I clicked on that little Gemini icon and said 'no thanks' when it told me it was reading my current tab by default. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, although I really don't know what to think. It is one thing to go out and sign up for a service that advertises itself for cheating, it is quite another to have a 'helper' suddenly show up in your favorite browser.
Thanks for writing more about this, Anna. I agree that it’s important for us to try these tools and know what we’re facing. I wish these companies would publish ways to be really safe giving this a try, but your post is the first one I see with specific advice. Do you think it would be possible to have an agentic browser change a Canvas course if we’re using a personal free Canvas account?
Side note: given comments on your AI detection post, I thought it was funny to see the AI use disclosure here :)
Thanks for the response! Yes, an agentic browser would definitely make changes to a Canvas course. I’ve considered uploading a current course to the free Canvas, changing it there, downloading and re-uploading to my institutional account, but that seems like too much of a hassle. Joel Gladd makes changes via Claude Code and Canvas API with a sandbox course in his institutional account, but I think he has special permission.
Yes, I’m trying to walk the walk when it comes to AI transparency… it’s fair of readers and students to wonder how I’m using it… I definitely wonder about other people’s uses when I read their text.
Anna - I'm wondering how much you're actually seeing this from the student side. I know it's a real concern for online courses. My bigger concern, especially with the development and deployment of these powerful coding tools over the past month or so, is that the conversation is going to shift from pure writing issues to entire agentic workflows. At the HS level, i don't have much concern that students will be using agentic browsers to manage our LMS, but I do think the increased capabilities of just the regular platforms are going to introduce an entirely new range of questions and opportunities. I know it's been a game changer for the way that I interact with AI now and I just wonder how long it will take for students to catch up.
I agree--this is a paradigm shift moment with more implications than I can quite work out yet.
I had one student bring in an article about Clawdbot and share it with the class, but other than that I haven't seen indications that students are using it. I wouldn't know, though, if they have used it to take low-stakes quizzes in my online class last semester.
I'm teaching online in fall and nervous. I'll have them do lots of short video and audio reflections which it seems like it would be a hassle to deepfake.
I'll probably start using a lockdown browser with quizzes for writing activities as well.
Video and audio reflections are definitely a current line of defense for some of this - I tried out something called Voicethread during the pandemic which was useful. But I can't imagine teaching online classes going forward and expecting most students to produce any kind of written work independently that can be done with AI. I do think this is something we are all going to need to get used to. I know many adults who are taking classes, either online or though community college programs, and have zero problem with using AI to complete coursework for required classes or other credits which they simply need to get their degrees.
Frustrating and sad to me that so many think it’s fine to submit AI material as their own work. I’ve seen that too.
I’ve used Voicethread and might again… my department chair loves it. PlayPosit is supposed to be good. Canvas Studio is my current platform for video discussions.
Discuss-It in the LibreTexts Adapt platform looks pretty great.
I clicked on that little Gemini icon and said 'no thanks' when it told me it was reading my current tab by default. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, although I really don't know what to think. It is one thing to go out and sign up for a service that advertises itself for cheating, it is quite another to have a 'helper' suddenly show up in your favorite browser.
Exactly!
Thanks for writing more about this, Anna. I agree that it’s important for us to try these tools and know what we’re facing. I wish these companies would publish ways to be really safe giving this a try, but your post is the first one I see with specific advice. Do you think it would be possible to have an agentic browser change a Canvas course if we’re using a personal free Canvas account?
Side note: given comments on your AI detection post, I thought it was funny to see the AI use disclosure here :)
Thanks for the response! Yes, an agentic browser would definitely make changes to a Canvas course. I’ve considered uploading a current course to the free Canvas, changing it there, downloading and re-uploading to my institutional account, but that seems like too much of a hassle. Joel Gladd makes changes via Claude Code and Canvas API with a sandbox course in his institutional account, but I think he has special permission.
Yes, I’m trying to walk the walk when it comes to AI transparency… it’s fair of readers and students to wonder how I’m using it… I definitely wonder about other people’s uses when I read their text.
Anna - I'm wondering how much you're actually seeing this from the student side. I know it's a real concern for online courses. My bigger concern, especially with the development and deployment of these powerful coding tools over the past month or so, is that the conversation is going to shift from pure writing issues to entire agentic workflows. At the HS level, i don't have much concern that students will be using agentic browsers to manage our LMS, but I do think the increased capabilities of just the regular platforms are going to introduce an entirely new range of questions and opportunities. I know it's been a game changer for the way that I interact with AI now and I just wonder how long it will take for students to catch up.
I agree--this is a paradigm shift moment with more implications than I can quite work out yet.
I had one student bring in an article about Clawdbot and share it with the class, but other than that I haven't seen indications that students are using it. I wouldn't know, though, if they have used it to take low-stakes quizzes in my online class last semester.
I'm teaching online in fall and nervous. I'll have them do lots of short video and audio reflections which it seems like it would be a hassle to deepfake.
I'll probably start using a lockdown browser with quizzes for writing activities as well.
Video and audio reflections are definitely a current line of defense for some of this - I tried out something called Voicethread during the pandemic which was useful. But I can't imagine teaching online classes going forward and expecting most students to produce any kind of written work independently that can be done with AI. I do think this is something we are all going to need to get used to. I know many adults who are taking classes, either online or though community college programs, and have zero problem with using AI to complete coursework for required classes or other credits which they simply need to get their degrees.
Frustrating and sad to me that so many think it’s fine to submit AI material as their own work. I’ve seen that too.
I’ve used Voicethread and might again… my department chair loves it. PlayPosit is supposed to be good. Canvas Studio is my current platform for video discussions.
Discuss-It in the LibreTexts Adapt platform looks pretty great.