{"id":79415,"date":"2026-01-16T00:28:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=79415"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:28:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:28:36","slug":"ai-disruptions-reveal-the-folly-of-clinging-to-an-idealized-modern-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/ai-disruptions-reveal-the-folly-of-clinging-to-an-idealized-modern-university\/","title":{"rendered":"AI disruptions reveal the folly of clinging to an idealized modern university"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the past five years, higher education has been in a seemingly endless state of disruption.<\/p>\n

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a mass rapid pivot to\u00a0emergency remote teaching<\/a>. In shifting to unfamiliar digital learning environments, instructors scrambled to\u00a0replicate classroom learning online<\/a>. When restrictions lifted, many institutions pushed for a \u201creturn to normal,\u201d\u00a0as though the pre-pandemic educational standard was ideal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, with generative AI disruptions, we are seeing a similar desire to cling to an idealized vision of the modern university. AI has unsettled long-established\u00a0forms of assessment<\/a>, simultaneously\u00a0instigating a return to older assessment models<\/a>\u00a0in the interest of \u201cacademic integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

If students navigating higher education believe\u00a0the goal is to pass rather than to learn<\/a>, then student misuse of generative AI technologies is nothing more than a rational action by a rational agent.<\/p>\n

For meaningful university education, we need to shift to a process of building relations and knowledge with others through dialogue and critical inquiry. Part of this means taking lessons from pre-industrial forms of learning and contemporary educational movements.<\/p>\n

We also need to shift from compliance-based assessments and grading to meaningful and supportive feedback and opportunities for growth, rooted in teaching and learning with care.<\/p>\n

\u2018Knowledge factory\u2019 invites generative AI misuse<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Modern\u00a0higher education systems<\/a>\u00a0in North America often function as a \u201cproduction enterprise<\/a>\u201d or a \u201cknowledge factory<\/a>\u201d focused on research outputs and producing skilled graduates.<\/p>\n

Philosopher Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lyotard<\/a>\u00a0described how\u00a0contemporary education is designed to<\/a>\u00a0manufacture educated individuals whose primary role is to contribute to the optimal functioning of society \u2014 a class of people he refers to as \u201cintelligentsia.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that education produces two categories of intelligentsia: \u201cprofessional intelligentsia\u201d capable of fulfilling pre-existing social roles, and \u201ctechnical intelligentsia\u201d capable of learning new techniques and technologies to contribute to social progress and advancement.<\/p>\n

These roles align with some actions being taken in higher education institutions to respond to generative AI interruptions. For example, institutions are:<\/p>\n