AI Enhanced

 This cartoon really helped me understand something.

My school board announced a new initiative, the mandatory grade 11 English class will now focus on Indigenous voices. I used to teach Indigenous Studies, and couldn't get more than ten kids to take the class as an elective, so it's not a bad idea. But here's how they explained it:

It's about 100 words - barely a full paragraph - but the school board required the assistance of AI to write it???

Nope, it seems that maybe they're bragging that they figured out how to use AI, as if having assistance from a computer program somehow makes it better. It's like someone writing out a bit of math - that a 20%-off sale means you'll get that $29.99 jumper for only $24 - and bragging that they used a calculator to figure that out. Will we get to a time that people are more impressed if you can write a paragraph or do some simple math without using a computer?? 

The ability to communicate - to be able to write a simple explanatory paragraph - is such a vital skill. I can understand acknowledging it's part of our reality as educators and that it's something we have to learn to work with, but I don't understand promoting its use to write a social media post.

We're entering truly bizarre times.