Self-Reflection Week 3

Written on 10.4.2025

  1. Why might getting too much help reduce your understanding of English and engineering?​
  2. How does choosing independence develop your voice when using English to study engineering?​
  3. How can you become autonomous while still meeting the expectations of your professors? (e.g., they expect you to complete the tasks they assign, and in the way they want, not letting you choose your own tasks)​
  4. What are some of the ways using AI can undermine your experience of studying at university? How concerned are you about these problems?​
  5. What questions would you like to explore further when it comes to ways of using AI without harming your education?

This is my third week in university, though I have only studied for two days because of the National Holiday.

For the first question, getting too much help will let me be lazier and unwilling to explore English by myself, for example simply ask and not to summarize the class content. Gradually, my time spending on English and engineering will become lesser, so my understanding on English and engineering will reduce.

By choosing independence, I start to use more tools to aid my engineering study in English. For instance, I use dictionaries to look up words whenever I encounter them. Independence helps me learn better because I learn “on my own”, so I truly understand what my disadvantages are so I can compensate for it.

Question 3 is quite a hard question for me lol. Maybe I can finish the assignment and use the rest of my spare time to become autonomous. For example, like this journal, I not only finish the task but also add my own content to it, like a real journal rather than simply answering the questions.

If I rely on AI too much and become unwilling to think of the questions deeply, I won’t understand the knowledge truly and become unengaged in class. For example, in Rhet 101 class, we are asked to read an essay before class. If I use AI to simply summarize the paragraph and not go through it by myself, I may lose the points and be unable to engage in the discussion, thus my study experience in university will be undermined. I’m very concerned about these problems because I’m an active learner and I’m willing to join the class so that I can learn the knowledge better.

I’d like to understand what occasions I can use AI. For instance, can I use AI to generate some interesting ideas when I create an essay?