School districts considering going back to a “No tech ever” model will likely discover the 180-degree swing isn’t the answer to their problems, either, according to a former teacher-turned-tech blogger.
Teachers instead should be “crystal clear” on how they want their students to use the technology they’re given, said author Matt Miller during the South Shore Summer Learning Conference at Purdue University Northwest recently. Banning it completely won’t change teachers’ deepest concerns about its use, anyway.
“When a carpenter works on a project, they think through the steps and use whatever tool gives us the result they want, right? They’re not saying, ‘Tech is ruining carpentry;’ they use power tools when they make it better,” Miller told the group. “Folks, I have something to tell you: That’s a story abou teaching. Do we really know what going no-tech will bring?”
Getting rid of tech, particularly AI, won’t stop cheating; in fact, like most forbidden things, it becomes only more attractive, Miller said. And whether teschers want to admit it or not, AI plagiarism detectors aren’t all that great, so error rates alone raise doubts about relying on them.
Plagiarism detectors, because of the way they’re trained, also show bias against non-native English speakers, he pointed out.
“(Using plagiarism detectors) is a no-win situation; it takes the focus off learning and into catching cheaters,” Miller said. “And if you say using AI is cheating and to never use it, you only make it more appealing for students to use.”
Teachers, then, should focus on teaching students how to use AI to get the results they want.
“What if AI gives the student broad ideas? Can it be used as a research assistant or writing coach? They’re going to have to make thesr choices eventually,” Miller said. “It’s the transparency of using it that we’re trying to figure out.”
And to the point of AI eliminating teachers, which is always a concern, it’ll never happen, he said.
“Learning is such a human act,” he said. “If teaching were merely a transfer of information, wouldn’t we be gone already with the Internet? The empathy and relationships involved are what makes teachers great, and we’re going to need to more that ever.”
In its seventh year, the South Shore Summer Learning Conference is open to teachers and school administrators in Lake and Porter Counties, said Ken Benich, School City of Hammond’s Technology Director who’s on the conference’s board. Nearly 200 educators attend to share best practices in leadership and teaching.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
