AI, Unstoppable Trend
20 Nov 2023
I. Introduction
The impact of artificial intelligence in education is significant! It’s not just changing how we teach and learn, but also greatly improves the efficiency and quality of education. In the field of software engineering, through the use of AI tools, we are able to access more advanced programming techniques that are difficult to achieve in traditional teaching models. In the past, my concept of artificial intelligence was very vague and broad, but since I started using it this year, this vague imagination has become real and concrete. The AI I have used is ChatGPT, CoPilot, Claude 2, in the course ICS314, I usually use ChatGPT because I think chatgpt is more like a science student, whereas claude2 is like a liberal arts student
II. Personal Experience with AI:
1. Experience WODs
I use AI a lot in Experience WODs , although we can watch videos of professors, but when I actually operate it, I still encounter many questions. Moreover, the professor in the video has a MAC operating system and I have a WINDOWS operating system, and when there is such a difference, the AI can tell me to use the correct command line to complete the operation.
2. In-class Practice WODs
I have not used AI in In-class Practice WODs. The time for In-class Practice WODs is limited, and sometimes we need to discuss with classmates. Professor will explain the topic to us after the time is up. So, I feel like I don’t need to use it in In-class Practice WODs.
3. In-class WODs
In In-class WODs, I will ask the AI when I can’t remember syntax or the bug I can’t solve it. I remember once I thought that my code was correct, but it just couldn’t run successfully, and finally I found out with the support of AI that it was because of a small typo. But overall, I use AI less in In-class WODs than homework WODs. The main reason is that In-class WODs are timed, and communication with AI may require several rounds of conversation to guide it before it can help us solve problems. This takes too much time.
4. Essays
When writing essays, I sometimes use AI to help me modify grammar or check errors.
5. Final project
I haven’t used AI much at the moment because we’re using the existing meteor template. But I think as the project progresses, we may encounter some difficult problems that require AI support and assistance.
6. Learning a concept / tutorial
When learning a concept/tutorial, I often use AI to explain the relevant knowledge to me.
7. Answering a question in class or in Discord
I haven’t used it to answer questions in class because I’m a bit socially anxious and afraid of speaking in public.
8. Asking or answering a smart-question
I have not used AI to answer questions on smart-question, I think each of our environment and system may be different, even if I ask AI, I don’t think it will give the right answer. I will only answer questions from other students on Discord after I have already fully understood the question myself.
9. Coding example e.g. “give an example of using Underscore .pluck”
I’ll ask the AI to show me some code examples. Especially when learning Underscore libraries, it shows me a lot of examples to help me understand them.
10. Explaining code
When I encounter code I don’t understand, I ask AI to explain it to me. I remember when I first encountered ES6, I was really confused. I had artificial intelligence explain it to me line by line and it was really helpful.
11. Writing code
If I just change a part of the code in a project, I feel like AI is doing a good job. However, if I ask AI to complete a larger and more complex project, it can do it, but what it provides may not necessarily be what I want. I think AI can support us to do some of the work, but not all of it.
12. Documenting code
I haven’t used AI for code documentation. If I need to write documentation, I prefer to do it myself rather than having AI do it because I feel what I write will be more reliable.
13. Quality assurance
In the future, I will consider using AI to ensure the quality of the code, but I have hardly used AI in this aspect so far.
14. Other uses in ICS 314 not listed
When I installed Node.js and npm, I encountered lots of issues with configuring environment variables. These problems seemed to pile up one after another, and I was almost on the verge of frustration. I attempted various solutions found online but none of them worked. Ultimately, with the assistance of AI, I spent approximately three to four hours resolving all the issues step by step.
III. Impact on Learning and Understanding
AI has given me confidence in learning. In the past, I often got stuck with some knowledge, which would make me unable to study the later knowledge well. But now I can ask it almost any question I don’t know, and I don’t have to worry that I’m asking a stupid question, because it will patiently answer my questions no matter how stupid they are. This greatly increased my motivation to study software engineering.
IV. Practical Applications
The practical applications of AI in different fields show variety and profound impact. From AlphaGo’s victory over the world champion in the game of Go, it shows the potential of AI in complex strategy, to the use of robotic surgical systems like the Da Vinci surgical robot in the medical field, which improves the safety and efficiency of surgeries. Additionally, innovations in transportation through autonomous driving technology further illustrate this point. These developments are all clear signs that AI is changing the world we live in.
V. Challenges and Opportunities
AI is a great tool, but of course, it also faces many challenges. It has more than once confused my questions or misunderstood my words, even giving incorrect answers. Sometimes when I ask the same question in different ways, it gives inconsistent response. So no matter how much we like using it, please remember that it is a tool and we should not rely on it completely.
VI. Comparative Analysis
I still remember that when I first started learning code, I had no idea what the symbols and concepts stood for, and I couldn’t understand how it worked in my head. The traditional teaching methods seemed to teach us a lot of theory, but not much about how to put it into practice.I felt like I just got some brick or cement, and our task was to build a building. I spent a lot of time learning them and understanding them. With the advent of AI, I feel that it has helped me a lot in learning. I used to get stuck for a long time when I encountered code that I didn’t understand. But now I can immediately ask the AI to explain to me what I don’t understand. Even if I don’t understand it well the first time, I can continue to ask it to use a clearer method or give some simple examples to teach me. After that, I will ask it to give me some relevant questions to practice. I am a person who is very afraid to ask people questions, because I am afraid that if I ask a stupid question, I will make people unhappy, but I have no such trouble with AI.
VII. Future Considerations
First of all, we cannot deny the importance of AI to software engineering education. It is a very good learning tool, which can deepen our understanding of the course of software engineering and expand our vision. Its biggest challenge is as students, how we use it properly. You can just choose to let it complete all the tasks, but that is not what we want. As student, our goal is to use it as an aid to gain more knowledge, rather than relying on it to limit our curiosity and desire to learn. Striking the right balance is important, not just for software engineering education, but for all fields that use AI as a learning tool.
VIII. Conclusion
I believe that the tool of AI holds significant importance for software engineering courses, and it will become an unstoppable trend. As a student in the sciences, I deeply feel the value of AI in assisting learning, helping understand complex concepts, and enhancing programming skills. AI enables me to explore various aspects of software engineering in a more efficient way, thereby improving my understanding and application of these concepts. For the integration of AI in future courses, I think it is crucial to maintain a balance. While using it to help with learning, improving independent analysis and problem solving, as well as how to use AI resources more effectively and increase awareness of AI’s limitations are all issues that we should pay more attention.