Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

There's some unsurprisingly negative reaction to this story where students were provided with an AI-authored textbook for $25 instead of the usual $250 worth of textbooks. "the digital textbook was immediately met with widespread mockery and derision from educators." In an interview with Inside Higher Ed (may be behind a spamwall) course instructor Zrinka Stahuljak said, "Compared to teaching the class without the AI-assisted textbook], engagement went up." This article rolls out the usual criticisms, such as concerns about hallucinations, reduced critical thinking skills, and tech company business practices. In this case, though, the criticisms are speculative - they might have happened, maybe, but we have no evidence that they did happen (except for the obviously garbled illustrations, which the instructor says was a design choice). 

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2026
Last Updated: Feb 11, 2026 10:57 a.m.

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