Artificial Intelligence in EdTech : The Future of the Assignment (Part 1)

What is the future of reading, assignments, and assessment in the world of generative artificial intelligence?I think it’s one of the most interesting questions in education right now, and, while it’s being talked about some, I don’t think it’s talked about enough.? The status quo or historical approach is not really sustainable or useful with today’s technology in most subject matters.??

What do I mean?? Well, if we rewind to my own higher education experience (I’ll let you figure out the dates, if you care), most of my assignments took a similar form : read something, synthesize it, write about it, turn it in, and get a grade.? I’d like to believe that I learned a lot in most of those assignments (Thanks Ball State University ).? Maybe there would be some research to be done, whether that was in the library or online.? By my last year or so, I could even submit my final paper into an assignment dropbox in Blackboard .???

So, what did I learn?? I learned the content when I read the assignment.? I learned to synthesize.? I learned to write.? I learned to take feedback, etc.? Hopefully, along the way, I learned how to think critically and how to communicate effectively.? And much of this was discipline specific, so I learned these things in the context of what I wanted to do, build software companies.??

Now, let’s fast forward to today, and try to employ the same model.? Instructor assigns a book to be read, and a paper to be written.? Let’s use something ubiquitous : Romeo and Juliet.? So, first question, should I actually read the book?? Why not just ask @ChatGPT to give me a 400 word summary of the book? ? Even if I do choose to read the book, I still might ask ChatGPT to give me a summary so that I can make sure I got all of the main points.? Then, write a paper?? Or write a prompt?? Either way, I get a paper, and probably a pretty good one.? Maybe I do a hybrid, and start with an AI paper, then modify it and rewrite it to my own style.??

I turn it in to my instructor online.? Maybe they are using a tool like Turnitin or Copyleaks to detect that I’ve written some or all of my paper using AI.? And while both of those tools (and others) do a great job of detecting AI, it’s an arms race against some of the most well funded companies in the world, so it won’t be perfect.? But the instructor gets some indication that I’ve used AI to write some or all of my paper.? What are they supposed to do with that knowledge???

The bigger, and more important question is “Did the student learn what we wanted them to learn :? knowledge of the content, synthesis, critical thinking, writing, and communication?”? The honest answer :? it’s hard to know.??

So, what can we do to create new, engaging learning experiences for our students?? I’d love to hear from many of you in the comments, but I’ll follow up with a few of my ideas next time (ChatGPT is already telling me this article is already way too long).? Please share your thoughts or reach out if you want to discuss this live. I would absolutely love some professor / teacher calls to help me on a project I'm working on right now discussing this very topic.