3. Rethinking the Assignment in the Age of AI

Imagine you're a software engineer building a productivity app. Over the years, you redesign the user interface switching from a clunky desktop app to a sleek web interface, then to a mobile app, and eventually to a voice assistant. Each iteration looks more modern, is easier to use, and uses newer tech. The user interface is improving, but the task never changes for the user. Its lipstick on a pig, eventually the app will no longer be relevant?

Now swap out the app for a classroom assignment, the worksheet.

For decades, worksheets have been a staple of classroom instruction.  Over time, like software interfaces, they've been “modernized”:

• Paper worksheet (v1.0) – The original analog. Print, copy, distribute, collect, grade.

• Scanned worksheet (v1.1) – Save paper. Send as an image. Students print at home.

• Fillable worksheet (v2.0) – Add text boxes. Now students can type instead of write.

• Google Form (v2.5) – Add automation. Immediate feedback. Still mostly multiple-choice.

• Fillable PDF (v2.6) – Slightly more interactive. Better formatting. Still the same questions.

• AI-rewritten worksheet (v3.0) – Use ChatGPT to rewrite the questions. Fresh wording, maybe new contexts. But… still a worksheet.

Each version may feel like progress. But from the learner’s perspective, the core function hasn’t changed. It’s still a teacher-designed task with right answers and little room for exploration. The look and feel evolve, but the purpose and learning experience remain fixed.

You ask me questions, I find or remember the answers and fill them in, then I turn in the assignment and get my grade.  Not dissimilar from the game fetch.  That's right, we made fetch happen.

A Call to Lead Differently

If all we do with AI is produce shinier worksheets, we’re doing old things in new ways and calling it innovation.

But if we reimagine the role of the student as a designer, investigator, and collaborator then use AI as part of a Dynamic Thought Environment, then we’re not just upgrading the interface we’re upgrading the learning experience.

That’s the real opportunity.
And that’s the challenge we must rise to meet.