– Students need knowledge to master technology

Make general knowledge great again!

debate

This is a discussion post. The entry was written by an external contributor, and quality assured by BT's discussion department. Opinions and analyzes are the author's own.

what should we do? What to do with artificial intelligence (AI) in school? Daniel C. defends E. Haglund about introducing basic knowledge into primary school by saying, “It already exists.” Education director Björn Lingedahl talks about the magic and revival atmosphere and believes the school should embrace AI “because it is the reality we live in”.

both of them Surveys Hägglund uses the justification that “it already exists,” deals with students and teachers in secondary schools, and does not document the use of AI in primary schools. You must take responsibility for the application yourself, Daniel.

Currently, there is no independent research showing that students learn, write, or think better with the help of AI, although there are powerful narratives that would convince us that today's school is outdated and that AI will change everything. The selection of educational tools and methods in schools must be justified on the basis of learning impact. “Students use it anyway,” “This is the reality we live in” is not a valid argument.

I suggest that Haglund and Lingdahl instead ask themselves: What kind of school do we need for students to engage with the world of artificial intelligence? Everyone agrees that students' ability to critique sources is crucial.

They must maneuver through a landscape of machine-generated texts that can cause hallucinations, contain questionable “bias” and which can be used to spread fake news and “deepfakes.” But how does one become a critical reader? Unfortunately, there is no critical switch in students' brains that we can simply turn on.

When I use ChatGPT To plan teaching activities, I can critically evaluate the proposals you put forward, by activating my own knowledge about the teaching, the Norwegian subject and the students. If students were to use ChatGPT to write a text on a completely new topic in geography, they do not yet have the knowledge necessary to evaluate whether what the bot generates is true or false.

Last year, we could read in VG about Tale (17 years old) who reacted to ChatGPT suggesting Anders Behring Breivik as a Norwegian hero. It's knowledge of July 22nd that makes it react to this, not knowledge of ChatGPT. To use AI critically and constructively, it is important to know something, rather than have a lot of practical experience with chatbots.

When teachers urge To critically approach and demand the possibility of regulating and monitoring the use of digital tools in the classroom, this is not an expression of technological anxiety.

Rather, we have accepted that AI is here to stay, and we have realized that the most important thing students need to use technology well is their knowledge of nature, culture, economics, power, language, society, democracy, and history. Unfortunately, this isn't very magical, but it is true.

If Lingedal wants a hallelujah mood, I can fix him a Trump-inspired hat for the next big teachers' gathering around KI in Grieghallen. It should read: Make general knowledge great again.