Artificial Intelligence in Education and Software Engineering
21 Nov 2023
Artificial Intelligence in Education and Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bringing big changes in many jobs, and it’s making a really important impact on education, especially in Software Engineering. As technology gets better, AI is becoming super important in changing how we teach, learn, and use what we know. In Software Engineering, using AI is especially helpful. It can make learning better, make development (creating software) easier, and help software systems grow and improve.
In education, AI is used to make learning personal, help with different learning styles, and give smart tutoring. This makes education easier to understand and more effective. In Software Engineering classes, AI tools are used to copy real-life situations, help fix mistakes, and support working together on coding. This way, it helps connect what we learn in theory with how we use it in real projects.
When it comes to using AI, I can say that I’ve only used ChatGPT out of all the AI tools available. In ICS 314, I’ve found ChatGPT to be extremely useful to help me learn the concepts in this class. For the Experience WOD portion of ICS 314, I’ve only referred to the video guides and the class discord for help as I find those resources sufficient enough. However, for other requirements for this class, I have used ChatGPT on things such as the practice and non practice in-class WODs, Essays and correcting broken code. Using AI has helped me immensely for the in-class WODs however, it should be known that the feedback it gives is not completely correct. To use AI effectively, the user needs to be able to curate prompts and be wary of incorrect responses to find the right answers for what they are looking for. I have run into this issue multiple times, even outside of this class where a simple copy paste isn’t enough to grasp the complexity of some problems. Ultimately, the AI can only carry out instructions and it’s up to the user to do their due diligence in the topics that they ask it. When it comes to essays, I have used AI to correct and improve the wording of my essays. I personally think that it helps me articulate my thoughts more clearly and effectively. Writer’s block is something that I struggle with a lot, and when I use AI to refine my wording and pacing I can focus more on the ideas that I want to communicate. I have never felt the need to use AI to answer smart questions or give feedback to other classmates because the type of questions that show up are mostly debugging installations, conflicting libraries, references etc. I have definitely used AI to annotate code and explain it for me as well as write and document it.