It's back to pens and paper for some professors and students

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Carleton does not have a policy banning artificial intelligence. It has an AI “framework” that outlines what it calls opportunities and drawbacks of the new technology and leaves discretion on its use up to individual instructors.

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Dolansky says AI may have its place in some academic disciplines, but it can’t exist in the humanities, a program she says is designed to enrich brain activity, to contemplate what it means to be human, to open minds to new ideas and to find meaning.

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“I can’t imagine doing what I do and trying to inculcate in students what I’m trying to inculcate in students without having them do it the old-fashion way with pen and paper, given the abilities of (generative AI),” she said.

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“I think for what I’m trying to teach, and what my goals are for my students, this is the only way forward.”

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Timothy Pettipiece, another humanities professor at Carleton University, says it’s always been standard practice in higher education to embrace new technology as it emerges, but the rising prevalence of AI is “revealing the limits to that sort of thinking.”

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Pettipiece, who teaches primarily in the Religion and Greek and Roman Studies programs, says he’s tried many different approaches in recent years to see what works. This has included going back to pen and paper, but there are drawbacks to this methodology.

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“While the quality of work was quite good in this format, many students felt that this didn’t give them enough time to carefully craft the sort of essay they are used to,” Pettipiece said.

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“It also involves a tradeoff since using class time in this way means that less content can be covered. I personally didn’t like this aspect.”

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Moving into this year, Pettipiece’s approach will be to diversify the types of assignments and assessment tools for each course so no single element is too heavily weighted. He plans to lean into some of the traditional methods they’ve always employed, such as regular sit-down, in-person exams.

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“Newer is not necessarily better in the education space and in some ways the solutions are hiding in plain sight,” he said.

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Brett Popplewell, a Carleton journalism professor, said he personally bought notebooks and pens for his classes and would tell students not to bring their laptops after the first week.

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While academic integrity and the use of generative AI have played roles in his decision to go back to the basics, it also has to do with how distracting technology can be.

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“If anybody is sitting with their laptop and trying to actually take notes of something that’s happening in front of them, you turn off that part of your brain that’s listening for the important things,” Popplewell said.

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“It’s for their benefit, and ultimately for a deeper learning experience, to actually take the time to learn how to do the skills we’re trying to impart to them so they can do the jobs we’re trying to train them to do.”

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For Carleton students, reaction to the idea of going back to pen and paper has been mixed. Many highlighted technology’s role in cases of disability accommodation, while others said it was important to embrace technological advancements, especially in a university setting.

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Stacy Kemp, a fourth-year psychology student, said the use of technology in the classroom and the overall portability it provided meant she could weave her schoolwork into an otherwise demanding schedule.

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Kemp returned to school after starting a family and said the expansion of virtual classrooms in her earlier years made being a student and caring for her children significantly easier than it would have been with completely in-person learning.