How Do Students Really Feel About A.I.?
I’m teaching four writing classes this semester and on our first day we talked about the use of AI. I gave them Brett Stephens’ recent op-ed from The New York Times, where he implores people not to use AI in their writing at all.
I asked the students how they felt about the piece. Things they brought up that are at risk: authenticity, integrity, honesty, professionalism, passion, humanity, connection, soul. Atrophy of the mind and creative agency. So much more.
They also recognized the positives and the power of AI, in areas of research and productivity and efficiency as related to operations and business function. And we all agreed that AI isn’t going anywhere. Genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going back.
I asked them how faculty, in their experience, had treated AI use. They said it was all over the place. Some required writing in person, in class, handwritten. True analog. Others in stem fields were fine with the use of AI in certain capacities, even encouraged it. Several mentioned that there was very little actual guidance around what was or wasn’t acceptable. All in all—mixed signals on a good day.
I told them that as a professor, I am not an AI cop. That I had been doing this for a very long time and chances are if they used technology in an illegitimate way I was going to figure it out, and there would be repercussions.
At the same time, if they pulled one over on me, I wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. They were here to grow and get better and learn and if they chose to spend their tuition dollars, plus their time and energy using AI to just get by, that was on them. I was going to give them the best class I could no matter what.
It’s going to be an interesting time for sure. We need to do a better job of creating actual policies and guidance that help faculty and staff and most importantly our students understand what the guard rails are. And we have to treat students with some respect. I hate hearing that students are being asked (forced) to write in-person in-class, in blue books? What is this, 1992? When we do that are we really preparing our students for the future? Isn’t that more about our own discomfort and fear?
But I digress, and more on that later.
What I heard from my students told me that they are ready to do the work and prove themselves as individuals with intelligence and many capabilities. They have a real desire and will to prove themselves authentically, and I am thrilled that I will be a part of their journey to help them along the way.
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