Harvard University: Ethics and Efficiency in Teaching
June 28, 2023
![Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[1]_thumb](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t1_thumb-38.gif "Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[1]_thumb")
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
You are familiar with Harvard University, the school of broad endowments and a professor who allegedly made up data and criticized colleagues for taking similar liberties with the “truth.” For more color about this esteemed Harvard professional read “Harvard Behavioral Scientist Who Studies Dishonesty Is Accused of Fabricating Data.”
Now the academic home of William James many notable experts in ethics, truth, reasoning, and fund raising has made an interesting decision. “Harvard’s New Computer Science Teacher Is a Chatbot.”
A terrified 17 year old from an affluent family in Brookline asks, “Professor Robot, will my social acceptance score be reduced if I do not understand how to complete the programming assignment?” The inspirational image is an output from the copyright compliant and ever helpful MidJourney service.
The article published in the UK “real” newspaper The Independent reports:
Harvard University plans to use an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT as an instructor on its flagship coding course.
The write up adds:
The AI teaching bot will offer feedback to students, helping to find bugs in their code or give feedback on their work…
Once installed and operating, the chatbot will be the equivalent of a human teaching students how to make computers do what the programmer wants? Hmmm.
Several questions:
- Will the Harvard chatbot, like a living, breathing Harvard ethics professor make up answers?
- Will the Harvard chatbot be cheaper to operate than a super motivated, thrillingly capable adjunct professor, graduate student, or doddering lecturer close to retirement?
- Why does an institution like Harvard lack the infrastructure to teach humans with humans?
- Will the use of chatbot output code be considered original work?
But as one maverick professors keeps saying, “Just getting admitted to a prestigious university punches one’s employment ticket.”
That’s the spirit of modem education. As William James, a professor from a long and dusty era said:
The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
Should students fear algorithms teaching them how to think?
Stephen E Arnold, June 28, 2023
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