It’s no secret that higher education is in crisis. The rise of artificial intelligence, shifts in the political landscape and broader questions about the value of a college degree are forcing schools to adapt. While there’s no silver bullet for solving all of these problems, embracing unplugged learning would be a step in the right direction.
Laptops and cell phones began appearing in college classrooms sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s. I have no doubt that educators at the time assumed easy access to knowledge and smoother forms of note-taking would enhance the learning experience. It’s a fair assumption, and in a vacuum, likely a correct one. No student should have to check out a book to find out where Abraham Lincoln was born when the answer is readily available on Google, nor should a student have to handwrite pages of notes if they prefer to type.
But in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, that conventional wisdom no longer applies. The development of hyper-addictive social media, video games and online shopping have opened the door to distractions that simply didn’t exist before. These alternatives to learning have become so appealing that it’s difficult for professors to compete. Simultaneously, AI has allowed students to avoid the consequences of screwing off in class. The desire not to sound silly in front of one’s peers used to incentivize paying attention, but now, students can simply tag in ChatGPT.
Read more at The Michigan Daily.
