rm5
macrumors 601
I’d be willing to wager that everyone whose school uses Canvas had that issue. I guess it’s solved now? Kind of unclear.
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What’s on your mind? (Students/school edition).
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Mitthrawnuruodo
Moderator emeritus
This has been big news in Norway, too, with up to 250,000 students that may be affected (that's about 75% of all students in Norway).
One of the very few times I'm happy that our school uses Moodle.
Key parts of article in Norwegian linked below translated by Claude:
www.khrono.no
(Norwegian article)
One of the very few times I'm happy that our school uses Moodle.
Key parts of article in Norwegian linked below translated by Claude:
Opp mot 250.000 studenter kan være rammet av hackerangrep
Utdanningsinstitusjonene har fått frist til midnatt med å betale løsepenger.
www.khrono.no
Last edited:
VisceralRealist
macrumors 65816
It's still out for me, so I'm assuming my school is doing something different. The last update was less than an hour ago, but the outage continues...
One of the downsides of a tech monopoly 🙁
It’s back up as of 11 am Cupertino time today, but at least my ethnic studies and equity class has cancelled our homework til further notice. We literally had homework due yesterday when the outage happened
But as an online university student we depend on it so much that if there’s a big outage like this, we don’t get to do homework. Like last night I get to sleep early as I can’t do anything that needed canvas.
man I missed using google classroom. It doesn’t have file upload caps unlike canvas. Canvas files section has a limit and gets hit by security bugs easilyThis has been big news in Norway, too, with up to 250,000 students that may be affected (that's about 75% of all students in Norway).
One of the very few times I'm happy that our school uses Moodle.
Key parts of article in Norwegian linked below translated by Claude:
(Norwegian article)Opp mot 250.000 studenter kan være rammet av hackerangrep
Utdanningsinstitusjonene har fått frist til midnatt med å betale løsepenger.
rm5
macrumors 601
I am on a trip to NYC at the moment with a group of classmates and faculty - we’re doing a concert here to showcase the diverse talent of our conservatory programs. I am not doing any work on this trip and therefore was not immediately affected by the Canvas outage.
rm5
macrumors 601
Only two more weeks of the school year left. Very ready to be done but this has been a good year for the most part. I've become very good friends with a couple of the freshmen (soon-to-be sophomores) this year, which I'm very fortunate for. Got summer things lined up - teaching, performing, conducting, and practicing.
splifingate
Contributor
Wrapping things up in my Classroom.
Last day of school was last Friday, May 22. Doing mostly Administrative stuff this week, and cleaning the room in preparation for carpet replacement.
Local PubS contractors arrived today with Board replacements for six rooms (each classroom has a 50-point 4K touchscreen, and some of our older models (including mine) stopped being supported after Win10).
I am conducting "Summer Enrichment" classes the last week of June, and the 2nd week of July.
In my 1st Session, I will be teaching my kiddos how to fix drywall (1.2m x 1.2m frame, faced with thin gypsum-board that I will allow my kiddos to break, and repair).
This Summer, my education is all-about "practical" applications 🙂
Last day of school was last Friday, May 22. Doing mostly Administrative stuff this week, and cleaning the room in preparation for carpet replacement.
Local PubS contractors arrived today with Board replacements for six rooms (each classroom has a 50-point 4K touchscreen, and some of our older models (including mine) stopped being supported after Win10).
I am conducting "Summer Enrichment" classes the last week of June, and the 2nd week of July.
In my 1st Session, I will be teaching my kiddos how to fix drywall (1.2m x 1.2m frame, faced with thin gypsum-board that I will allow my kiddos to break, and repair).
This Summer, my education is all-about "practical" applications 🙂
2 weeks ago was finals week. I did a project on AirTags and button cell batteries.
Right now my school already has concluded their commencement ceremonies, and they have winded down for summer break. Profs are getting grades in.
Off until late august !
VisceralRealist
macrumors 65816
Finals are late for me, not beginning until June 8. Then my graduation will be on June 14. My time as an undergrad is almost over! I had a great experience though, not much I would do differently. I hope I feel the same about graduate school 😎
Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
Friends in academia are reporting that the (ab)use of AI has now become a scourge in the classroom, in assignments, essays, and - worst of all - in some cases, in exams.
One friend fiercely said that she would recommend hauling students back to an exam hall to sit their exams in person, under close supervision, remarking that for all of the stress of such a setting, at least one could rest assured that the work the students was their own, and not scripted by AI.
One friend fiercely said that she would recommend hauling students back to an exam hall to sit their exams in person, under close supervision, remarking that for all of the stress of such a setting, at least one could rest assured that the work the students was their own, and not scripted by AI.
Was it something mundane like an analysis of the Bluetooth protocols, or something daring like a comparative taste-test of coin-cell bitterant coatings?
The exciting part is that I wrote a design and investigative engineering report about these things! I put together a report and some slides in Keynote for the presentation I recorded on my Mac. creative studio.
I wouldn’t recommend doing a taste test for button cell batteries because they’re a bit risky, and I don’t have the modern bitterant coating or the blue food colouring ones.
I did take apart an AirTag (just the battery compartment and battery were removed, no stealth mod done; so I could exchange it at the Apple Store) and then reverse-engineered a Fusion 3D model of the AirTag. I also created a tough-to-open case for it, and AutoCAD drafted Apple pull tab-inspired stickers to cover the battery compartments and keep them safe from pets and little kids.
Wow that’s the same time when my former community college does their finals. Now in my 4 year I’m already off school earlier in May, so WWDC isn’t in the way of finals.
Next year is senior year of college for me!
I never used AI for exams like that and also I hate how generative text can look distorted.
Was this on an exam that was on a computer ?
rm5
macrumors 601
I also have exams June 8-10. Three of them. Only worried about the "Research Methods" exam, which is basically all math/statistics. Also have to move out in between exams, because I'll be flying home right after my last exam on the 10th.
splifingate
Contributor
It's just so readily-available (see Google "AI Overview" displayed Top Of The List for almost every search result), and I do try to forgive my students.
I recently appreciated the article by Asuka Koda's "'Everyone now kind of sounds the same': How AI is changing college classes" [1]
I'm teaching Secondary Sciences, and it's really not that bad; at least the 'discrete facts' are usually representative. My ELA co-worker, however, is regularly frustrated.
One of the STE(A)M Activities I promulgated this year (again) for National Poetry Month was to get each student to a) pick three elements from the Periodic Table, b) write a haiku for each, c) graphically present this on a 14.5cm^2 piece of watercolor paper, d) coax
I was amazed by just how many blatantly chose to rely upon AI to give them a 5/7/5 poem . . . I mean, some just refused to even try to blend ~10 words together using their own brain!
I misunderstand
Some English, myself, at times.
It is confusing.
Their graphic arts proficiency, for the most part, was excellent!
splifingate
Contributor
Sounds like a fun Project!
Finally sent-out Grades/Transcripts/IEP/&c. to the parents/guardians on my Caseload today.
I have time off this Summer, though I am in the middle of my MAT (I have continuous learning goals that still need to be tracked, and monitored, in preparation for my Portfolio).
My student's effort/participation severely declined after their EOC's. I try to tell myself that this was mostly because they were focused on their Therapy (my School is in a PRTF): I'm really trying to not get too jaded faced with 14-17 y/o teenagers 😉
splifingate
Contributor
Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
I had an excellent long chat last night with the best student I have ever taught, who has become a good friend; she is a barrister and an academic, teaching law.
She described her attempts to deal with the havoc caused by AI, explaining that it goes well beyond plagiarism, (adding that "plagiarism, bad grammar and poor spelling were all we had to deal with in the old days" - this was also the world that I dwelt in, when I inhabited Ivory Towers), as, with AI, not only do the students not learn the material, but, one cannot credibly grade the material as not only did they not write it themselves, but you have no way of knowing how much they had read, let alone how much they actually knew, or understood, or had actually learned, - or remembered - of the material they presented as theirs.
Her - suggested - and planned, and intended - solutions included not just hauling the students in to a hall, to sit exams in person, but to insist on hand-written assignments in these exams, and to hit them with written (hand written) assignments, or questions, immediately after lectures. "That will tell me how much they know, or understand," she said.
She said that the exams were so dreadful - and that there was no way of knowing how much (one assumed most, if not all) had been written by AI (and all too often quite wrong) - that she had been giving this an awful lot of thought.
Actually, her view is that the abuse of AI has virtually destroyed the capacity of students for critical thought, and analytical thinking.
I suggested rapid fire - in person, in class - oral exams, or tests, as well - it is what I would do in such circumstances, in addition to her ideas.
This also means that the old days - when one was sympathetic to students - of giving hints in class as to the sort of areas which might appear on an exam paper is also consigned to the past: "This is because they will simply feed those questions to AI, and learn the answers off by heart", was her grim conclusion.
She described her attempts to deal with the havoc caused by AI, explaining that it goes well beyond plagiarism, (adding that "plagiarism, bad grammar and poor spelling were all we had to deal with in the old days" - this was also the world that I dwelt in, when I inhabited Ivory Towers), as, with AI, not only do the students not learn the material, but, one cannot credibly grade the material as not only did they not write it themselves, but you have no way of knowing how much they had read, let alone how much they actually knew, or understood, or had actually learned, - or remembered - of the material they presented as theirs.
Her - suggested - and planned, and intended - solutions included not just hauling the students in to a hall, to sit exams in person, but to insist on hand-written assignments in these exams, and to hit them with written (hand written) assignments, or questions, immediately after lectures. "That will tell me how much they know, or understand," she said.
She said that the exams were so dreadful - and that there was no way of knowing how much (one assumed most, if not all) had been written by AI (and all too often quite wrong) - that she had been giving this an awful lot of thought.
Actually, her view is that the abuse of AI has virtually destroyed the capacity of students for critical thought, and analytical thinking.
I suggested rapid fire - in person, in class - oral exams, or tests, as well - it is what I would do in such circumstances, in addition to her ideas.
This also means that the old days - when one was sympathetic to students - of giving hints in class as to the sort of areas which might appear on an exam paper is also consigned to the past: "This is because they will simply feed those questions to AI, and learn the answers off by heart", was her grim conclusion.
arkitect
macrumors 604
Only partially tongue in cheek, but I think the vast majority of our human race has always lacked critical thought.
My source? History. 🙂
AI has just added loads of em-dashes and bullet points…
So you’re still have plans this summer break right? And yep I had fun doing that AirTag and button batteries project. The CAD part and measuring the AirTag was the fun part and putting together the slides.
Agree at all on your stance. Even though AI is used to proofread or spell check, I didn’t like how students would use it to write papers on their behalf. Several of my professors did start using turn it in since I started community college in 2023, including in the history, English and humanities courses that use lots of writing for assignments. When students see turn it in or any originality checker being used (which Canvas or the assignment instructions will note that before they turn the assignment in), this can help them steer clear of using any AI or even grammarly (which this overrated Chrome and Safari extension isn’t all that good and has so many paid features now) to help correct or generate writing. IRL it will force them to write with only their own words in addition to avoiding copying and pasting from secondary sources without proper citing and quotation.
When I transferred to university my teachers don’t use those AI detection or anti plagiarism softwares at all in their classes. And even I’m in an online degree program; where it’s unavoidable for us to take exams in person unless we have to take certain placement tests, ESL exams or GREs, I only heard from a few students in different classes that their professors checked for AI. some of them didn’t like it because the spell checkers that are built in or grammarly was mistaken as AI in some way.
At work, my previous internship at NASA I was in charge of writing the AI reports and declarations for my department in addition to tallying mission reports and costs/budgets. In all our deliverables the managers submit we are required to provide an AI declaration statement on the final pages of each report draft and written documentation which summarises which AI generated material or edits are included in the research and analysis. If the statement isn’t there and the report contains any AI generated material on it, we will be asked by our higher ups to resubmit it with the relevant information attached to it and add the declaration, or the employees involved will have to remove it. We can face disciplinary action for our department if we fail to comply.
That part I had seen that over half of my staff on the team used AI overviews from google, grammarly, some even used chat gpt for either formatting or editing purposes, some even used it to generate summaries. Although I can’t really speak the specifics of what they altered the reports with AI due to NDA rules, I at least am not the ones out of the blue that use any AI in the deliverables at all as I don’t really need to rely on such things especially since it’s all reserved for people who don’t really write technical papers properly.
Macky-Mac
macrumors 601
Will you be doing your graduate work at the same school where you've been an undergrad? That may make the transition very easy.
splifingate
Contributor
Definitely!
A Conference in Orlando sandwiched by two sessions of Summer
I'm going to teach my kiddos practical skills, like how to patch holes in drywall (holes they make themselves). "So, the P's are 'gana be back by 7pm tomorrow night . . . here's what you need to do to re-make it like nothing happened."
Somewhere on either side, I have a LOT of stonework that needs to be completed outside (new mailbox, ankle-wall/drain/channel to get the water around the house, 36 2'x2' steppers concreted along-side the driveway, etc.).
I also need to re-plumb the crawlspace (all the new copper piping I sweated in '19 needs to be moved because the HVAC techs put the Unit under that piping, instead of off to the side like I had asked).
And about a thousand other things, of course 😉
Sounds like fun! AutoCad and I never really got-on that well; I do like the 'building-to-spec' parts of such adventure 🙂
Having spent inordinate hours creating bespoke slides and presentations these past two years, I was recently
I do use Apple creative studio. But I don’t use the subscription as I don’t really need the money for the extra themes enhanced AI features that run on the cloud only; I just use the Apple Intelligence writing tools to fine tune words on the slides and notes. Apple Intelligence ain’t cost any money to use and if I need the ChatGPT extension, my school offers the plus for free.
Also, I learned from the smart ones in my high school back when digital assignments were a huge thing for us and I can just download templates super easily from the internet for free. No need to pay extra for the subscription!
Had you taught your students woodworking and metalsmithing ? I did it in high school and CNC machining a lot in college.