The reactions to ChatGPT in education, both at the K-12 and Higher Ed level really remind me of some prior technology wars going back to...
Calculator bans (students will forget or not learn how to add and subtract)
Graphic calculator bans (students will store formulas and forget critical math formulas)
Word processor/typed paper bans (students will forget how to write in cursive and how to spell and do grammar)
Laptop bans (students will just cheat and Google everything)
Wikipedia use ban (students will use unreliable and entirely too easy to access information)
I know ChatGPT is "different" from these, but it's also the same.
What other "tech innovations" fall under this history?
@ZingerLearns @edutooters At least from what I have seen so far from #ChatGPT... educators in #engineering schools need not worry about cheating and actual student education outcomes.
It is exceedingly brittle against anything more than extremely simple logical problems - providing non-sensical answers for the rest.
But more than that, computer-based engineering tools have substantially increased in sophistication for decades now anyways.
@adamjcook @edutooters That makes a lot of sense, and it requires at least a little analysis. I am seeing some IHEs, schools, and departments making knee jerk reactions with bans, policing policies etc... That don't seem as productive or thoughtful as your approach, which by the way I think applies more broadly to potentially facilitating rudimentary tasks, but being extremely limited in more complex tasks that we should be engaging students in. And rather than problematizing poor pedagogy we problematize a tool (though ChatGPT certainly has many other issues that are worthy of critique).
@ZingerLearns @edutooters Yup. That is a good way to put it - it is another (potential) tool in the toolbox.
And, the reality is, ChatGPT exists and will exist when students leave engineering school. No sense in fighting it.
Frankly, and I am seeing positive signs of this, the ideas of embracing creative, real-world (non-textbook) engineering education is increasing in many institutions by necessity.
Embracing more sophisticated tools is an integral part of that!