Teaching students to 'be better than a robot' - marketplace-tech Recap

Podcast: marketplace-tech

Published: 2026-01-15

Duration: 4 minutes

Guests: Kristi Girdharry

Summary

Educators are finding innovative ways to integrate AI into the classroom, aiming to teach students to outperform AI tools rather than avoid them.

What Happened

The episode begins by addressing educators' concerns about AI tools being used for cheating by students. AI chatbots are capable of writing essays and solving complex problems, which has led some educators to ban these technologies. However, Kristi Girdharry, a professor at Babson College, is taking a different approach by integrating AI into her coursework.

Girdharry emphasizes the importance of students developing skills that make them 'better than a robot.' She discusses how her students engage with AI through assignments that challenge them to collaborate with AI and identify their original contributions versus the AI's inputs.

An assignment called 'remediation' encourages students to rework a previous piece, first using AI to assist them and then creating something AI cannot replicate. This pushes students to think creatively and critically about the unique human elements they can bring to their work.

Girdharry shares an example of a student who wrote about speaking Bulgarian with her grandmother. This student created a clay rose, integrating personal and cultural significance into a project that AI could not create.

The episode highlights how Girdharry and her colleagues at Babson College are part of an interdisciplinary group called The Generator, which explores the impact of AI in education. They focus on ethical AI use and aim to address biases, such as AI detectors disproportionately flagging marginalized students.

The conversation underscores the potential of AI to enhance learning when used thoughtfully, encouraging students to develop skills that complement technological capabilities. Girdharry's approach is presented as a forward-thinking model that other educators might consider.

Key Insights

• AI chatbots are being integrated into coursework at Babson College to help students distinguish between their original contributions and AI-generated inputs, encouraging creative and critical thinking.
• An assignment called 'remediation' requires students to rework a previous piece with AI assistance and then create something unique that AI cannot replicate, highlighting the value of human creativity.
• A student project involved writing about speaking Bulgarian with her grandmother and creating a culturally significant clay rose, demonstrating the integration of personal and cultural elements that AI cannot reproduce.
• The Generator, an interdisciplinary group at Babson College, focuses on ethical AI use in education and addresses biases such as AI detectors disproportionately flagging marginalized students.