Blog Journal 5 - Nathan Sanborn

Journaling is a very popular mental health exercise. It's practiced by people all around the world, with some varying success depending on the person. I view blogging as the same style as a journal, informal writing; however, this blog is something everyone can see, while a journal isn't. This is pretty much my only experience with real blogging; maybe in high school I made one blog post for an assignment, but that hardly counts. I appreciate how it lets me take a breath of fresh air from academic writing, and I can sort of just free write. I also think it forces me to consider my own real opinions more, rather than just regurgitating some information I studied in class, with a hint of my own viewpoint. However, it's not something I would want to do often, as even though it's a nice break, I prefer academic writing. In this class I do it for a grade, but when I confront the idea of me writing a blog itself, all I can think of is, "Who really cares?" I read George R.R. Martin's blog, but that's because he's a famous author. I'm just some college student, so I think if I had something really important to say and I wanted people to know, I'd like it more. I don't think I've learned a whole lot, but it does make me wonder how other people have so much to say, because sometimes I struggle to draw out my thoughts properly. I think it would be interesting for AI to write its own blog...but I don't really know how that'd work. 

A.I. itself is growing every day, and as someone who uses it somewhat frequently, I've seen its progression. Although I don't think (and hope) it will ever take over the classroom, it will surely have its place. From a student perspective, there are a couple ways of looking at it. Some students may be too shy or want me to personally and constantly help with questions. A.I. is able to assist students whenever they need help and can sometimes be more useful than teachers. However, I still value the person-to-person relationship that is built between student and teacher, so I would always encourage people to use A.I. second. For a teacher, it can help them quickly design a lesson plan or an assignment. I've asked AI for ideas before, and it comes up with stuff I could've never considered, which can progress learning. I also think one day it'll be good at making practice tests; however, it's not really there yet. Of course, cheating is a big topic, and I've talked about it on here before about how I believe we can only teach students why they shouldn't cheat, as AI will always break walls we put up.

In my experience with generative AI for the portfolio item, my group was quite specific. We wanted to be careful not to be too broad or too specific with what we were asking for. The main goal was to not confuse the AI, because it's not very hard to do so. We did it to make a lesson plan, and it felt decent, but I still believe that all teachers should make their own. It feels more personal when a teacher does it, like they really know the material. I think if I were to use it again, I would just ask for an outline and then do it myself. 

As I stated above, I believe A.I. can do great outlines. I personally believe that AI can give you great foundations but should never be the entire structure of your work. Maybe a building block or two, but never the entire structure. "Give me an outline for this lesson," "Give me some assignment ideas for this," "Help me generate test questions," things like that. If a teacher starts to use AI to the point where it builds all their stuff for them, they aren't really the teacher and aren't any better than a student asking AI to write their entire essay for them. For ethical concerns, once again, I will make students understand that any unethical use of AI will have consequences, not only discipline, but also they'll never truly learn anything relying on it 24/7. This will not stop many students, but when they get behind on in-person tests and are unable to cheat, it'll be obvious who is truly studying.