Unit 1 Reflection

   Reflection:  

After completing my Curated Source Collection (Unit 1 portfolio) I’m honestly a bit conflicted about the quality of the three sources I chose. Despite getting the majority of my sources from the New York Times to feel good about their authenticity. The sources themselves, specifically the opinionated article, I don’t feel too strongly about. I feel like an opinionated article could have more bias and might not be as trustworthy. Which is why I was unsure about the quality of the article or if it truly counted as an “article”. However, thinking about it overall I feel like it’s more complex. Since, it takes the opinions of different highschool students on AI and its effect within the education system; general processes of learning. Although, at first it may have seemed like a bad source. It’s ultimately not because of its complexity and diversity from traditional sources. Ben Wiseman the author of the article “ What Students Are Saying About Learning to Write in the Age of A.I.” (for my third source). Introduces a question on how much we should care about learning to write well in the face of AI and opens up the discussion to high school students. He organizes the article through different sub-headings where students provide responses similar to the topics. One that stood out to me is from a student named Aditya at Hinsdale, who described the difference between the use of AI for writing and physical pen and paper. “ When you write, it causes you to think deeply about a topic and come up with an original idea… a sense of clarity.” I 100 percent agree with the idea that writing brings a sense of clarity. Especially compared to AI, systems like ChatGPT can be confusing at times especially with their responses and lack of context. Writing brings a new feeling and allows one to express their ideas and emotions through writing which is something AI also lacks. Being able to read a source like this and form your own conclusions from it is important to its understanding and what I believe to be its quality. Good quality-proving significance. 

    When it comes to my use of technology in these projects. I didn’t use any AI but, I mainly used google to get a better understanding of blogs and different kinds of blogs. Through this project and having to read specific articles for homework. I took advantage of my undergraduate student benefits. By getting a New York Times free membership for students until I graduate. So, that's the most beneficial way I used technology to enhance this Portfolio project. I’m now able to use the New York Times to find mostly credible sources and just things I might find interesting and fun but, also relative to the inquiry on writing and technology. 

Image: The New York Times Site

When it comes to technology in the form of “film-making” I used my phone to take pictures of “What I Eat in a Day”. I was able to take fun pictures that displayed my personality whether I showed my face or I just extended the camera angle to .5. 

    

    Nowadays, there are a lot of different sources pertaining to AI and the use of it by students and other people. However, alot of those articles are formed upon biased views although, very understandable. Since, the use of AI technology and tools especially in educational schools right now serves a lot of caution due to the lack of integrity on students' part. Using AI for things like writing entire papers and cheating on exams. However, this caution also takes away light from the uses of AI that still have integrity and can also be very beneficial like in my 4th source. Where AI and technology is used as a resource for those with disabilities that affect learning processes like being deaf or blind. There definitely are “holes” in the conversation but, I think I'm part of those holes. The idea of AI being used in more beneficial ways, is something that isn’t talked about alot of really portrayed through the media. However, despite all of this I think a larger idea we should be looking at is how technology collects and uses our information. Especially with the creation of things like physical robots. AI can definitely be beneficial as shown in the 4th source but, the question is to what extent? And how can we be protected in the future?

During this unit I challenged myself to think outside of the box and what I already know about AI. Which was very hard for me, like thinking about the uses of technology for other people like those with learning disabilities. That was more of a complex idea and search that actually brought me to good articles. Even choosing an article on integrity was different because it doesn’t directly talk about writing and technology but, can easily be connected.