Apparently, my daughter was given an assignment to use generative #AI to create a poster / cover for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in her English class. She took offense to this and asked if she could just do the assignment by hand or digitally using one of her #art apps. She was told no. So, my daughter decided to take a stand and not do the assignment. We support her decision completely. Asking someone who lives for creating her own art to use AI and refusing to accept anything else is inexcusable.
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@JessicaAnnEng That's a teacher who is not a teacher. They need to be removed.
@JessicaAnnEng My daughter got in trouble at school for calling out a teacher for using AI to generate a poster.
It was the art teacher.
The poster was to promote a student art competition.
@JessicaAnnEng can she pretend to be catholic
@julieofthespirits Orange Catholic, perhaps. 😁
"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."
@JessicaAnnEng "We want you to plagiarise an essay."
"Can I write an original one?"
"No."
She came home with an email update.
"Also, I know that some of you are opposed to using #AI and I want you to know that I respect that. I care about the environment and would not ask you to use something that is incredibly detrimental to our planet." Between several different classes, "we are using about 5-6 gallons of water total for this assignment."
The teacher then proceeds to say that if the student still does not want to do the assignment, then they will deduct five points and require them to write a few paragraphs about what they would put on the cover. They explicitly stated that any artwork done by hand was unacceptable.
My daughter does not want me to pursue this on her behalf. I think docking any points is bogus.
I want to thank all of you for your insight and words of encouragement. My daughter is awesome. I've shown or told her of most of your comments. I'm impressed that she wasn't the only one of her peers that complained about the assignment.
This has been a long topic of conversation with us tonight. She knows she has full parental support, but she is firm on handling this on her own. She's 18 now. If she changes her mind and wants her mom to step in, I will.
@JessicaAnnEng wait, this was for a SENIOR level English class?
@JessicaAnnEng It sounds like you and your daughter have hit a really solid balance between protective mama bear and young woman living on her own terms. Good on you both. I hope it turns out well.
@JessicaAnnEng as someone who recently left higher education for that reason, I can confirm there is a push for including AI in the curriculum, so that students are not "left behind" so that they "learn to write good prompts" and so that they "gain experience with skills required in the workforce". I couldn't do that.
As a long time teacher, though, I recommend against getting involved. The cases where I saw parents involved (with other faculty), never turned out well. I have not checked your location.. but if you're in the US, there are limitations about what faculty can and cannot discuss with people other than the student, as guided by FERPA. Anything about grades touches that line.
I do have a story from my undergrad (in a different country) which may be informative.. I'll add it below with a CW.
@JessicaAnnEng in college, I had a required class in animal taxonomy. Some old-school teachers used the field trip to collect large amount of animals for their collections at the natural institute.
We, the students, raised our concerns about the unnecessary killing of animals and were met with negatives. I thought it was horrible, but also, my upbringing was one to "do what the teacher says".
One of the students, though, plainly refused.
She was told she'd fail the field portion of the class.
She was an A+ student, this could be very bad for her GPA. After some struggle she said "OK, I'll fail the field part of the class". And she did. That semester she did not get the top GPA.
That was more than 20 years ago. Nowadays she's a published researcher in one of the top science institutes in Europe. That was but a blip in her career, but perhaps the most important lesson in ethics in research I ever had.
@JessicaAnnEng that teacher is weird af
@JessicaAnnEng Damn right it is. It stinks to high heaven. I'd write a few paragraphs about why the use of GenAI is wrong and then a couple of lines describing my idea for the cover. I'd go to the school Head and ask "what kind of bollocks is this?". But that's just me, a grumpy so and so.
@CaptMikeYates I like this idea!
@JessicaAnnEng I'd also give the school Head full barrels about reliance on GenAI turning students into a bunch of mindless sheep, but that's cos it reminds me of a quote from a favourite television series.
@JessicaAnnEng id start harassing that teacher.
@0x00string I won't be harassing the teacher, but I will be sending her an email to understand what the heck is up.
@JessicaAnnEng @0x00string I'd really want to know what the pedagogical goal is.
@dr_a @JessicaAnnEng @0x00string With the teacher expressing the environmental concerns of AI, she may be under pressure to “get students to use AI”. I know the pressure on those of us in higher education is considerable.
@JessicaAnnEng This was probably some mandate from the principal, who was told by the superintendent, who was told by politicians, who was told by AI billionaires. I met a teacher retiring because they are demanding that they force students to use the stochastic parrot