Latest news with #classrooms
Forbes
a day ago
- Science
- Forbes
Is ChatGPT Making Us Stupid?
Two research studies suggest that heavy use of AI is not only a game changer, but an alarming threat ... More to humanity's ability to solve problems, communicate with one another, and perhaps to thrive. In boardrooms and classrooms, coffee shops and cubicles, the same question keeps coming up: Is ChatGPT making us smarter, or is it making us intellectually lazy—maybe even stupid? There's no question that generative artificial intelligence is a game-changer. ChatGPT drafts our emails, answers our questions, and completes our sentences. For students, it's become the new CliffsNotes. For professionals, a brainstorming device. For coders, a potential job killer. In record time, it has become a productivity enhancer for almost everything. But what is it doing to our brains? As someone who has spent his career helping clients anticipate and prepare for the future, this question deserves our attention. With any new technology, concerns inevitably arise about its impact. When calculators were first introduced, people worried that students would lose their ability to perform basic arithmetic or mental math skills. When GPS was first introduced, some fretted that we would lose our innate sense of direction. And when the internet bloomed, people grew alarmed that easy access to information would erode our capacity for concentration and contemplation. 'Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, is what often gets shortchanged by internet grazing,' noted technology writer Nicholas Carr in a prescient 2008 Atlantic article, 'Is Google Making Us Stupid?' Today, Carr's question needs to be asked anew – but of a different techno-innovation. Just-released research studies are helping us understand what's going on when we allow ChatGPT to think for us. What Happens to the Brain on ChatGPT? Researchers at MIT invited fifty-four participants to write essays across four sessions, divided into three groups: one using ChatGPT, one using Google, and one using only their brainpower. In the final session, the groups switched roles. What these researchers found should make all of us pause. Participants who used ChatGPT consistently produced essays that scored lower in originality and depth than those who used search or wrote unaided. More strikingly, brain imaging revealed a decline in cognitive engagement in ChatGPT users. Brain regions associated with attention, memory, and higher-order reasoning were noticeably less active. The MIT researchers introduced the concept of "cognitive debt"—the subtle but accumulating cost to our mental faculties when we outsource too much of our thinking to AI. 'Just as relying on a GPS dulls our sense of direction, relying on AI to write and reason can dull our ability to do those very things ourselves,' notes the MIT report. 'That's a debt that compounds over time.' The second study, published in the peer-reviewed Swiss journal Societies, is titled 'AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking.' It broadens the lens from a lab experiment to everyday life. Researchers surveyed 666 individuals from various age and educational backgrounds to explore how often people rely on AI tools—and how that reliance affects their ability to think critically. The findings revealed a strong negative correlation between frequent AI use and critical thinking performance. Those who often turned to AI for tasks like writing, researching, or decision-making exhibited lower 'metacognitive' awareness and analytical reasoning. This wasn't limited to any one demographic, but younger users and those with lower educational attainment were particularly affected. What's more, the study confirmed that over-reliance on AI encourages 'cognitive offloading'—our tendency to let external tools do the work our brains used to do. While cognitive offloading isn't new (we've done it for centuries with calculators and calendars), AI takes it to a whole new level. 'When your assistant can 'think' for you, you may stop thinking altogether,' the report notes. Are We Letting the Tool Use Us? These studies aren't anti-AI. Neither am I. I use ChatGPT daily. As a futurist, I see ChatGPT and similar tools as transformational breakthroughs—the printing press of the 21st century. They unlock productivity, unleash creativity, and lower barriers to knowledge. But just as the printing press didn't eliminate the need to learn to read, ChatGPT doesn't absolve us of the responsibility to think. And that is the danger today, that people will stop doing their own thinking. These studies are preliminary, and further research is needed. However, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that heavy use of AI is not only a game changer, but an alarming threat to humanity's ability to solve problems, communicate with one another, and perhaps to thrive. In integrating metacognitive strategies—thinking about thinking—into education, workplace training, and even product design. In other words, don't just use AI—engage with it. The line we must straddle is between augmentation and abdication. Are we using AI to elevate our thinking? Or are we turning over the keys to robots? Here are four ideas for using this new technology, while keeping our cognitive edge sharp: The danger isn't that ChatGPT will replace us. But it can make us stupid—if we let it replace our thinking instead of enriching it. The difference lies in how we use it, and more importantly, how aware we are while using it. The danger is that we'll stop developing the parts of ourselves that matter most—because it's faster and easier to let the machine do it. Let's not allow that to happen.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
New classrooms for Kura Kaupapa announced
Education Minister Erica Stanford at Te Kura Whakatipu o Kawarau in Queenstown. Photo: RNZ/Katie Todd The government has announced $28 million will be spent on building more "safe, warm and dry classrooms" for tamakari in Māori full immersion schools. Twenty new classrooms will be built across four providers, and work will begin on the first stage of a new school north of Auckland. The new development, for Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāringaomatariki in Kaiwaka, will eventually have 19 classrooms, Minister of Education Erica Stanford said on Friday. "This Matariki, I am proud to be celebrating the Māori New Year with investing in the future of our tāmariki so they have the spaces and support they need to flourish." Construction on the modular buildings is expected to begin in the next 12 months. "Safe, warm and dry learning environments are essential for effective teaching and learning," Stanford said. "By using modular construction, we can deliver classrooms more quickly and make our investment go further." She said it was part of a $50 million Budget allocation to deliver 50 new classrooms for Māori medium and Kaupapa Māori education. "We remain committed to properly resourcing our bilingual education system and lifting achievement for Māori students. That includes ensuring our tāmariki have warm, safe and dry classrooms to thrive in," Stanford said. The announcement was made at Takaparawhau, Bastion Point, during Matariki Hautapu celebrations with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. National did not support making Matariki a holiday when it became one in 2022 . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
New North Island classrooms ease pressure on teaching space
Education Minister Erica Stanford launches new classrooms at Hamilton East School. Photo: RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod The Government has announced 32 new classrooms for the central North Island, including four at a school facing pressure to convert their library to meet demand. Education Minister Erica Stanford made the $33 million investment announcement at Hamilton East School, a primary school with a roll of about 533 students. Hamilton has been New Zealand's fastest growing city for the last couple of years. Hamilton East School principal Philippa Wright said she was under considerable pressure to use the library as a classroom to deal with school growth. "It's actually used all day, not just as a library, but also as a safe space for some of our students with high needs," she said. Last year, RNZ reported about students at Hamilton's Fraser High School who were being taught in the library. Wright said she would encourage other schools to push back on pressure from the Ministry of Education to use libraries as classroom space. "My point is we are developing readers, so we need a place for them to read." She pointed out closing libraries in schools didn't help meet the Government priority of improved literacy. Stanford said schools having to use library space for classrooms was concerning. "It starts with a library and then, the next minute, they are in staffrooms, because of the lack of classroom space - but that's what today is all about. It's about the 8000 extra student places that we delivered through this budget." Education Minister Erica Stanford is welcomed to Hamilton East School. Photo: RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod Stanford said the ministry was dealing with a backlog of need, but every budget, they put in more new roll-growth classrooms. Along with the four new classrooms at Hamilton East, two classrooms will be built at Waipawa School in Hawke's Bay, three at Maungatapu School in Tauranga, two at Te Kauwhata Primary School in Waikato, two at Kawerau South School in the Bay of Plenty and 19 at Taihape Area School, as part of a major redevelopment of that campus. Construction on the new classrooms will begin over the next 12 months. "We are powering up efficiencies in school property delivery, so more schools, communities and children benefit sooner," Stanford said. "The use of standardised building designs, offsite manufacturing and streamlining procurement have lowered the average cost of a classroom by 28 percent, allowing 30 percent more classrooms to be delivered last year, compared to 2023. "We will continue to drive this down, so more Kiwi kids can thrive." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
BBC News
12-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Penrith Beaconside primary school classroom extensions approved
A primary school has been granted permission to build extensions to accommodate 119 extra new classrooms will be built at Beaconside C of E Primary in Penrith, Cumbria, despite concerns regarding the number of available staff car parking spaces and the increase in traffic at normal school drop-off and pick-up Amy Holliman, from Westmorland and Furness Council, told a meeting the additional school places would be phased in over a number of application, which came from the council and also included plans for a staffroom and landscaping, was passed contrary to the recommendation of Penrith Town Council, which also raised objections. It was worried about public transport provision as buses did not run at times corresponding with start and end of the school councillors were told the school was committed to supporting sustainable transport, with fewer children being driven to school, according to the Local Democracy Reporting said funding would come from cash given as part of a separate planning agreement and described the development as helping to "futureproof Penrith" in terms of more school environmental concerns which included the possibility of asbestos being found, she confirmed the work would not be carried out when the pupils were at new classrooms will be for Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Herald
02-06-2025
- General
- The Herald
Swamped teachers ‘expected to perform miracles'
Njobe said the school's request was simple, no luxuries, but essentials — classrooms, teachers and security. The principal said the school struggled to get parents to assist their children with homework and assignments. 'A lot of parents are working on the farms, picking oranges. 'Most of these companies have a no-work-no-pay policy so parents miss out on a lot because they can't afford not to get paid. 'Parents leave early in the morning and come back after dark. There's no time to look at their children's work. 'We have challenges even when we've written letters to parents asking for meetings — they don't show up.' Njobe said Bongolethu's biggest problem was the lack of classrooms because even if the department employed more teachers, there would be no space for them to teach. 'We've written letters asking for bungalows or containers. We would take that while they source funding to build proper classrooms. 'We also want a library. There's no library at the school and no proper resources for the children. 'The department tries in its allocation of books but it's not enough.' Just a few metres up the road, Glentana Junior Primary principal Tembela Vumazonke echoed Njobe's cries for help. Vumazonke and her grade 3 English subject head, Lillian Dyonase, said reading levels at the school were dangerously low, with grade 3 pupils grappling with words they should have mastered in grade 1. 'Our children don't know phonics. We create posters, we try everything, but some children just can't comprehend what's in front of them,' Vumazonke said. Dyonase said the teachers tried to support pupils individually, but the sheer number of struggling youngsters made it impossible to keep up with the curriculum. 'We're grade 3 teachers, but you find the words we're teaching the pupils, the words they're struggling with, are grade 1 or grade 2 words. 'I have a problem with children who don't know how to read entire sentences. 'I even have to break down words and, [in] that time, we've got five sentences to go through and yet that's how I'm teaching each class. 'There's a disconnect somewhere between child, educator and parent. The biggest problem we've got with languages is isiXhosa, which is a home language [subject]. 'Even though the children speak the language, they can't read, write or comprehend,' Dyonase said. Vumazonke said some parents had dropped out of school themselves, making it difficult for them to help their children with their homework. Bongolethu and Glentana are also situated near taverns — a major headache for both schools. Njobe said children as young as those in grade 4 consumed alcohol. Dyonase said the proximity of the taverns was a big problem. 'There's a lot of drinking that goes on in Kirkwood. ' We also deal a lot with children who have learning disabilities and as educators we see this, but we're not medical professionals and can't give a diagnosis. 'We refer them to a departmental official who conducts such assessments, but the problem is there's only one official for the entire district which creates a backlog.' Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Vuyiseka Mboxela said the department was currently building 34 schools in the province, and while Glentana was not part of the figure, the department was obligated to address the challenges at the school. 'Increase of numbers in classes are a decision of the school because it's them that administer intake at the school.' Mboxela said building new schools in communities depended on the determination of profiles conducted by the department. The provincial government had budgeted R1.9bn for school infrastructure in the current financial year. The number of schools in the province have been reduced from 5,285 to 4,976. On the proximity of taverns close to schools, Mboxela said the liquor board had extended the radius of taverns to be 500m from schools. 'Previously, this was 100m,' she said. This special report into the state of literacy, a collaborative effort by The Herald, Sowetan and Daily Dispatch, was made possible by the Henry Nxumalo Foundation The Herald
