaching must inevitably change, let’s make sure we are not just consumers of technology but critical thinkers and lifelong learners as we navigate our road ahead. The trick is figuring out how to get our students to join us on this journey. |