Write An Essay About…

It’s so easy; all you need to type is ‘Can you write an email/paragraph/essay about this or that’, and hey presto, grammatically perfect lines with the choicest vocabulary that you hadn’t even thought of appear magically within seconds. The ever-dependent new-age scribe, chancellor or royal chronicler named generative AI does our bidding without sweating a brow, extending its services from writing professional mails to helping students craft their entire homework. A nightmare for educators!

Assignments or homework–a method of reflection and retention–has been viewed as paramount in the learning process by educators, but for students it has always been a sisyphean task. Endless, repetitive and sometimes they offer no tangible solutions to understand a topic or subject. 

The Sisyphean Task

But why was homework invented? To sum up several sources in a nutshell, the tradition started in Rome, where children, as a method of retention as well, reported at home what was learnt at school. What started as a simple retelling of the day’s activities has become a conundrum to crack by students. The evolving landscape of education in its diverse ways of teaching added to the burgeoning load of academic expectations from students. Tracing a line from the days of yore up until now, we can claim that every single time a curriculum got introduced, revised or revamped, the amount of pressure for both educators and students skyrocketed as well. 

On an average, a high school student has 13 to 14 assignments per week today, and the number increases in the final year of school. When a student sees a mountain of assignments, the one that can get nailed easily is the first to be finished. These are subjects where students find themselves confident. But, the ones that tend to be their Achilles’ heel is where they resort to help. While some may approach their teachers, the others may find a shortcut to get the work done. The analogue era students depended on everything from library materials to class toppers’ books. Copy, borrow and reproduce became a quick fix for assignments till the arrival of the digital era. The Internet was a boon and students found it easy to copy and paste any topic that was out of their expertise. The problem? They would forget to delete the URL of the source sometimes!

A Friend in Need

With generative AI, things got faster, smoother and less fussy. While the predecessor prompted students to search for the right source on the internet, in GPT they found a true friend, who can write a well embellished essay, outsmarting the class’s gold medallist in a few seconds. A win for the student but not so much for learning and especially for educators. While the structure of the straitjacketed education system is to be blamed, educators also concluded that whatever little effort children were once investing to understand a complex subject has diminished, defeating the purpose of learning itself. This sly method has crept into almost every assignment provided to students irrespective of their strengths or weaknesses in the subjects. What’s worse is that some educators aren’t equipped enough to prove that the assignment wasn’t man-made. 

Is There a Solution

Before we berate students for their dependence on AI, we need to understand that the days of rote learning are over and unless the system proves to them the impact and importance of studying a certain subject or topic, their attention span will spiral and drop. Hence, replacing a ‘write a 300 word essay on water consumption’ with ‘Talk to your family and write what they think of water consumption’ might get them thinking in the right direction. 

Incorporating critical thinking alongside AI use is crucial. Banning technology will only drive students to depend on it more. Instead, educators should upskill to understand AI's role and guide students in using it effectively. This approach will make it easier for teachers to identify any plagiarized homework or assignments as well.

Conclusion

In a world dominated by technology at every footstep, embracing AI while reducing its dependency can transform the way how students approach a curriculum. Transforming our pedagogy to accommodate students with diverse learning capabilities will only help them foster critical thinking, helping them effectively use the tools enabled for their growth.