Okay, let me explain my view…

These days, I’ve been browsing on the internet and I’ve seen many people (younger / teenage) saying that they are using AI on their homework. I also have seen many people working with me heavily using AI. And hey, that’s totally fine, I also use AI to work, but is not about using it, but how you are using it.

Before I write about my thoughts, let me explain how it was for me (and probably for most of the people who grew up during the 80’s and 90’s).

The school before the internet (maybe even computers)

At the school, when I got homework I usually had these steps below:

  1. Search:
    • Go to physical library.
    • Look at many book titles on the shelves and select some of them.
    • Look up to the indexes and find the chapters that are most related with the homework topic.
    • Have a quick look in all the chapters to see if they are relevant.
    • If needed, go back to shelves (step 2).
    • Ask the librarian if I can borrow it to my home (sometimes you cannot, it’s the onl copy on the library).
    • If you can’t borrow it, you have just your hands to copy the content (wasn’t full available this photocopiers).
  2. Understanding and Organizing:
    • When you have all the books that you need you start to read all the chapters and take notes.
    • You write down (by hand) parts of the text as quotes or a small summary with your words.
    • After finishing all the books, you will read all your notes and try to organize it in a certain order to make sense.
  3. Making a draft:
    • Here you will write a full version of the homework with all the summary connecting all the points that you had from before
    • You need to read and sometimes write it more than once.
  4. Final step, write the final homework:
    • In a clean new paper you start to carefully write your last draft as you final version.
    • Keep in mind, the homework appearance was part of the final grade, if you mess things up stuff on the end, you need to write all again from the beginning.

So, in this process you have read and write the content at least 3 or 4 times, so your brain have actually absolved all the content, you have learn it.

When the computer came (no internet yet)

On this step you lost 1 ability from the previous section, the writing. It because you will handwrite only contents that you cannot borrow from the library to your home, and on this time, most of the libraries have photo-copy machines. The step 1 keeps intact, but the others (2, 3 and 4) are now reduced.

Then you might say, “But hey, I still typing the content!”, true, but we know the retention in your brain is less when you type than when you write.

  1. Search:
    • Same as before
  2. Understanding and Organizing:
    • Almost the same, but now the notes are on Notepad on the computer
    • Organizing, much easier, just cut & paste parts of the text in a better order
  3. Making a draft:
    • Still on the Notepad, but now in another window, you start to copy & paste the content and write (type) connections between the pieces.
  4. Final step, write the final home work:
    • Copy & paste from Notepad to Word and format the document
    • Oh sh*t (💩)!!! I made a mistake!!!
    • No problem ctrl+z. 😬

But still, you read a lot, this is good too.

The internet (AltaVista, Google and similar)

Here is where the learning path started to get some shortcuts and started to decline.

You don’t go to the libraries any more, by the way, do you know where is the library in your city today? 🤔

  1. Search:
    • Now you search on the Web and you get pointed exactly where the content you need is.
  2. Understanding and Organizing:
    • You read it, copy & paste to the notepad.
  3. Making a draft:
    • The same as before: You start to copy & paste the content and write (type) connections between the pieces.
  4. Final step, write the final home work:
    • Again the same as before.

If you see here you have no handwrite and just screen reading, a lot of copy & paste and just a little typing.

The AI

  1. Search:
    • Not needed
  2. Understanding and Organizing:
    • Not needed.
  3. Making a draft:
    • Not needed.
  4. Final step, write the final home work:
    • Make a proper prompt (a good asking) and print it.

No reading… No typing… No handwrite… No effort… ZERO knowledge absorbed…

My thoughts

The students now they are just passing on the exams, they don’t know about history, geography, physics, science or math.

They go to the university, they get graduated, they start to work… Imagine a doctor, an engineer making the drawings for a new building, or a bridge.

You might never use the formulas that you have learned on math or physics, but, learn it, you learn logic, you learn about how to structure your thoughts, how to see the world and understand what is going on around you.

You don’t make any “conscious” calculation before cross a street with no traffic lights, but you know the size of the street, your speed and the car speed…

Since you are no longer searching, investigating anymore, you don’t know how to solve problems “off-line”.

In summary, we are heading in too dangerous world.

What comes next

I will now start to write a new post explaining how I’m using the IA in a smart way to help me on my tasks, but not doing it for me.

Stay tuned 😉