Kendrick Gonzales

Magic AI 8 Ball

07 May 2024

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I. Introduction

AI can play a major role in education by being able to display helpful information in anything that we are trying to learn about. I’ve only used ChatGPT to aid me in coding and it made the learning experience very interesting. It was very useful to use when you know what outcome you want but, are unable to get the process started. This is where giving it good prompts kick in. If you were to give a vague prompt, you wouldn’t get the same output as a well written prompt. AI tools are only as capable as the user.

II. Personal Experience with AI:

I have used AI in class this semester in the following areas:

  1. Experience WODs e.g. E18

    I have not used AI for any of the Experience WODS because of the WOD video demonstrations already available. The experience WODS were a chance to just try it out for yourself so, I never felt the pressure to use AI; I naturally yearned to learn and fail the Expereince WOD if need be and to watch the demonstration videos for what I did wrong.

  2. In-class Practice WODs

    I have not used AI for the in-class practice WODS because it was an opportunity to learn without having to reference ChatGPT as much. I didn’t feel any pressure from failing the In-Class Practice WODs and that greatly eased the urge to have to use ChatGPT to get the code to work correctly.

  3. In-class WODs

    I most definitely used ChatGPT for the In-class WODs. For the very first In-Class WOD, I tried to do it without the use of ChatGPT. I ended up failing and it really gave me anxiety of even passing the class anymore. I decided to use ChatGPT for the rest of the In-class WODs. I would make sure I gave straightforward prompts to the AI by just copy pasting important criteria from each WOD and what end results were the goal. It felt like it would be a waste of time if the code produced by ChatGPT was not ideally working but, it felt super fast when it did produce great results.

  4. Essays

    I did not use ChatGPT to write my essays because it did not seem beneficial to use a script written by AI. I like to express my voice and way of writing so, I wrote my essays by myself. I think it shows your creativity if you write it yourself because everything you write down is your own thoughts and ideas.

  5. Final project

    I have definitely used ChatGPT for the Final project. Particularly, I inquired how to create a website that holds a list of clubs from another real website that contained the list of clubs. I used ChatGPT to aid my group for the Final Project as much as possible. I don’t have much skills to offer when it comes to coding; so the least I can do is use AI tools to supplement where I lack.

  6. Learning a concept / tutorial

    No, I don’t use ChatGPT or AI tools when learning a concept or tutorial. The point of the tutorial is to already teach you the concept. The only way I can see the use of AI is if the tutorial is not sufficient enough for people to learn from.

  7. Answering a question in class or in Discord

    I haven’t used AI when answering questions in class or on discord. I don’t think I’ve actually answered any questions at all. If I were to though, I would make sure that what I say will be helpful and factual so that it doesn’t cause more harm than good. I have good intentions to help but, if my information is not verifiable and accurate, then it doesn’t matter how much I want to help because the results will not be so good.

  8. Asking or answering a smart-question

    I did not use AI tools to ask or answer a smart-question because I feel people are capable of doing that themselves. When it came to answering smart-questions, it would be better to experience it first hand and replicate the issue and reverse engineer it to solve what was wrong. AI tools can only help so much but; nothing beats first-hand experience and knowledge from others that have already experienced it. Nothing beats that because then you’d lreaize that they overcame the issue and have a good, working answer that you don’t have to wonder will work or not.

  9. Coding example e.g. “give an example of using Underscore .pluck”

    Yes, I’ve used ChatGPT for coding examples. Particulary, I’ve prompted ChatGPT to show me how to use various functions from Underscore.js such as .map, .find, and .filter. ChatGPT was very handy when it came to showing examples of how to use specific code actions because rather than going through a manual, you have it displayed to you in real time through the use of AI.

  10. Explaining code

    I found ChatGPT very useful to use when I wanted to learn about what some parts of code did in a program. I would use the prompt “ What does this code do?” and paste a particular piece of code and then ChatGPT would give very informative results. I would verify if what chatGPT says is correct by following each line of code explained by ChatGPT.

  11. Writing code

    Yes, I’ve used ChatGPT to write code for me. It made it very easy to just write prompts into ChatGPT and experiment with the resulting code and see if it gives the correct results. As long as the prompts are straightforward, the results obtained are usually correct. I found the use of AI to write code very helpful because I know what I want, I just don’t really know where to begin for it. ChatGPT is like a translator that translates my gibberish into results that I want to happen like maybe creating a list of grocery store items in an array or how to create a class for a car and then create cars for that car class.

  12. Documenting code

    I did not use ChatGPT to document my code. I don’t think I even created comments throughout my code for people to use to understand what I write. Code comments would be very useful to use; I will make sure to add more documentation to my code in the future. I don’t think it’s necessary to create code documentation through the use of AI because at the time of creating the line of code, you should already know what it does at that point because that line of coded is being added into your program.

  13. Quality assurance

    No, I haven’t used ChatGPT for code quality assurance because then the errors would be explained if you just hovered over the underlined areas. The most I would do is do a google search if I wanted to learn more about the issue. Other than that, ESLint was very easy to use and I did not find using ChatGPT for quality assurance useful.

  14. Other uses in ICS 314 not listed above

    I’m not currently aware of what other uses there could be for AI to be used in ICS 314 other than the ones listed above. I used chatGPT alot mainly for in-class WODS, coding homework, and the final project.

III. Impact on Learning and Understanding:

AI has been very helpful when it comes to completing tasks at hand. However, I feel that it stymied my skill development and slowed my problem-solving abilities. I would use critical thinking skills and assess what needed to be done. I know understood what was needed for each coding task but, I ended up using chatGPT to complete the process for me. AI technology has challenged my understanding of software engineering concepts in the aspects of being able to understand in a stand-alone mentality. Without the use of AI, software engineering would have been insanely difficult.

IV. Practical Applications:

The use of AI is very practical outside of ICS 314. while working in a medical unit in the Air Force, we would talk about having AI tools to help aid us in being able to carry out particular procedures by learning through the use of AI models. It would be cost effective and save space by reducing the need for physical necessities as digital AI would only be needed. These simulations can be used outside of the medical field such as battle simulations, pilot simulations, architectural engineering simulations; limitless possibilities. AI is a very powerful tool that can be useed to greatly enhance our base skills and help us excel to new heights. The use of AI in real-world software engineering challenges can be of great help as it already does a great job in ICS 314. AI can help software engineers develop code and save time.

V. Challenges and Opportunities:

Throughout the course, there were times where we had to replicate websites and that was where it would get complicated. Even with good prompts, the code generated by chatGPT would not correctly replicate a website with the set conditions. AI is being updated frequently and it would be challenging to keep up with such updates meaning courses would soon be outclassed and outdated. There would also be issues of if students are actually learning when using AI tools. AI can produce multiple opportunities such as augmentation to understanding and learning about concepts, speeding up the process of routine coding all while prompting critical thinking, all in all AI can help support our current skills and ways of learning for the better. The only critical key would be the user and how they absorb the knowledge they learn through the use of AI. With time, I believe AI can help create an amazing learning environment that can help students excel.

VI. Comparative Analysis:

Traditional teaching methods can be boring but, effective. I’m all for reading and learning about a skill or concept the good old fashioned way. However, I find it really engaging when using AI to learn. I can still think critically about problems that are given to solve but, I can also inquire with chatGPT to carry out my thoughts and produce results depenidng how I prompt it. It dind’t help me when it came to developing practical skills such as in coding. I am still lost when it comes to starting code or even using certain coding jargon to create classes, methods; code in general. It can be a toss up when it comes to knowledge retention. Using AI throughout the course made me feel like I didn’t need to retain as much because then whatever I needed was readily available online and on chatGPT.

VII. Future Considerations:

AI is in a position where it can change software engineering education for the better. Potentially it can create advanced learning environments, instantly give students feedback through the use of AI tools such as chatGPT, and be used for seamless integration in software engineering tasks. Challenges posed are ethical issues of whether or not students actually learn and develop skills through the use of AI as well as keeping courses relavent to the ever changing technology of AI. The development of AI is always updating and changing for the better and in time, it will outpace what we are teaching in schools so, it’s important that we as users of AI tools think how we can advance in the area of wielding and utilizing AI.

VIII. Conclusion:

All in all, AI is a wonderful tool to use. It is a very helpful tool that I used throughout the semester for ICS 314. Courses should enable the use of AI tools because it still takes the thoughts and creativity from user input. It is a powerful tool but, doesn’t always mean that the results it gives can be helpful or correct all the time. It is still a tool that humans are constantly updating and improving. AI can definitely be a great boon outside of the use for courses. It can be used in real world events and careers that would benefit from AI tools and simulations.