Comment by The28thDuck
Comment by The28thDuck 2 months ago
I’ve always thought about what student examinations mean post-AI accessibility. We’ve faced a similar problem once students had open access to the internet, but even then there was some work in figuring out what sites are reputable, search queries, etc. Now that burden has been shortened to figuring out what AI tool and what prompt to use for classic exams like essays or tests. Add in the challenge of remote learning and now you have an environment out of your control, not to mention smartphone access prevalently available.
It’s difficult to be an effective teacher, and that’s without even considering the social and economic pressures they face.
It's a shame as well because this stuff -is- important. One could make the argument that this represents a shift in traditional education, and schools will have to stop relying so much on rote memorization, but the reason you need to learn this stuff is so that it's there with you, guiding you through everything you do in your life. Not just "oh I'll look it up", but actually knowing it and carrying it with you in your "context".
The standard education system is incredible for raising the baseline level of knowledge of everyone in a society. I can talk about concepts like "atoms" or "bacteria" or "black holes" with anyone, and they'll know what they are - even if their knowledge of those subjects isn't in depth. Things that 100 years ago would've been cutting edge research, are base education today that virtually the entire population has studied.
That comes from schooling, and it's so important to commit to memory. Without that background knowledge, your understanding of everything around you will be limited in ways you won't even be aware of.