January 17, 2025: Spring Semester Previews: The Short Story Online

[AnotherSpring semester is upon us, and with it my annual Spring semester previews. Thistime I’ll focus on one skill I’m excited to be teaching as part of each ofthese courses. Please share what you’ve got going on this semester and year aswell!]

I saidmost of what I’d want to say about generative AI, in the classroom andeverywhere else, in this year in review post on the subject a few weeks back. Butsince my online-only courses have been the place where I’ve encountered the useof ChatGPT most consistently, I’ll add this: I’m not looking, as I never havelooked and never will look, to be a cop in the classroom. What I am looking todo, now more than ever, is to have all the conversations, including the toughestones. So despite not meeting this class face-to-face, I’m still going to try tohave a conversation with them at the start of the semester on why using AI forclasswork isn’t just a potentially dangerous thing to do for their own futures,but also will lead to both mediocre work and, y’know, the further destructionof our planet. The skill of resisting these understandably tempting technologicaltools is no easy task in January 2025, but I skill I look forward to helping thestudents who are up for the challenge to practice.

Scholarlyupdate this weekend,

Ben

PS. What’son your radar?