Two Student Questions, Two Teacher Responses

Two Voices of Change Fellows had the same kind of moment this year, when a student comment that could have been brushed off as attitude turned out to be a warning sign. On This Week with EdSurge, Melinda Medina explains what happened when a student answered a literature question with "I use ChatGPT, how am I supposed to know that?" and what it revealed about students quietly outsourcing their own thinking. Then Beth Yirga describes the eighth grader who asked her, "If AI will do everything, then what's the point of learning?" and how that question sent her looking for answers outside of education entirely.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Melinda Medina cites a Brown University economics class where students averaged nearly 96% on a take-home midterm, then under 49% once the professor switched to an in-person proctored exam, a trend she now sees echoed in her own classroom.
• When Melinda's 11th graders were asked how author Kate Chopin uses irony, one replied that she'd used ChatGPT instead of working through the text, a moment Melinda says worried her less as cheating and more as a sign students no longer wanted to engage with productive struggle.
• Beth Yirga's question came from an eighth grader during a planning meeting for a new career exploration program at Freire Charter School Wilmington, and it sent her to the Women Who Code Summit in New York, where she was the only K-12 educator in a room of more than 500 people.
• Beth is building an "identity year" for students, pairing AI literacy with outdoor hikes, a trip to the opera, and a visit to the state capitol, on the belief that students need to know who they are before they can direct any tool toward a future worth having.

STORIES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Protecting Student Cognition in the Age of AI by Melinda Medina

The K-12 Silo Won't Survive AI, But Our Relationships Might by Beth Yirga

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HOST AND CONTRIBUTORS

Host: Ira Apfel

Featuring:

• Melinda Medina , English and Special Education Teacher, Brooklyn, NY
• Beth Yirga , Assistant Head of School, Freire Charter School Wilmington, DE