Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You're just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. How AI has killed student writing and perhaps revived it. That's coming up on an NBID special right after this. And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here.
Chapter 2: How has AI changed student writing practices?
It's Wednesday. It's the middle of the week. We can see the end of the week. It's just off there, just off the horizon. But there's lots more to talk about before we get there, including five or six great NBITS stories today. But I've got something to say before we get there. You know, we've been doing this program where I think we're in our fifth year now.
And we've been doing Your Turn for, what, three years? And it's been great. Your Turn is great because I hear from so many of you loyal listeners who write in every week and... You know, we have certain conditions. You all follow them. You know, the 75 word rule, the use your name, use your location, have it in by a certain time, all of that. It's all good.
And, you know, I appreciate hearing from you. And I, you know, in many ways, it's kind of our polling center, our data center, where we collect information about issues and we collect it from you. You tell us what you're thinking, and sometimes it has an impact on the way others think, including me. So that's all good.
Well, this was bound to happen at some point, and it's happened this week, I believe, for the first time. Your turn is kind of being hijacked. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does take away from what we've been for these last few years, and I would hate for that to happen. So what happened here this week?
Well, it appears when we put out the question on Monday, and the question was basically about high-speed rail. What do you think of the idea? Would you rather have the money, which is considerable, spent in other areas? Are you for it or are you against it? That kind of stuff. Well, it appears that one of the people who heard that, one of our loyal listeners, thought, oh...
I know what I'm going to do because I feel very strongly about this issue and I belong to a group here to be in southern Ontario, kind of in between Montreal and Toronto, along that route. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to put this on Facebook and tell people, all my fellow anti-rail people, anti-high-speed rail people, I'm going to tell all of them, write to Peter Mansbridge.
Here's his address. And so, as a result, after that Facebook post, we've been kind of steamrolled by one side of the debate. However, I became suspicious fairly quickly, and then I realized, absolutely, these aren't people who listen to the podcast.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do teachers face with AI in education?
This isn't part of our family. They have strong feelings, and there's no reason to dismiss that. But they're not part of our loyal family who write in once a week on whatever the issues are. And how did I realize that?
Chapter 4: How are writing assignments evolving in classrooms?
That's right. They didn't follow the rules. Whoever told them to do this on Facebook didn't tell them what the sort of conditions are at the bridge. A lot of these letters came in way over 75 words.
Chapter 5: What do teachers think about AI's impact on writing skills?
A lot of the letters came in with no location.
Chapter 6: What are the implications of AI on critical thinking skills?
A lot of the letters came in in some, well, not a lot, but some came in without a name. So what do you think? You probably think the same way I do. These weren't listeners to the bridge. These were just people who feel very passionately and good for them on this issue of the high-speed rail line. They don't like it.
Chapter 7: How is AI affecting the integrity of student assignments?
They don't want it. Anyway, within a couple of hours of that happening on Monday, we had more than enough letters to fill a show. Like, we had a lot. But we rejected a lot because they weren't following the conditions that we place on this that everybody else adheres to. And occasionally we need to sort of remind people, oh, you forgot your location. And that happens.
But I was not going to go and explain all the rules to people who don't even listen to the show. So there we go. So we will still go ahead with this, and there's a nice mix of those who are against the idea, but also those who are for the idea. And we'll hear from those tomorrow. But I wanted to let you know what had happened. And quite frankly, we don't need any more. We don't need any more.
We got lots. So let's get started on something different. it's our first end bit of the day, and it's a headline in the New York Times, and it's basically the headline that I read at the tease at the top of the program, how AI, artificial intelligence, killed student writing and revived it. So I'm going to read a little bit of this by Dana Goldstein in the New York Times because it's really good.
For today's high school and college students, the all-night writing session hunched over a laptop at home or in a library is on the way out. In the era of artificial intelligence, take-home writing assignments have become so difficult to police for integrity that many educators have simply stopped assigning them.
Instead, in a rapid shift, teachers are requiring students to write inside the classroom and where they can be observed. Assignments have changed too, with some educators prompting students to reflect on their personal reactions to what they've learned and read, the type of writing that AI struggles to credibly produce.
This transformation is happening across the educational landscape, from suburban districts and urban character schools to community colleges and the Ivy League. The New York Times heard from nearly 400 college and high school teachers who responded to a call-out about how generative AI is changing writing instructions.
Almost all of them described a deep rethinking of how to teach writing and whether it still matters. Since AI has become a better writer than most students and adults, Teachers are responding to a widespread challenge. Over the past year, AI use has become ubiquitous among American students.
Between May and December of 2025, that was not that long ago, between May and December of 2025, the share of American middle school, high school, and college students who reported regularly using AI for homework increased from 48% to 62%.
According to polling, even as two-thirds of students said the technology harmed critical thinking skills, a third of the students reported using AI to draft or revise their writing. Chatbots can easily produce polished essays in response to any prompt, analyzing Supreme Court cases, parsing symbolism in the Great Gatsby, explaining the science behind the Artemis mission.
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