Memo to Summarize Research Findings
MEMORANDUM
TO: Richard Becker
FROM: Micah Wegeleben
DATE: May 10th, 2024
The purpose of this memo is to present and summarize the findings of my research on the comparison of the impact of AI on education to the impact of the internet search engine (GOOGLE).
Background
Ever since ChatGPT became a tool I could use, I undervalued it. It does not seem that wonderful to me, although it is admittedly groundbreaking in the technology it uses. But is asking ChatGPT a question really any better than asking Google? Is it more right, or more wrong? Is it faster, or does the prompting it necessitates a time killer? Well, I theorized that the reaction to the search engine upon its debut is much the same as the reaction to ChatGPT. Think about it like this: a revolutionary tool hits the market that gives students access to information they otherwise wouldn't have. Is that ChatGPT, or Google? Both! The educational landscape forever changed the moment students could "google," and now it is changing again.
Study Methods and Limitations
The basis of my study comes from the Olympic College Library Databases found and explained to me by professional librarians that work and operate at Olympic College. Going beyond this, however, I reached out and got in contact with a professor by the name of Justin Lewis who has been named as one of the colleges AI ambassadors. We spoke, and he shared with me plenty of sources that he captured around the rise of AI that especially capture the way people reacted to the technology's advent.
Something that Justin Lewis had done that I found fascinating is that he backed up all of the sources he had shared with me over Google Drive, and had saved copies of each of the articles or editorials he had deemed valuable.
There was only one limitation I identified during my research, and it is a limitation found at the core of my opinion-piece paper compared the cultural reactions of AI and the search engine to one another, and it is that there are very rarely peer-reviewed opinion pieces for me to look to and compare, and it is a great studious effort to actually grasp the "average" or "most correct" feelings from any given time period. For example, when trying to research how people reacted toward the search engine and how it was being used by students in its early days I mostly found articles raving how wonderful of a tool it is. This is in direct counter to my initial assumption. So, I researched more, and I found sources that support my hypothesis. That being said, it is easy for me to cherry pick and bend the narrative, so I am making a forthright effort to present both negative and positive views on both AI and the internet search engine.
Citations and Results
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Comments