Tag: writing

Writing Instruction in the World of Artificial Intelligence: (An Excerpt)

February 11th, 2023

The following is another excerpt from my work in progress on using AI in the classroom. This part focuses on the history of invention and education.

The Influence of the Movable-Type Press

Prior to the invention of the movable-type press in medieval Europe, the written word was far less accessible. Each copy of a work had to be handwritten and was thusly undertaken by specially trained individuals—often monks, and thusly specially focused on religious works in Latin rather than the languages of the people. Also, due to the labor and scarcity involved, the cost of books was prohibitively expensive, further separating socio-economic and cultural classes. And while it is a myth that the average Medieval man wouldn’t be able to write his own name, people were generally illiterate—and women were at a greater literacy disadvantage during this period.

The influence of the movable-type press on human society cannot be overstated. It allowed for ideas to be shared far more readily than ever before. Many of these ideas, as was the case when works were all handwritten, were religious. The entire Protestant Reformation was enabled by the invention of the printing press. The movable-type press allowed for scaled distribution of the written word. As literature became more widely available, more people began learning to read. Part of this was cultural, and part of it was theological.

For those communities who widely converted to Protestantism, like Scotland’s Presbyterians, there was a dominant belief that individuals had a duty to read the Bible for themselves—men and women alike. So, there was a great push in those communities to teach literacy to males and females, rich and poor, clergy and lay person. This was a major cultural shift in education that reverberated in the West, as formal education had not just been restricted to men, but to a very small percentage of men—usually those of nobility, the merchant class, or the clergy. After the printing press and the Reformation, the West saw such a profound upheaval in the cultural and educational landscape. Though, education as we know it wouldn’t take shape for many years to come, the culture of educating of the average person begins here.

The Industrial Revolution

The period of the Industrial Revolution in the United States saw major changes in the economy and society, leading to a corresponding transformation in American public education. As industry leaders called for a more educated and skilled workforce to meet the demands of the rapidly growing factories and businesses, the development of American public education became a central concern. In response, public schools were established, curricula were expanded to include subjects relevant to industry, and teacher training programs were created to produce a more professionalized teaching workforce. These developments marked the beginning of a new era in American public education, as the country adjusted to the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving industrial landscape.

Previous to this, the majority of jobs were agricultural in nature. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the need for agricultural workers decreased, and industrial workers increased. Further, as wealth proliferated during this period, the need for clerical workers likewise increased. Politicians responded to the needs of industry and moved for the formation of public-school systems. These school systems were designed to educate students with a basic skillset to be trainable for industrial jobs. This mentality still predominates in modern education systems as skills taught are considered to be those useful to industry and commerce. Take for instance Common Core as an example.

The Background of Common Core

The Common Core curriculum is a set of standards for K-12 education in English language arts and mathematics that were developed in response to industry leaders’ demands for a more educated and skilled workforce in the United States. The Common Core was developed by a coalition of education leaders and experts and was designed to provide a clear and consistent set of expectations for what students should know and be able to do in each grade. The goal of the Common Core was to ensure that all students, regardless of where they lived, received a high-quality education that would prepare them for college and career success.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government provided incentives to states that adopted the Common Core, leading to its widespread adoption across the country. The Common Core was designed to ensure that American students were better prepared to compete in the global economy and to meet the demands of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing job market. The curriculum was developed with input from teachers, parents, and industry leaders, and is designed to be flexible and adaptable to meet the changing needs of the workforce.

Public Education for the Public Good

Public education is designed to be a public good, to supply the economic growth of the nation with able and competent workers. While this may fly in the face of many teachers’ and schools’ educational philosophies that seeks the betterment of students as individuals, to lead fuller lives, the systems in place have had to be retrofitted to accommodate those philosophies.

Does this mean that our educational models are hopelessly antiquated? No. It’s merely important to understand that our educational structures originated in the late 1800s and despite world-changing technologies like the Internet, the educational systems are largely the same with only some small pockets of attempting a paradigm shift in things like online education. For the vast majority of students, schools maintain the same structures they have for generations. Where are the revolutionary upheavals we saw with the printing press and the steam engine? With artificial intelligence, these may be just around the corner.
Writing Instruction in the World of AI: An Introduction

February 10th, 2023

What follows is the first draft of the introduction to my book-in-progress, Writing Instruction in the World of Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for English Teachers Using ChatGPT

A story I often read to my eldest daughter is an old copy of Disney’s adaptation of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The tale is about an old wizard’s apprentice (Mickey) who, while his master is away, decides to use his master’s magic hat to complete his chores. However, he soon realizes that he cannot control the magic and the broom he enchanted to do his work becomes uncontrollable and in Mickey’s attempts to stop it, he creates a far greater problem.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is about the danger of power in the hands of the ignorant and the importance of control and responsibility. The story warns against the reckless use of power and the consequences that can come with it. The apprentice learns the hard way that one must be fully prepared and trained to use magic properly. The story also highlights the idea that one should not try to shortcut their education or experience, and instead learn and grow gradually to master their skills and avoid causing harm.

English teachers today are facing a rapidly changing educational landscape, one in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important aspect of writing instruction. The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT has the potential to transform the way we teach writing and language arts, but it also raises important concerns and questions. Writing Instruction in the World of Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Language Arts Teachers is a comprehensive resource designed to help English teachers navigate this new landscape and make the most of the opportunities presented by AI. This book addresses the fears and concerns that many English teachers have about AI and provides practical advice on how to incorporate AI tools like ChatGPT into writing instruction in responsible and effective ways.

As technology develops, the world changes in many ways: predominate professions shift, cultural norms drift, and the usefulness of certain skills wax and wane.

Based on the most predominate surnames in the US, UK, and other parts of the West where occupational surnames dominate, Smith is the most common. But how many of those people are smiths by profession? Even given a new resurgence in artisan crafting, smithing as an occupation has long been obsolete due to technological development—and has been for a couple hundred years. The education formerly in place for blacksmiths, blade smiths, armorers and the like has been relegated to the annals of Wikipedia and a few worthy craftsmen determined to keep that tradition alive. But no longer is that the norm.

Technological development has created innumerable cultural shifts: the firearm, the printing press, the locomotive, the radio, the airplane, television, the Internet, email, social media, robotics, and artificial intelligence have shifted and continually move culture in ways we can hardly fathom. Culture is incredibly complex, and while we can see some of the many causal dominoes of history knocked over by the invention of the printing press and locomotive, predicting the changes caused by the development of an ever-improving technology like artificial intelligence is impossible. That inability to foresee what lies ahead for our culture and civilization rightly causes anxiety in many. Teachers who are attempting to prepare the next generation to lead this society are doubly anxious as they are not just preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, but they are trying to prepare students to lead and contribute to a world that doesn’t yet exist. How does a teacher do that? How, with the increasing prevalence of state-mandated scripted curricula, standardized tests, and various and sundry other state-mandates, can teachers look to that increasingly unpredictable future and prepare their students for it? While there’s no silver bullet to these complex problems, one method proven by one of the most effective human institutions, the United States Marine Corps, is “improvise, adapt, and overcome.”

Teachers are typically great improvisers—having on the whole had to do their jobs with less than is ideal. However, often hemmed in with regulations, that adaptation becomes the struggle.

The field of education is generally behind the curve when it comes to adapting to the development of best practices, new technology, and societal shifts for many reasons. For good and ill, the field of education is influenced heavily by politics at local, state, and federal levels—which screams dysfunction and slow-to-act. But political battles aren’t the only issue plaguing educators. Disruptive students, problematic leadership, inattentive support staff, and burnt-out and coasting colleagues all bring additional burdens to educators still trying their best.

In spite of these challenges, teachers must tackle the needs of their students the best ways they know how. This book aims to improve that “know-how” of educators in adapting to the use of artificial intelligence in the English classroom. Further, this book is for educational and school system leaders to gain some insight into the ways technology is changing the classroom.

We should remember the lessons of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and apply them to our classrooms. For many of us, Artificial Intelligence might as well be magic—and its abilities can often exceed those of the magic we read in fairytales and folklore. Learning from the apprentice’s errors, we must endeavor to do due diligence in learning how to properly use these tools and discourage their reckless use and abuse.