Harvard teacher and PhD candidate Shae O. Omonijo has put a full set of teaching materials online, including videos and a syllabus. This is your guide to staying human, reconnecting with offline communities, and embracing critical thinking and reading even in the AI age. And with that critical perspective comes something you may have been missing: optimism.
That’s not blind optimism or empty hope. (I think if I took one quote from this entire year, it would be Dirar Kalash saying, “It’s not the moment to believe in hopes … it’s the moment of persistence and deeds.”)
No, this is a workout plan. It’s a chance to prepare for an onslaught of AI but also reclaim parts of our brain and critical thinking we’ve gradually lost. And its existence is already a reminder that we can still do something productive with these online platforms; I don’t go to Harvard, and I haven’t gotten to meet Shae O in an offline capacity — or all of you — so here we are.
Critical thinking, critical writing, and critical reading are all included here. And that reminds me, what we’re missing in music is really critical music. I see a lot of folks rejecting music theory, I think because they’ve had bad theory experiences, they assume that only Western thinkers can produce theory (because that’s been our bias in how we teach it), or that it’s universal (same bias), or that theory is meant to generate music (it very often is not). What we’re missing is critical music discourse, partly because of a lack of critical thinking and reading, and offline, inclusive, and accessible spaces. So these are all connected.
And my side thought is, it sure would be great to have a music-specific module that delves into how musical listening and thinking work, and how “learning” music is not the same as what AI currently does.
You could instead all of that to our use of code in an age of LLMs, especially since part of the original vision of the computer was to use code to teach young people critical thinking and creative possibilities. (In the case of “turtle” LOGO, it could even connect critical thinking and spatial awareness!) That vision is endangered by uncritical use of generative code.
And there’s a syllabus. (There are also paid resources so you can support her work, including a book.) It’s great that Shea O. is sharing this stuff, too, as it gives an opportunity to debate approaches, compare methodology and pedagogy, to think and read. So I hope others follow suit.
Great title (apart from it makes me slightly hungry):
Critical Thinking in the Age of AI Syllabus
I’m also relieved that this is not more AI whitewashing, with some hollow “ethical AI” discussions that are really about papering over many of the cognitive, ecological, cultural, and societal risks of the technology.
Now there are a lot of other folks doing this, but I figured it’s worth starting somewhere. I know this is something a lot of us in music are thinking about (with our brains, even!) daily. If you’ve found more resources, I’ll start compiling a list.
This is a very very US American list, I know — so since I know folks from other backgrounds working on this will for sure follow up.
Hat/tip to whomever it was who highlighted this, but I have now forgotten. Look, human brains are still human.