"There's a conflict in moments like this between helping a student solve a problem and helping a student learn something." This is such a simple yet elegant way of contrasting different understandings (or visions?) of what education consists of, and what role tech/AI should play in support. Loved every word of this, and thanks for the nod in the footnote.
Manu Kapur calls "learning that does not stick" unproductive success; although the task is completed, little learning happens. In contrast, productive failure means the task is incomplete but some learning did happen.
That said, I still find it early to judge Khanmingo or any other AI Tutor / Chatbot like this, for two reasons;
1. GenAI is not designed to help students learn (I mean ChatGPT-4o here)
2. It's very early stages of Khanmingo. It will either develop further and, one day, be a proper AI Tutor (especially if they take such analysis like yours into consideration), or it will be eliminated because other AI Tutors will do better.
But eventually, AI Tutors will do good. They will be useful. Not to ALL the students, but some of them.
And, at that point, I am more than certain that most of the students will benefit in a hybrid way fof both human teachers and AI tutors.
Fair enough. I think I'm a bit less optimistic than you are but I could imagine AI getting there. It's already a good tutor for language, I use it to work on my Spanish skills and I'm excited to get GPT-4o to work on speaking. Time will tell, and when it arrives I'll be happy to use it.
All that said, I still find positive relationships with students the most important aspect of helping students learn.
And I do understand that human-to-human interaction cannot be replaced.
That's not what I am suggesting, and I totally agree with Dan Meyer on this.
My point is; it must be the students who get to choose. We can only point out what works and what doesn't, about the AI Tutors and hope for some improvement.
In that sense, your analysis is not only perfect, but also very important.
"There's a conflict in moments like this between helping a student solve a problem and helping a student learn something." This is such a simple yet elegant way of contrasting different understandings (or visions?) of what education consists of, and what role tech/AI should play in support. Loved every word of this, and thanks for the nod in the footnote.
Thanks Ben!
Manu Kapur calls "learning that does not stick" unproductive success; although the task is completed, little learning happens. In contrast, productive failure means the task is incomplete but some learning did happen.
That's a great distinction! I think teachers and schools often conflate the two, those are pithy ways to offer other options.
Perfect analysis.
That said, I still find it early to judge Khanmingo or any other AI Tutor / Chatbot like this, for two reasons;
1. GenAI is not designed to help students learn (I mean ChatGPT-4o here)
2. It's very early stages of Khanmingo. It will either develop further and, one day, be a proper AI Tutor (especially if they take such analysis like yours into consideration), or it will be eliminated because other AI Tutors will do better.
But eventually, AI Tutors will do good. They will be useful. Not to ALL the students, but some of them.
And, at that point, I am more than certain that most of the students will benefit in a hybrid way fof both human teachers and AI tutors.
Fair enough. I think I'm a bit less optimistic than you are but I could imagine AI getting there. It's already a good tutor for language, I use it to work on my Spanish skills and I'm excited to get GPT-4o to work on speaking. Time will tell, and when it arrives I'll be happy to use it.
All that said, I still find positive relationships with students the most important aspect of helping students learn.
And I do understand that human-to-human interaction cannot be replaced.
That's not what I am suggesting, and I totally agree with Dan Meyer on this.
My point is; it must be the students who get to choose. We can only point out what works and what doesn't, about the AI Tutors and hope for some improvement.
In that sense, your analysis is not only perfect, but also very important.