AI has upended Higher Ed in the last two years. Often lost in the hype around AI are the fundamental questions: what does learning look like and how does it happen. Christopher Nygren and Sonja Drimmer offer a response:
The past two years have seen a swell of think pieces and op-eds written by educators on the impact of AI on their students' learning. Publications that note the negative effects of this technology on their students' reasoning capacity or writing ability tend to take two forms: laments for what this technology has destroyed, or suggestions for how educators can teach around it in their classrooms. For all their merits, these essays often feel resigned to the inevitability of AI infiltrating all aspects of university education. We are not resigned. And we join a mounting swell of students and educators who are choosing to say "no." But in order to take an effective stand, we must move from articulating critiques to taking actions. Our piece provides a roadmap by revealing the surprisingly old history of protest against AI on college campuses, one which offers inspiration for collective resistance through small acts of friction.
Read the full text of the article on Public Books: https://www.publicbooks.org/four-frictions-or-how-to-resist-ai-in-education/
Read Christopher Nygren's faculty profile: https://www.haa.pitt.edu/people/christopher-j-nygren