A Cornell University instructor has students use typewriters as part of an assignment as her way of battling the encroachment of artificial intelligence into writing assignments.
The Associated Press recently profiled German language instructor Grit Phelps and her novel approach which she has employed since 2023.
The AP reported:
The exercise started in spring 2023 as Phelps grew frustrated with the reality that students were using generative AI and online translation platforms to churn out grammatically perfect assignments.
“What’s the point of me reading it if it’s already correct anyway, and you didn’t write it yourself? Could you produce it without your computer?” said Phelps.
She wanted students to understand what writing, thinking and classrooms were like before everything turned digital. So, she found a few dozen old manual typewriters in thrift shops and online marketplaces, and created what her syllabus calls an “analog” assignment.
The newswire service reports that students find the practice “fun and challenging.”
“This thing I handed in had pencil marks all over it and definitely did not look clean or finished. But it’s part of the process of learning that you’re going to make mistakes,” one student said.
Others shared how the lack of phone notifications and easy access to Google changed the way they approached their work.
“While writing the essay, I had to talk a lot more, socialize a lot more, which I guess was normal back then,” one student said. “But it’s drastically different from how we interact within the classroom in modern times. People are always on a laptop, always on the phone.”
“This might sound bad, but I was forced to actually think about the problem on my own instead of delegating to AI or Google search,” Ratchaphon Lertdamrongwong told the AP.
Students are not completely on their own to figure out the technology – the instructor “brings in her two children, aged 7 and 9, to serve as ‘tech support’ and ensure no one has their phones out.”
