O Captain! My Captain!
A few weeks ago I went back to school — at the board, not a desk — teaching Investments 101 at a local university. This is my second stint as an adjunct professor, but the first in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. This means my job now entails shouting over the siren song of LLMs, with their alluring promises of an easy answer.
From the jump, I have to accept that the students will be using AI tools, with or without my permission. So the trick is in creating an environment where they can leverage them to accelerate, not stunt, their learning (viz. bicycle-of-the-mind). The goal is less rote memorization and more free thinking.
First thing: I’ve flipped the classroom (a concept I learned from the great Sal Khan), where the information “download” is done at home (via the textbook, videos, etc.) and the real learning (discussions, Q&A, etc.) is done in class. AI can do some amazing things, but — as far as I know — it can’t present an idea or debate current events.
I’m a few classes in and, so far, have been able to steer clear of any plagiarism issues, deftly assigning homework and projects that a computer can’t (fully) do. At least I think it can’t… I don’t know, maybe I should just ask Claude?
Devin Faddoul, CFP® is the founder of Adda Financial | Outsource your financial life. Focus on your real life.