Ishiguro’s notion of the “oblong professor” is useful because it helps to deflate all of the magical thinking that accompanies AI in education. It’s hard to get excited about an oblong.
Sure, AI might be useful for certain purposes, but a lot of the current promises could also lead to real problems that need serious consideration before activating autopedagogic tutors in classrooms. Currently, AI is being promoted to solve a huge range of complex issues in education.
But AI tutors are simplified models of the very complex, situated work of pedagogy. We shouldn’t expect so much from oblongs.
Oblongification of education by Ben Williamson
Ben Williamson questions the promises of AI tutors. Borrowing Kazuo Ishiguro’s use of “screen professors” and “oblongs”, he describes AI as the “Oblongification of education”.
For me, this touches on
about the ‘left-overs’ after structured problem-solving.