Interest and the AI
Back in 2007 (HOLY SHIT) I was returning to school full time after suffering a catastrophic stroke (a bleed, size of a golf ball) it was difficult for me to speak, to formulate words. It took extended periods of time just to process the information, let alone answer five questions on the board in class concisely! So my aides and I would collaborate on the questions one at a time. When I say collaborate, I mean that I'd ask the aides to rephrase the question for me, and if I still didn't understand it, they'd go more for the approach ‘learn from seeing’. Right here, I don't want to upset anyone. I loved my aides, and they had the best of intentions for me.
My personal belief is a fault in the education system:
A) It wasn’t as common as it is now for an ABI individual to be in a mainstream school and so have the capacity to deal with me, not like today
B) it didn't allow for my capacity to answer the 5+ questions in the given time frame, with my slow processing. ‘Yer not a chance!’
So we got into the habit of ‘learning from seeing’.
As I progressed through school, the rewiring of my brain started happening, my competency grew, and my cognitive processing sped up. Note that having aphasia does not mean you are less intelligent; learn from the link above and equate yourself with this knowledge.
As time progressed, I started ‘playing the system’ with things like English, I couldn't give a flying f@!! about how to write an argument on the Crucible or William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (it’s different for everyone, I understand!). When we did Edgar Allen Poe, it was different for me; I liked his creative, dark, gripping, twisted short stories, but that was the only thing I had an ‘interest’ in.
However, it was different when it came to things I cared about and had an INTEREST in. Then I'd step in and I would ask more specific questions, or know the answer and explain the difference between the aerobic vs anaerobic systems in PE (year 12).
Noting, I had the privilege to be able to pick and choose what I wanted to learn without the pressure of exams.
So why this background info?
In today's world, AI is moving in and taking place, destroying industries, creating new ones, diversifying and refining even further than we ever thought was possible. I want to touch on the big NO NO’s or YES YESes at uni.
Some universities have outright banned it, while other universities are more willing, open, and have a more experimental approach to the matter.
One of the studies done by (Crawford et al) suggests there is a growing number of university students using AI like ChatGPT and Bard to support their academic experience.
The question then becomes, are we learning anything?
Well, according to Muhammad et al, it has a negative effect on students' academic learning, as well as retention of information or in simple terms, memory.
If we look further afield, after the student has finished the university degree and let's say they are going for job interview, in simple terms ‘how well will they know their shit’, After all they’ve got chatGPT to whip up their masterpiece, cover letter, resume but it can’t speak for them, it’s just them and a panel of higher ups, that’s when they will be starting to sweat.
It begs the question, why are you going for the job interview in the first place?
Fundamentally, it all comes down to interest; Muhammad et al words it as ‘natural curiosity and the passion of learning’. If you've got the interest, wouldn't you want to participate and actively learn as much as possible in your given sphere?
I'm not saying we should all go back to the Stone Age or anything like that, just ChatGPT at Uni has no place in writing the essay for you. Muhammad et al do give some reasons why students choose this option, such as heavy workloads and time pressure, but at the end of the day, you can ask for an extension.
Finally, when working with other academic students, it can foster collaboration, networking and social wellbeing aspects (Kilmove & Pikhart), and you know what, the individuals might even become friends for life or work colleagues in the same industry.
P.S. If you ever suffer a stroke, a good point of call and need some information about life after stroke, visit The Stroke Foundation.
