Agreed, the struggle often leads us to poke and prod an issue from many angles until things finally click. It lets us think critically. In that journey you might've learned other related concepts which further solidifies your understanding.
But when the answer flows out of thin air right in front of you with AI, you get the "oh duh" or "that makes sense" moments and not the "a-ha" moment that ultimately sticks with you.
Now does everything need an "a-ha" moment? No.
However, I think core concepts and fundamentals need those "a-ha" moments to build a solid and in-depth foundation of understanding to build upon.
Yep. People love to cut down this argument by saying that a few decades ago, people said the same thing about calculators. But that was a problem too! People losing a large portion of their mental math faculty is definitely a problem. If mental math was required daily, we wouldn't see such obvious BS numbers in every kind of reporting(media/corporate/tech benchmarks) that people don't bat an eye at. How much the problem is _worth_ though, is what matters for adoption of these kinds of tech. Clearly, the problem above wasn't worth much. We now have to wait and see how much the "did not learn through cuts and scratches" problem is worth.
Absolutely this. AI can help reveal solutions that weren't seen. An a-ha moment can be as instrumental to learning as the struggle that came before.
Academia needs to embrace this concept and not try to fight it. AI is here, it's real, it's going to be used. Let's teach our students how to benefit from its (ethical) use.
But when the answer flows out of thin air right in front of you with AI, you get the "oh duh" or "that makes sense" moments and not the "a-ha" moment that ultimately sticks with you.
Now does everything need an "a-ha" moment? No.
However, I think core concepts and fundamentals need those "a-ha" moments to build a solid and in-depth foundation of understanding to build upon.