alt Hacker NewsYou can no true Scotsman it, but that study is a structured task. It's possible to generate an ever-more structured tutorial, but that's asking ever more more from teachers. And to what end? Why should they do that? Where's the data suggesting it's worth the trouble? And cui bono?
Students have had access to modern LLMs for years now, which is plenty long to spin up and read out a study...
Replies
ethbr1 • yesterday at 5:04 AM
Comparing that study to how any classroom works, from kindergarten through high school, is ridiculous.
What grade school classes have you ever been in where the teacher said "Okay, get to it" and then ignored the class until the task was completed?
I'm not saying it's not a Scotsman: I'm saying you grabbed an orange in your rush to refute apples.
To quote the article:
"To be clear, we do not believe the solution to these issues is to avoid using LLMs, especially given the undeniable benefits they offer in many contexts. Rather, our message is that people simply need to become smarter or more strategic users of LLMs – which starts by understanding the domains wherein LLMs are beneficial versus harmful to their goals."
And that is also our goal as instructors.
I agree with that study when using an LLM for search. But there's more to life than search.
The best argument I have to why we should not ban LLMs in school is this: students will use it anyway and they will harm themselves. That is reason enough.
So the question becomes, "What do instructors do with LLMs in school so the LLM's effect is at least neutral?"
And this is where we're still figuring it out. And in my experience, there are things we can do to get there, and then some.