I asked Wendy if I could read the paper she turned in, and when I opened the document, I was surprised to see the topic: critical pedagogy, the philosophy of education pioneered by Paulo Freire. The philosophy examines the influence of social and political forces on learning and classroom dynamics. Her opening line: “To what extent is schooling hindering students’ cognitive ability to think critically?” Later, I asked Wendy if she recognized the irony in using AI to write not just a paper on critical pedagogy but one that argues learning is what “makes us truly human.” She wasn’t sure what to make of the question. “I use AI a lot. Like, every day,” she said. “And I do believe it could take away that critical-thinking part. But it’s just — now that we rely on it, we can’t really imagine living without it.”
I have a hypothesis that college can solve this problem by "inversing" lectures and homework.
edit: sounds like a lot of places do this already so that's cool.
Have your students watch lectures and do reading on their own time. Hell, they can ask ChatGPT to summarize it for them if "it's just a tool" and they want to use it! But everything that gets a grade should be done in class. You will write the essay by hand, you will do the math with no more powerful a calculator than a TI-83, you will give a presentation to show that you understand the material. Book is open, accommodations for special needs are available, and the teacher is here to help and give guidance and clarification, but internet connections are banned.
Buuuuut ~~American colleges would never do this because~~ ensuring that your graduates actually learn things was never the point.
Flipped classrooms are good and some of the best classes i've ever had were flipped.