Published on MLive.com: Oct. 24, 2026, 7:00 a.m.
By Drew Saunders | dsaunders@mlive.com
ANN ARBOR, MI – What is the point of going to college if the tools you are using make the coursework so easy that you’re hardly even learning?
University of Michigan English instructor Angela Berkley asked this question. She’s concerned that large language models impact how students understand writing and other concepts of her English Language and Literature course.
After experimenting with AI a little early on, she’s now decided to ban it in her courses. The technology prevents the friction necessary to give students the space to learn, she said.“I have always had students struggle with the material – some struggle and some don’t – but the biggest problem with AI is AI hides their struggle – from themselves, and from me,” Berkley said. “And that is the whole point of learning, to me, and particularly with writing because I’m trying to help them develop a better practice for writing and reading.”
Berkley is not the only professor at UM who thinks this way, but she wasn’t always against AI in her classroom. Berkley says that she was initially curious about the technology’s possibilities, but after cautiously using large language models in a few assignments one semester, she quickly came to the conclusion that there wasn’t a good reason or way for it to be used in teaching English.
She added that reading and writing in college “should be a struggle.”
“They should be reading and writing things that are new and more challenging than they’ve ever encountered before,” she said. “If they’re just going to let an LLM do it for them, they’re not expiring the struggle – but that’s releasing us from learning.”
