What Shall We Do With The Midwits?
What Shall We Do With The Midwits?
Large language models can help us create online courses for those who would rather not teach themselves.
Smart people teach themselves. Even when confined to institutions, they read between the lines, critique the lessons imposed upon them, and, neglect assigned texts for the sake of books they found at yard sales, in thrift stores, and the dustiest back shelf of their local library. Midwits, however, want to be taught.
Left to their own devices, smart people thrive. Freed from the shackles of school, they will learn, and learn well. Faced with such freedom, however, the people my father called “mediocres” suffer greatly from the absence of structure, schedule, and supervision.
Large language models offer a solution to this problem. While poorly equipped to answer open-ended questions, “artificial intelligence” programs can quickly turn a piece of prose into multiple-choice questions. Recently, for example, I asked Chat GPT to generate four multiple-choice questions that would test the degree to which a reader had grasped the main points of a five-paragraph article.
Armed with a large language model, a designer can quickly create a series of multiple choice tests that turn a set of texts into a course. Such courses, in turn, can be arranged in ways that lead to various degrees and certifications.
Organizations of various types have long used courses of this sort to promote awareness of things like conventions, procedures, and policies. Indeed, such “e-learning” is so common that a designer will have no trouble finding the resources he will need to build “text and test” curricula.
For Further Reading:
Here is the article in question:
Here are the four questions generated by ChatGPT:
Question 1: Which history podcast does the author consider their favorite among the mentioned ones? A) The History of England B) History of the Germans C) History of Rome D) The Ancient World
Question 2: In the first season of The Ancient World, how were the thirty-six component episodes presented? A) In a random order B) Based on listener preferences C) In a chronological fashion D) According to historical importance
Question 3: What distinguishes the "Spotlight" series within The Ancient World podcast? A) It covers various royal lineages. B) It focuses on the adventures of archaeologists. C) It consists of episodes about Alexander the Great. D) It contains stand-alone episodes about lesser-known corners of the ancient world.
Question 4: Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a subject of one of the series within The Ancient World podcast? A) The adventures of archaeologists B) Wars between Persian empire and Greek city-states C) Tracing a royal lineage in Egypt and Syria D) The rise and fall of the Roman Empire
In defense of the midwits, they don't know any better. At least some don't know any better.
They were taught that they can only learn through an expert, that their own reading of a subject is likely wrong, and more importantly, UNSANCTIONED. So there is an inherent vanity to institutional education: it only counts when others can "see me do it."
Some midwits will figure this out eventually, like me, for instance.