Artificial Intelligence tools have started to make waves in various fields, from art to writing. I believe that AI has no place in any of these fields. My stance remains unchanged when it comes to education and software engineering. Besides messing with Bard for 5 minutes before writing this essay, an experience from which I did not gain anything of note, I have not made much use of any AI tools over the course of this semester, and I have no plans on changing that.
I did not make use of any AI tools for these WODs. There were a plethora of resources available to help, such as the write-ups in each module, screencasts, and even documentation. I hardly ever needed outside help, and the few times I did, I preferred to search for the information on my own, whether through reading messages in the discord or surfing the web. I believe this problem-solving process helps build and improve valuable intuition skills.
Once again, for reasons very similar to the ones listed above, I did not utilize any AI tools. However, these WODs typically involved working with others, and a lot of the students I worked with used AI, resulting in a situation where I had second-hand usage. I did not find the AI solutions helpful. Oftentimes, the AI solution became very convoluted and involved working through many unnecessary steps and concepts for a simple problem. As an example, when completing WODs related to webpage mockups, the AI would generate these long, unnecessary CSS files with a laundry list of class names and IDs. It became hard to trace where exactly each element was getting its properties from.
Once again, I did not use AI tools. The in-class WODs were very similar to both the experience and practice ones. I did not need outside help. Even if I forgot something, I tried to recall the information on my own as active retrieval is an important part of the learning process.
Writing is a skill that I take pride in, and a process that I greatly enjoy. Being a mostly creative endeavor, this is one of the fields that I believe AI truly has no place in. Therefore, it goes without saying that I did not use AI in any essays. You can always stand to improve in your writing, and I do not plan to miss any opportunity for such growth.
I have no plans to use AI for the final project. However, many of my group members are doing so. I appreciate how quickly the AI can get basic code written, as I am at the point of the semester where I am burnt out. I notice the problem described in number 2, where AI can make simple problems needlessly complex. Working through this layer of added complexity may prove challenging.
I have not used any AI tools here. I much prefer to learn things the old fashioned way. I believe that the standard process of trial and error builds valuable skills that come in handy in many areas of life.
I have not used any AI tools here. If I do not know the answer to a question, I simply do not say anything. If it’s an area I’m interested in or I want to help the other person, I will google it and look for an answer.
I have not used any AI tools here. Whenever I ask a question, I often know exactly what I want to ask and see no need to pass my thoughts through an arbitrary filter. I can’t see generating questions to be something you need AI for.
No AI here. A lot of the needed coding examples can be found in the modules and documentation.
No AI here. I try to trace tasks that I don’t understand, and I usually end up figuring out how it works from there.
If you count the autofill in IntelliJ, then I use AI all the time here. The time saved from not having to manually type everything out is immense. If you do not count it, then no AI is used.
No AI used here. I also do not do this manually either though.
There is a button in IntelliJ that fixes all the eslint errors automatically. Is that considered AI? If so, then I use it all the time. If not, then no.
I can’t think of any personal use cases, but I did have group members generate mockup images for final project web pages. I found the results to be pretty entertaining.
AI has had zero impact on my personal learning and understanding in the course. As stated above, the few experiences I’ve had with AI haven’t helped with learning. I suppose trying to figure out exactly how the AI went about solving a problem could be an engaging activity, but that would require you to already have a good understanding of the concept. Outside of my personal experience, I believe AI will have a negative impact on skill development and problem solving. If people get too reliant on AI, they may not even bother attempting to find a solution on their own and will lose a lot of the soft skills that go into problem solving. It’s important to try solving issues yourself first before turning to AI. Furthermore, you could end up in situations where the AI generates a solution above your current skill level. This compromises the learning experience in the same way cheating on an exam does; you haven’t truly learned the information, just copied it.
AI has quickly arose as a hot-button topic and boasts many apparent practical applications. I have trouble believing this. In terms of software and technology, it’s widely believed that AI will automate everything, from cars to spaceships. As someone who spends a fair amount of time online, I’ve seen plenty information regarding Tesla’s self-driving cars. So far, I have no reason to place any faith in automated driving and have even started to question the ethics involved in leaving such a crucial activity to lines of code. Outside of technology, AI has had an impact in art. I am into art and enjoy practicing drawing in my free time. Besides the mountain of ethical issues involved with feeding a program other people’s intellectual property, AI does not possess any of the qualities that make art special. A computer is unable to feel emotions and cannot pour them into a body of work. I cannot see AI replacing human-made art at any time.
As described in the Personal Experience section, deciphering the AI’s solution to a problem can oftentimes be harder than simply solving the problem on your own and requires just as much knowledge. I can’t think of many potential opportunities for further integration in education.
I fail to see how an AI-centric approach to education can ever compare to traditional teaching methods. Computers do not have a brain; they cannot offer context or insight outside of what actual humans coded into them. An expert in the field has valuable experience and insight that they can pass on to you. They have been there and know what works and what doesn’t. They can guide you through challenging topics and adjust a curriculum based on individual needs. There is no substitute for this, especially not a computer program.
Outside of offering some entertainment and perhaps a tiny nudge in the right direction when you are completely stuck, I cannot see AI having any significant impact on the future of software engineering education. Until we are able to completely replicate a working human brain in code, something I hope never happens, AI does not offer any game-changing educational tools. However, as I do not see AI tools going anywhere in the near future, I suppose I can offer an idea on future integration. Teachers could code a “help-bot” specific to each course. This bot will be trained on all of the concepts to be covered over the semester, with extra emphasis on topics that students typically struggle with. When students need help, they can simply ask the bot. Teachers only have so much time, and this bot can ensure all students get the help they need when they need it. Of course this could potentially lead to issues, so it would be up to both the teacher and the class to be responsible.
I am not a fan of AI, and I do not believe it has any place in education. I cannot think of many educational use cases for AI that do not simply boil down to having a computer guess for you. I can only hope that, when it comes to learning, AI remains nothing more than an optional footnote.