AI Thoughts: "AI and the Teaching of Writing"

Today's post is a response to Eric Hudson's "AI and the Teaching of Writing" from April 27.

Eric Hudson highlights six core principles which he will include in a workshop he plans for teachers. His principles are:

1. Writing matters.

2. The way we write is changing.

3. Doing nothing is the riskiest choice.

4. In-class writing should not be the only way we "engage" with AI.

5. The answer to a technological disruption is not necessarily more technology.

6. As we make moment-to-moment decisions, we must keep the future in mind.

Being somewhat out of the classroom world now - a lot of these echo my own thoughts. I view the use of AI in writing as a call to approach it with out students ethically and efficiently. Ethically in the sense that we need to be sure to teacher when AI use is appropriate, including citations, generative AI, and the ethical and environmental issues that the field arises, and efficiently in terms of teaching methods of prompting, usage tips, and familiarity with the jagged frontiers of the tool.

AI Generated.

I think a part of this - when it comes to writing - that calls us to teach the traditional path of drafting, revising, editing, and publishing in the non-digital sense before adding in the digital benefits of AI research, spellcheck, draft analysis, and more. Struggle is necessary for learning and writing is the way we struggle with concepts, ideas, and thoughts with ourselves and with others.

A large inspiration of this space is just to provide an area for struggling with what I am reading, what I am collecting, and what I am hearing as I journey through the Catholic education world. The blog's tilt towards AI has occurred because it has become a large part of my role at FACTS and - I believe - is a large issue confronting our Church and society.

Outsourcing AI to write a summary or analysis of blogposts, tips, tools, books, or experiences would not provide the structure and framework for my own mind to truly start to understand and apply the content of those same places. This is why writing matters - and why the deployment of AI in our schools must be intentional and must start now. The internet, cellular access, and social media preyed on our students without intentional deployment fracturing society in ways large and small.

Artificial Intelligence and the generation of writing represents a computer-created artifical reef establishing a wider range of The Shallows. What aspects of our attention and human understanding will be lost?