Educators across the country have expressed concern about how AI will impact the classroom, encouraging kids to vibe their way to passing grades instead of actually learning. So OpenAI has decided to fight fire with fire and give educators access to ChatGPT for Teachers. Finally, teachers can have their chatbot grade the work of their […]
Learning With AI Falls Short Compared to Old-Fashioned Web Search
This article originally appeared on The Conversation. Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, millions of people have started using large language models to access knowledge. And it’s easy to understand their appeal: Ask a question, get a polished synthesis and move on – it feels like effortless learning. However, a new paper I […]
Big Tech Is Funding AI Lesson Plan Seminars that Parents Increasingly Do Not Want
At a recent event in San Antonio, about 50 educators received a three-hour crash course in AI, organized by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and largely funded by Big Tech. An Associated Press report from Monday about the seminar sheds some light on what it’s like when AI companies fund an effort to help […]
What Past Education Tech Failures Can Teach Us About the Future of AI in Schools
This article was originally published on The Conversation. American technologists have been telling educators to rapidly adopt their new inventions for over a century. In 1922, Thomas Edison declared that in the near future, all school textbooks would be replaced by film strips, because text was 2% efficient, but film was 100% efficient. Those bogus […]
U.S. Students Just Scored Their Lowest Marks in History
The kids are not doing so alright. New federal data out this week suggests that high school seniors’ math and reading skills have sunk dramatically in the wake of the pandemic. On Tuesday, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the first collected in the post-pandemic era. It found that 12th graders’ average math and reading […]
Film Schools Are Embracing AI. Should They?
Jake Panek, a 20-year-old film major, says he’s had a great time at DePaul University in Chicago, and a very positive experience with the school’s cinema program. However, a recent email alerting students to a new course in “AI screenwriting” triggered a wellspring of untapped rage in him. The email, which was circulated last week, […]
As AI Throws Education Into Chaos, OpenAI Introduces ‘Study Mode’ to Help Students ‘Learn’
AI has been blamed for a tsunami of cheating that’s taken hold in the U.S. educational system in recent years. Just this week, I interviewed a college professor who explained how bad it’s gotten lately—particularly when it comes to AI-generated essay writing. Now, one of the heavy hitters of the AI industry, OpenAI, says it […]
Universities Can Do Research as Long as It’s ‘In Sync’ With Trump Administration, Education Secretary Says
As the Trump administration continues its attack on higher education, Education Secretary Linda McMahon has laid out some guidance for how universities can keep the attack dogs at bay: just share the values of the administration and do exactly as it asks. “Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they’re […]
This Is What Your Brain Looks Like When You Solve a Problem
We’ve all had the aha moment, when the solution to a problem is suddenly obvious. In cartoons, that eureka feeling is usually depicted as a lightbulb floating above a character’s head—which is not that far off from what actually takes place in the brain during these moments. Researchers have revealed that epiphanies physically reshape brain […]
Zuckerberg Shutters Schools for Communities of Color as Trump Cracks Down on DEI
Back in 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his partner, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, opened The Primary School, a tuition-free private school opened with the explicit goal of helping low-income families and people of color to access education, healthcare, and social services. A decade later, they’ve apparently deemed that all those problems are solved now, as […]