RE Log - Fall 2023

FALL 2023 Ransom Everglades LOG 15 a dour one. But it does raise questions about the intellectual muscles of our students as AI tools become more and more ready-at-hand, and as it becomes easier and easier to automate the thinking routines that we want to cultivate in the classroom. How do we face the challenge of – as Kirschenbaum phrased it in an interview via Google Meet – “a kind of estrangement from human writing”? How do we prevent students from feeling disempowered by this incredibly powerful technology? Maybe take technology out of the equation – at least at times, in controlled situations in the classroom. Kirschenbaum studies digital writing professionally, but he also runs a scriptorium at UMD: a deliberately low-tech approximation of the places where monks used to produce illuminated manuscripts. “They get a goose quill. They get iron gall ink. They get a pretty good facsimile of parchment paper, and we turn off the lights and use LED candles,” he explained. “One scenario is that writing instruction becomes that kind of scriptorium, this kind of excruciatingly artificial environment where you draw the blinds and lock the doors and light the candles.” It might seem backward-facing to re-envision the 21st-century classroom as a scriptorium. But in certain contexts, a degree of strategic Luddism seems necessary to ensure unassisted critical thinking – and to ensure that by the time students step into the AI-dominated world, they know how to think for themselves, distinguish the true from the false, and chart a meaningful path. Nero uses a different metaphor: she imagines the classroom becoming an “intellectual gym.” This year, she plans to implement more in-class writing. Fewer papers. Oral exams. Above all: an even greater investment in Socratic dialogue, Harkness discussions and other modes of discourse that have provided the foundation of Ransom Everglades pedagogy for 120 years. “Now that we know that AI can generate so much in the written word, we’re going to expect you to be able to sit in a room and respond in real time. To make an argument, to counteract it, to be able to keep your cool. Make eye contact. It’s going to force students to be more present – and teachers, too,” she said. In my own course, Research into Anglophone Literature, we have gone full medieval this fall, not quite by replicating a scriptorium but by replacing a traditional essay with a storytelling contest based on The Canterbury Tales . Jester hats, turkey legs, ribaldry – and not a laptop in sight. AI as a thinking partner And yet, Nero, like many teachers at RE, finds herself contemplating not just low-tech plans, but loftier, more exciting ambitions: opportunities for students to unleash AI as a thinking partner, harnessing its capabilities. “We cannot sit. We cannot be flat-footed. We have to go out there and show our students that we’re not afraid to use it. Even if it means we’re going to make mistakes, too,” she said. That was the main focus of the AIRE Task Force presentation to the faculty: not strategies for circumventing AI, but strategies for embracing it. At one point, world languages faculty members Felipe Amaro and Alfredo Palacio took the stage to demonstrate how ChatGPT can function as a bespoke language tutor for students at any level, conversing fluently and correcting the student’s grammar in real time. In early May, Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan delivered a TED Talk that celebrated the potential of AI to democratize this kind of one-to-one feedback. Even RE students, who receive significant one-on-one support from faculty, stand to benefit. The potential for democratization goes far beyond tutoring. In April, I allowed my students to use AI-generated images in a project that involved creating Brave New World -inspired propaganda posters. One of my students, Nicolas Poliak ’24 , confessed that art wasn’t his strength. But he had a vision for a poster that combined elements of Soviet realism and 1950s “Now that we know that AI can generate so much in the written word, we’re going to expect you to be able to sit in a room and respond in real time. To make an argument, to counteract it, to be able to keep your cool. Make eye contact. It’s going to force students to be more present – and teachers, too.” – Humanities Department Chair Jen Nero “What is the world where these tools are ubiquitous? How do we assist students in preparing for their future?” – Chief Technology Officer Linda Lawrence