DENVER — As the new school year kicks off, it reignites a familiar debate: how much will technology help or hinder students this year, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence.
A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) highlights the potential impacts of AI on brain activity and memory. To delve deeper into this topic, we spoke with Roselinde Kaiser, a psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Kaiser emphasized the importance of critical thinking in academic work, particularly when it comes to writing essays and completing homework assignments.
"So one place that we're looking at helpful or harmful effects is in learning and cognition, so how young people perform at school," Kaiser said. "But also, how do they develop critical thinking skills? How do they foster those self control skills that are really important and happening during that period of time? So how does technology help or harm learning and cognition? But also, how does that help or harm communication and relationships, and how does that help or harm mental health?
She offered an important question to ask yourself when potentially tapping into AI when working on homework: "Is it helping or taking away from your ability to critically think and problem solve?"
Kaiser said it isn't the first time we've grappled with this issue.
“No human can write as quickly as someone can speak," Kaiser explained. “When you write, you have to put information into your own words, which involves synthesizing that information. But when typing, especially if you're practiced, you can do it almost as quickly as someone is speaking. This can prevent students from truly processing the material.”
However, researchers also acknowledge that this technology is here and weaved into our lives. They also know it's about balancing academic stress and time management and that many people see AI, technology and social media benefiting their day to day.
"One of the pieces that I think about a lot as a researcher who works with young people who often are grappling with difficult, academic stress, mental health concerns, just a shifting landscape in terms of technology, is to start by identifying what are the values that really guide who you want to be and what you want to be about, and in what ways can AI or technology help support you in moving towards those values, and in what ways will it get in the way? And that might be a very personal kind of a navigation that happens, right?," Kaiser said.
