From Plagiarism to Chat GPT

"Why were you so strict with [name of student] for plagiarism? When I was in school, my Russian teacher gave me a 5 (Kazakhstani equivalent of A) for a plagiarized essay on Tolstoy. She said I found the best ideas on Tolstoy's work, and it makes no sense to reinvent the wheel."

Despite catching many instances of plagiarism throughout my career, this honest and well-intentioned question shakes me a bit. While terms like academic integrity, independence, and grit all immediately flood my mind, I know that this conversation isn't really about any of them--it is about the purpose and educational value of the humanities. I respond by affirming that I respect the ability to find "the best" information out there when conducting any research, but that we need good critical thinking skills in order to define what "the best" means in each context, as well as strong procedural knowledge for how to scour the seemingly infinite resources on the internet in order to actually find it. At this moment I learn that I need to define and defend the importance of learning writing, no matter which language(s) we learn it in.

On one hand, learning to structure our ideas in writing leaves wonderful imprints in our minds, helping us shape and construct our thoughts even when we don't commit them to paper (or a digital screen). The writing process begins at our mental drawing boards, where being able to sit back, silence our myriad distractions, and just bounce ideas off these mental imprints sets us up to construct something relevant, well developed, and focused. I cite the student's own visible progress in class as seen through her contributions to discussions improving in depth, scope, and focus as she develops her writing skills throughout the term. There's much more to this than organization, though. The process of wrestling internally with the content, texts, critical lenses, and our own thinking literally builds meaning in our minds. If our minds aren’t grappling and tussling, are we really present in what we ultimately put out there and contribute? What horrifying implications does a generation of people who are not present in this way bear for us in the future if we are complacent now? This meaning we create not only remains paramount for generating ideas and problem-solving, but also for self-awareness and our ability to define and map out a path to progress. Plagiarizing a well-written critique of Tolstoy seems like it would shunt most of this progress and stunt any real academic growth like a harsh intellectual drought. Anyone can recite and share ideas—especially followers. If we want to empower intellectual leaders, we must look beyond reciting and sharing—we must examine our own metacognition. Letting students plagiarize, despite the intellectual theft and other moral implications, cheats students out of their own intellectual growth. The students we hope to empower now run higher risks of enslaving themselves to disinformation and charismatic sleight of mind.

Now we get to Chat GPT and the seismic waves it already generates in our media worldwide. I believe in innovation, personalizing education, and using new technology to empower students across race, socio-economic barriers, and other inequalities we have around the world. I see great potential in how social media, Chat GPT, and other “demonized” technologies can actually help us educate our next generation even more effectively, but there remains a stark gap between that potential and our practices. The questions remain how to optimally use these tools to foster intellectual development, not short-circuit the entire educational progress through overriding essential steps. My fear with Chat GPT is that some will use it to avoid the writing (and thus the thinking) process altogether. My question is how can we use this tool, along with so many others that enchant and excite our students, to nurture growth instead of circumventing it?

Going back to plagiarism, I see the challenge it presents to the humanities classroom as relatable to my own initial fears of Chat GPT. Making meaning of various texts and theories to put forth our own ideas is essentially human, and the bedrock of intellectual capacity. What’s even more is that it’s necessary in every professional field, including STEM ones. What are your thoughts, hopes, and fears about the effects of Chat GPT in our humanities, specifically writing, education?