tanteMay 14, 2025
I think the most tragic aspect of deploying "AI" in teaching and learning situations is how much it pushes people into a situation of learned helplessness. This constant feeling of not knowing how to do a thing of being incapable of actually doing work on one's tasks is mentally so harmful. How do people under those conditions gain confidence in their abilities? Like ever?
Show threadMr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤May 14, 2025
@tante
Your message is subtle and I'm missing something. How does using AI in teaching make students helpless?
Show threadMaggie Maybe

@sloanlance @tante I assume it’s similar to how I don’t remember anyone’s phone number anymore since they’re all stored in my phone.

It’s great that the RAM space in my brain is freed up for other things, and it’s really helpful for when I’m having terrible recall issues and I can’t even think of the word I need to say in my sentence . . . If I had to remember a phone number in an emergency at a time like that it could be a disaster.

But if I lost my phone I needed to call a loved one for help I’m totally helpless. I sort of remember my old best friend‘s phone number because it’s close to mine, and even though we aren’t friends she would probably help me.

But I imagine they mean something like that. How do you even evaluate sources if you don’t ever even look at original sources because ChatGPT aggregates all the research for you?

May 14, 2025 at 11:29amWeb
Show threadAdelaide あで FisherMay 14, 2025
@maggiejk @sloanlance @tante using ai in education doesn't mean getting ai to just give you the answer, this is a strawman argument. ideally, ai should be fulfilling the same role a teacher would, evaluating how the student understands the problem and helping them arrive to the solution themselves. only exception is, unlike human educators, ais have practically infinite patience and can attend to every bit of information provided to them by developers (arguably, that last part may not be true now for every model/system, but it is an area where a lot of work is being done). it is just the question of implementation