Outsourcing your life

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    vivian chen

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    Yesterday, a team of fifth-grade teachers shared a humorous, but also disheartening story of one of their student’s using AI to complete a writing assignment. All of us had heard of this happening in middle and high school, but hadn’t encountered it in elementary school until now.

    Then this morning, this post from the NY Times Opinion section came across my social media feed–all while I’ve been crafting a slice in my head about my own use of AI.

    The author’s description of the memoir-writing process as “an act that makes the author more fully alive,” resonates with me deeply as we’re nearing the end of the Slice of Life Challenge.

    It’s through reading your writing that so many of you slicers have become people that I feel I know IRL (in real life). Even if AI could write really well-crafted, heart-warming stories based on our experiences, would our humanity come through?

    6 responses to “Outsourcing your life”

    1. lvahey Avatar
      lvahey

      I love that phrase – “complicating (fraught experiences) in the retelling”. It makes me think that AI will be able to retell (actually, already can), but won’t be able to make “our humanity come through.” I think we have really important work ahead, as teachers, leaders and coaches – and with families and kids, too – unpacking how AI is going to change our writing lives.

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    2. natashadomina Avatar
      natashadomina

      What a compelling question! And perhaps even more important, what would happen to ourselves if we outsource “reflecting” to AI? Not only the reader, but also the writer, loses in the process. We somehow need to communicate to students the true purpose of spending time writing.

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    3. franmcveigh Avatar
      franmcveigh

      So succinct- impossible to outsource our humanity. AI will not replace the human factors.

      5th grade – ouch

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    4. edifiedlistener Avatar
      edifiedlistener

      Thank you for broaching this topic with sensitivity and thoughtfulness. It’s not surprising if our students are confused as to the real priorities they ought to pursue: productivity and output at all costs or manage the struggles and rewards of deep learning?

      AI may lend a hand for some tasks, but offloading the emotional and cognitive work of processing our lives through writing and art via genAI will make us neither wiser nor happier.

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    5. arjeha Avatar
      arjeha

      AI might be able to write, but there is no way for it to express the deep seated emotion a writer puts into what is written.

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    6. Lainie Levin Avatar
      Lainie Levin

      I think the other commenters have said it so beautifully already. I think about myself, and what I like AI for – it’s mostly to do the brainless stuff so that I can focus on what I really want to think about.

      And I guess it’s my hope that I’d be able to teach my students the difference between the writing they can use assistance with, and what really requires their effort and heart. Call me an optimist…?

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