William Cope’s Updates
Literacy in the Time of Artificial Intelligence
Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope
The latest mutation of Artificial Intelligence, “Generative AI,” is more than anything a technology of writing. Generative AI is a machine that can write. In a world-historical frame, the significance of this cannot be understated. It is a technology in which the unnatural language of code tangles with the natural language of everyday life. Its form of writing, moreover, is multimodal, able not only to write text as conventionally understood, but “read” images by matching textual labels and “write” images from textual prompts. Within the scope of this peculiarly machinic writing is mathematics, actionable software procedure, and algorithm. This paper explores the consequences of Generative AI for literacy teaching and learning. In its first part, we speak theoretically and historically, suggesting that this development is perhaps as momentous for society and education as Bi Sheng’s invention of moveable type and Gutenberg’s printing press—and in its peculiar ways just as problematic. In the second part, we go on to propose that literacy in the time of AI requires a new way to speak about itself, a revised “grammar” of sorts. In a third part, we discuss an application we have developed that puts Generative AI to work in support of literacy and learning. We end with some broad-brushstroke implications for education.
[He] allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves. Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera.
- Revised draft, thanks everyone for the feedback!
- Preprint: Kalantzis, Mary and Bill Cope, "Literacy in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” EdArXiv, 2024, doi: https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/es5kb.
- Full text here:
Literacy in the era of artificial intelligence is extremely necessary fall guys to build a civilized society.
Hello William, thanks for sharing. your work raises a thought-provoking discussion on the implications of Generative AI (GAI) for literacy education. Here are a few thoughts as an educator who studied and teaches Literacy, these are my thoughts. I would like to elaborate on the points made and offer suggestions for further exploration:
Strengths:
Historical Context: You rightly highlight the potentially transformative nature of GAI, comparing it to the invention of movable type. This historical framing underscores the potential disruption GAI may bring to literacy practices. Second, multimodality: The emphasis on GAI's ability to handle text, code, and images acknowledges the multifaceted nature of writing in the digital age. Third- Literacy Redefinition: The proposition of a revised grammar for literacy in the age of GAI is crucial. How will we define and assess literacy skills when machines can mimic and even surpass human capabilities in certain aspects of writing?
These are some points for further consideration. First, equity and access should be considered. Your work doesn't address issues of access to GAI technology. Will this tool exacerbate existing educational inequalities? Secondly, ethical considerations: There may be ethical implications of GAI-generated content like plagiarism, bias in algorithms, and the potential for manipulation need to be addressed in literacy education. Thanks again for your awesome work.