The
Fall semester at my college (www.sinclair.edu)
begins in a couple of weeks. It will mark the start of my twenty-sixth year
teaching composition and creative writing there, and my thirty-sixth year of
teaching overall. Teachers everywhere are contending with how best to deal with
AI in their classes, and if you’re among them – or just interested in how I do
it – here are some of the strategies and tactics I use in the ongoing struggle with
large language models.
First
Things First
•
As
generative AI currently stands it:
•
Was
trained on stolen texts (including thirty of my novels).
•
Uses
an immense amount of energy to power it.
•
Uses
an immense amount of water (for cooling its servers).
•
Is
often inaccurate, sometimes wildly so.
•
Can
hallucinate.
•
There
is no way to use AI ethically as it currently stands.
•
But
then again, there’s no way to use most of our tech ethically.
•
AI
is becoming embedded in all our tech, whether we like it or not, or are even
aware of it. It’s becoming almost impossible NOT to use it somehow.
•
The
world currently has a Gold Rush mentality toward AI.
•
Our
students are advised, encouraged, and demanded to use AI by the world around
them.
Current
Conditions
•
More
students are using generative AI to write essays for them than ever.
•
AI-detection
programs mostly suck. They often give false positives, but even so, they’re the
best tool teachers have to identify AI use in writing.
•
A
certain percentage of students have and will likely always cheat. I’ve taught
for 35 years. Students used to turn in a friend’s essay with their name on it
or pay someone to write an essay for them. Personal computers made it easier
for students to share essays. Then they downloaded essays from the Internet.
Now they use generative AI to compose their essays.
•
The
problem with generative AI is that the current generation of students does
everything via technology, and AI is so easy to use, so it’s a lot more tempting
to cheat.
•
Sure,
it’s possible that in the future humans will not write anymore, at least not
the same way we know writing. Who cares? We live and teach now.
The
Realist’s View of Students Using AI in Writing Courses
•
A
certain percentage of students will always cheat.
•
It’s
impossible to prevent all students from cheating.
•
Teachers
may think they can identify an AI-written paper on their own, but studies have
shown they mostly can’t.
•
Some
teachers are returning to having students write on paper in class without using
tech of ANY kind. But this negates decades of research showing that the process
approach to teaching writing works best, and using word processing programs to
write encourages more process-oriented work from students.
Educational
Considerations
•
The
purpose of an education is to prepare students to live and work in the current
day and the future, using the best practices in their field in the most ethical
ways possible.
•
Teachers:
Who’s your class primarily focused on? You or the students?
•
If
you’re primarily choosing to police AI use, are you doing it for your students’
benefit or yours?
•
By
having students write on paper in class, you may teach them basic skills of
composition, but you will teach them nothing about making ethical choices when
using AI, which they will have to do in other classes and in the workplace,
especially as AI becomes embedded in so many other types of technology.
•
You
teach students one ethical stance – doing their own work – but not WHY it’s
important to do their own work. You create only a requirement to fulfill, a
hoop to jump through, a rule to follow because a teacher says they must. This
is, in its own way, as mechanical an approach to teaching as students using AI
to write their essays.
Reckoning
with AI
•
My
approach to teaching is a student-centered one, not a subject-focused one. I’m
teaching human beings, not a subject.
•
Everything
about writing comes down to thinking, creating, and most of all – making
choices. This idea, not that idea. This idea first, that idea second. This
word, not that word.
•
When
we force students to adhere too strictly to rules, we take away (or at least
seriously hinder) their opportunity to think, create, and CHOOSE.
•
AI
is an opportunity to reinforce the role of a student’s agency and choice. They
can choose to use AI or not. They can use AI in a limited way, such as to
suggest a topic or to check grammar and spelling (the same way word-processing
programs have for decades). They can choose to use AI to aid but not replacie
them in the writing process.
•
AI
is a tool. A knife is a tool as well. You can use it for its intended purpose
or you can harm someone with it. But stabbing someone has immediate
consequences most people would rather avoid. Using AI has no immediate
consequences, and there’s a good chance students won’t get caught. Thus, it’s
harder to get them to use AI in the “proper” way (as in there’s a proper way to
use a knife and many improper – and sometimes destructive – ways).
•
So
teachers must CONVINCE students.
•
We
must teach them why writing is important, why writing their own work is
important, what it can do for them, and what it can do for their readers. We must
teach them what makes good writing and why good writing is important. We must
teach them to value their thoughts and ideas and show them the rewards for
sharing those thoughts and ideas in written form.
•
In
many ways, what teachers need to do is treat writing like a religion, where
there’s a moral reason for students to do their own work, and they should
resist the seduction of the “evil” side of AI.
•
This
is how higher education used to be before it became expensive job training
programs. It’s the humanities-based approach to teaching and learning.
•
But
I’m also a pragmatic teacher, so…
What I
Do Now and What I Intend to Do Going Forward
•
I
discuss the pros and cons, including the ethical considerations, of AI-assisted
writing with my students early in the course.
•
I
tell them I only use it so I can understand it enough to talk to them about it.
My writing is “handmade” solely by me and always will be.
•
But
if there were absolutely no ethical issues with AI use, I’d use it to create
memos, business letters, a syllabus, and then tweak them as necessary. Simple,
repetitive, grunt work writing.
•
But
because I’m a practiced, experienced writer, I know how to guide the shaping of
a document and what tweaks need to be made.
•
If
I wasn’t such a writer, using generative AI would be like asking a computer to
write an essay in a language I don’t understand, and when it’s finished, I
can’t read it to tell if it says what I want, if it’s accurate, if it will do
the job I need it to do, etc.
•
I
ask a generative AI program to tell my students what it can do for them without
doing the work for them. Then I ask it to tell my students what it can’t
do for them. This way, I’m not telling them these things. AI is. I post these
documents on our course page and discuss them with the class early in the
semester.
•
In
the future, I need to also ask AI what the ethical issues are in its use and
how students can make the most ethical choices when using it. (I haven’t done
this yet, so I don’t know if AI will say anything useful.)
•
I
haven’t done AI-assisted writing exercises in class because I believe AI is unethical
to use, so I want to minimize its use in my teaching as much as possible.
•
But
if making ethical-as-possible AI use normal in the class means more students
might use it that way, maybe I should reconsider doing AI-assisted writing
exercises. (But I’d have a really hard time doing this.)
Final
Thoughts
•
AI
isn’t going anywhere.
•
People
are going to use it for writing, and it’s decent enough at scutwork writing.
This is what most of my students will use it for in the future because it’s
what their jobs will demand.
•
AI
may one day replace humans, but cockroaches may replace us, too, so who cares?
I’m teaching in the present, and right now, AI is like a preschool toy when it
comes to writing – simple functions with pretty lights and amusing sounds. Students
still need to learn how to write on their own.
•
Teaching
is hard and frustrating, and it’s always been that way. Teachers don’t
understand why others don’t love learning as much as they do, which is maybe
the most frustrating thing of all for them. Accept you will never convince
every student why letting AI do work for them and (in their eyes) make their
lives easier is a bad thing.
•
I
learned long ago that convincing students that their thoughts and ideas are
valuable and that they can learn to express them effectively is the most
important thing I can do as a teacher. Because when students believe this, they
WANT to write. People want to feel valued and appreciated. And when this
happens in a writing class, students’ work starts to become better immediately –
because they care about it. They put more time and effort into their
writing because it starts to matter to them. It’s why students need more agency
in selecting topics and their approach to them.
•
It’s
all about meaning, not about merely programming students like machines.
If we treat them like that, why shouldn’t they rely on machines to do their
writing? But if we can treat people like people – remind them that they are
human and they are valued, even if we can do so only a few times and in small
ways in a semester – then I think we stand a good chance against the machines.
•
As
a teacher, I give students what I can, and it’s up to them how much they take
from the course and apply in the future. I know some will cheat and get away
with it. I accept this and keep going, just as doctors know when they tell patients
to stop smoking, they may never stop or only stop for a while, then return to
smoking. I cannot be responsible for the choices other people make.
•
But
by not dealing with the thorny ethical issues of AI use in class, I would not be
creating the conditions for students to be able to make the best choices
possible. So I must deal with it, whether I like it or not.
•
I
am so glad I’m only a few years away from retirement!!!!
•
NOTE:
This is a blog entry to share my thoughts. It’s not a scholarly essay, so don’t
come at me in the comments asking “Source?” for some of the points I make. You’re
an adult. You know how to use Google. Google is your friend. Google gets lonely
when you don’t visit. Go see Google.
DEPARTMENT
OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
The
World Turns Red
My new horror novella, The World Turns Red, came out in June, and reactions from reviewers and readers alike have been overwhelmingly positive! Here’s a sample:
“A dark,
disturbing masterpiece worth binge-reading in one sitting.” – S.E. Howard
“This is
a very dark, intense read with a surreal quality that pulled me in from page
one and held me spellbound to the bitter end.” – Well Worth a Read
The
World Turns Red is
another in a long line of brilliant horror work by Tim Waggoner. There was
never anyone who could blend the real with the surreal so seamlessly that, as
wild as the story gets, it makes perfect sense somehow. Now THAT takes one hell
of a writer. The book is a flawless masterpiece…6 out of 5 stars. – Carson Buckingham
Synopsis:
Welcome
to the meat room.
At first,
it’s a whisper on the edge of your consciousness.
As it
gets louder, you begin to make out words—dark, sharp, dangerous words… You clap
your hands over your ears to shut them out, but you can’t escape what comes
from inside you.
The voice
tells you to do things to yourself. Bad things. Awful things…
The
longer you listen, the more they seem reasonable. Desirable.
Inevitable.
And as
you reach for the nearest knife, gun, or rope, the voice speaks the last four
words you’ll ever hear:
All
hail the Unhigh.
Cemetery
Dance: https://www.cemeterydance.com/TheWorldTurnsRed
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/5cabrjn2
Barnes
and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/kzphuep7
Dark
Tides 21: 24 Frames Per Second
I’m
thrilled to have another new novella in the latest volume of Crystal Lake
Publishing’s Dark Tide Series – 24 Frames Per Second – alongside Andrew
Naldony and Gary A. Braunbeck.
Step into
the terrifying world of Hollywood horror, where the line between fiction and
reality blurs, and the consequences of cinematic creation become all too real.
In 24 Frames Per Second, three chilling novellas bring to life the
darkest corners of the movie industry—where horror isn’t just confined to the
screen.
“The Last
Cannibal Movie” by Tim Waggoner: A group of student filmmakers embark on a
project to create a cannibal holocaust film—but soon, their fictional nightmare
begins to unfold in real life. As their imagined horrors come to life, they
must face the terrifying reality of their own creation.
“I Am the
Rainbringer” by Andrew Nadolny: A woman is transformed into a serial killer by
her father’s dying wish, and her husband turns her deadly past into a movie.
But the ghosts of his parents—and her brutal history—soon rise to haunt them
both, blurring the line between the living and the dead in a nightmare that
can’t be escaped.
“This Is
Not My Movie” by Gary A. Braunbeck: After a movie theater is consumed by fire,
the charred ruins become a nexus for ghosts and alternate realities. A haunting
tale of how a beloved movie theater's destruction births a dark, sentient
force, trapping the souls of those killed in the blaze.
In 24
Frames Per Second, horror reaches beyond the screen and becomes part of the
fabric of reality, where the true cost of creation is more horrifying than any
fictional tale. Each novella is a unique exploration of terror, art, and the
boundaries of reality, set against the backdrop of Hollywood’s darkest secrets.
Crystal
Lake Publishing: https://www.crystallakepub.com/product/24-frames-per-second-dark-tide-book-21/
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/8u7jh8f
Barnes
& Noble: https://tinyurl.com/873tj3vj
Conan:
Spawn of the Serpent God
The time
is drawing nigh! My Conan the Barbarian novel, Spawn of the Serpent God,
will be released October 28th! The novel ties into the comic book event Scourge
of the Serpent Men (Conan being said scourge, of course, although it looks
like King Kull may be involved, too). You won’t have to read the comics to understand
my book, and vice versa, but if you’re a Conan fan, you might enjoy reading
both. Here’s a link to the first issue of Scourge of the Serpent Men: https://titan-comics.com/c/2316-conan-the-barbarian-scourge-of-the-serpent/
You can
find various preorder links for the novel at the Titan Books site: https://titanbooks.com/72365-conan-spawn-of-the-serpent-god/
And while
I’ve had no official word (because nobody ever tells writers anything), it
looks like Spawn of the Serpent God will be getting an audio edition!
I’m super excited because the narrator is Bradford Hastings, who’s not only an
excellent reader and performer, but his Conan is my absolute favorite portrayal
of the character. The audiobook is due out in late December, and you can
preorder it at B&N and Amazon. I’m sure it’ll be available directly from Blackstone
Audio (who’s the publisher of the audio version) as well.
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/bn6hh2m
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/conan-tim-waggoner/1148011208?ean=9798228671591
Synopsis:
In
Zamora, the city of thieves, Conan meets Valja, a thrill-seeking thief. She
entices him to join
her on a
heist, where they steal a golden statuette of Ishtar, said to contain the
goddess herself.
After
killing a dozen guards and failing to escape, the pair are saved by priestesses
of Mitra. But
Conan
knows that nothing is free.
The
priestesses have need of their skills. They have waged war against Set, god of
chaos and
serpents,
who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects and massacred thousands of his
followers.
Yet they are no match for Uzzeran, a powerful sorcerer, who has been performing
unspeakable
experiments on humans in the name of Set. To defeat Uzzeran, they will need a
legendary
warrior on their side. They need Conan the Barbarian.
SCHEDULED
APPEARANCES
Moon Lit Tales and Haunted Trails.
Oct. 11-12. St. Albans, West Virginia.
2026
Superstars
Writing Seminar. Feb. 4-5. Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Akron
Book Fest. March 7. Akron, Ohio.
StokerCon.
June 4-7. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Into the
Springs Writers Workshop. August 7-9. Yellow Springs, Ohio.
WHERE
TO FIND ME ONLINE
Want to
follow me on social media? Here’s where you can find me:
Website: www.timwaggoner.com
Newsletter
Sign-Up: https://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm
Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/timwaggonerswritinginthedark
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/133838.Tim_Waggoner
Instagram:
tim.waggoner.scribe
Threads:
@tim.waggoner.scribe@threads.net
Bluesky: @timwaggoner.bsky.social
