Should we let students use ChatGPT?

this past December I was sitting around a table having lunch with some English teachers

when one of them started sharing how she had recently caught a student cheating on an essay using this new form of artificial intelligence called chat GPT

she watched in astonishment and a bit of mild horror as this program constructed an entire essay for the student with a click of a button

the initial reaction around the table was disbelief

there’s no way that AI can write a quality essay

naturally curious I whipped out my laptop to test it out

all of us watched in shock as this AI program constructed a well-written analysis essay right before our eyes in a matter of seconds

if you’ve ever wondered how to induce an immediate existential crisis amongst a group of English teachers yeah that’s how

while there are dozens of text generative AI programs out there

open ai’s chat GPT which was released to the public this past November is the

most well known since its release chat GPT has been

featured on almost every major news station and even made it to the cover of

Time magazine in February this program caught the World by storm

because it was 10 times smarter than the version that had come before it

chat GPT is what is known as a large language model which is essentially a

network of neural pathway connections that allows the program to learn and

become more accurate in its responses over time

when I asked chat GPT what it wanted the world to know about its capabilities

it responded I can provide information on a wide

range of topics and understand and respond to natural language I can also

generate creative and personalized responses and learn from my interactions

to improve my language processing capabilities over time

oh is that all

right after its public emergence companies and people around the world

began harnessing the immense power of this technology doctors have used it to

help diagnose patients businesses began using it to create advertisements and

blog posts and Joe schmoe has been using it to help him write all those pesky

thank you cards from his wedding 14 months ago

and all of this is being done with the click of a button

common applications like Snapchat instacart

Duolingo and Quizlet have also begun to integrate this technology into their

platforms and then openai released gpt4 in March

which is the newest version of the system that powers chat GPT

gpt4 unlike chat GPT can also analyze images and web links instead of being

restricted to text input only Microsoft began using gbt4 to power

their search engine Bing they also have plans to integrate gpt4 with the

Microsoft Office Suite products soon you’ll be able to turn your boss’s

20-page email into a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation with a single

click a couple of weeks after Microsoft

released their new search engine Google released their AI system bard

and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until we see artificial intelligence

Incorporated with the Google Suite products as well

the tech world has entered an AI arms race

but with such an explosive advancement in technology seemingly overnight

Educators across the globe have entered a state of panic of course there are the

typical concerns about AI taking over the world courtesy of too many movies

and TV shows like Terminator and Westworld

but for educators the concern lies more with their students

post-pandemic Educators have noticed severe declines in students ability to

think critically and problem solve at the most basic levels but now with AI

able to do the thinking for them educators are Awash in worry not merely

for their jobs but for the development of their students

but as author and writing instructor John Warner points out

the reason the appearance of this Tech is so shocking is because it forces us

to confront what we value rather than letting the status quo churn along

unexamined

there is no doubt that AI is going to transform the landscape of Education as

we know it after all we’ve seen this type of transformation before and for

most of us it happened within our lifetimes the widespread proliferation

of the internet just a few decades ago completely transformed how schools and

our global economy functioned isn’t it safe to assume that a new technological

leap might do the same hard work of this leap is going to fall

to educators generative AI systems will force

Educators and educational institutions to re-evaluate what they teach and why

and how they teach it do students really need to know how to

write a five paragraph rigorously structured essay

or do they need to understand how to approach a concept break it down and

organize it into bite-sized pieces since the dawn of time teachers have

been posed to question by students when will I use this in real life

well now is the time to come up with a concrete answer to that question because

the truth is many of the assignments given in the classroom really don’t

prepare students for real life when are students going to need to know how to

diagram a compound complex sentence unless you end up an English teacher

Chances Are Never if students feel as though what they are

learning in the classroom will benefit them in the long run they will become

invested in the learning and won’t be looking for shortcuts to Simply get the

work done but instead of embracing and learning

from this new technology many schools across the country

responded to the public release of chat GPT by immediately blocking it and other

AI applications on all School sanctioned devices

but is it beneficial to restrict student use of a technology that businesses

around the world are using or should we instead teach our students how to

interact with AI safely and productively anyone that has been around teenagers

for any length of time understands All Too Well the implications of reverse

psychology even adults fall prey to this trap if I tell you not to think of an

elephant like whatever you do don’t think about an elephant

yeah we’re all thinking about an elephant right now if you tell a teacher

a teenager not to do something you can bet they’ll be itching to try it out as

soon as your back is turned blocking chat GPT and similar AI applications

won’t work it will only make the programs more intriguing for students

who wouldn’t want to explore the secrets this technology holds that has caused

such an adverse reaction amongst their teachers

plus we can’t control what students do outside of their classrooms and school

buildings it’s all too easy for students to pull up this program on their phone

when they go to the bathroom or simply access it on a different device when

they’re completing their schoolwork at home

and once Microsoft and Google integrate this technology into their office suite

products unless we want to regress to the pre-internet age of paper and pencil

we won’t be able to avoid AI in the classroom we will never be able to truly

and fully block it instead we have to find ways to work with and around it

in order to implement effective use of AI in the classroom teachers may need to

re-evaluate how they are teaching the material and assessing student learning

What If instead of assigning worksheets and essays we encouraged more

collaboration in the classroom project-based and student directive

learning have always been my go-to’s as an educator

as an English teacher my students were constantly creating posters and

participating in debates in order to analyze various aspects of literary work

they would work on group projects and presentations as their end of unit

assessment and we would use gameplay to review material such as participating in

an escape room or a competitive game of Jeopardy

even if my students were able to access AI in my classroom it wouldn’t have

provided them with much help beyond the ability to be a sounding board for their

ideas and what would be so wrong with that

I think most Educators would agree that the goal of education is to help our

students learn how to think critically and problem solve AI technology can be

incorporated into the classroom in ways that actually engage students in

critical thinking math students could create their own math problems and then

use AI to test the results social studies students could use chat

GPT to write alternative realities to history and then discuss the results as

a class science students could use the chat bot

to adopt the voice of a famous scientist and then engage in a stimulating

conversation about their discoveries students can also utilize AI to help

edit their Writing Practice vocabulary terms provide individualized tutoring

and edit their ideas and research and these are just a few of the

unlimited applications from the student perspective

but it also has abilities that can benefit teachers

almost immediately after my school blocked AI on all of our student devices

my co-workers began using it to help them do their jobs more effectively

they use chat GPT to write lesson plans come up with discussion prompts and

create tests and quizzes and I actually used it to help me write

a final exam for my students a process that normally takes me hours

took only 30 minutes with the assistance of AI

not only does AI have the ability to Save hours of preparation time for

teachers but it can also take a piece of writing and adapt it in any way the user

asks which can help make learning and reading more accessible to students of

all abilities for example we could ask chat GPT to

take a complex text and transform it into something a fourth grader could

read or we could have it transform

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a modern day Telenovela

possibilities are only as limited as the user’s imagination

we are living in a digitally Progressive world

shouldn’t our schools reflect that as Matt Miller from ditch that textbook

said this version of chat GPT is the weakest

most rudimentary artificial intelligence of its kind our students will ever use

if we are blocking technology in our schools that are being used in

businesses across the country and around the world we aren’t adequately preparing

our students to enter the 21st century Workforce

our students need to be trained how to interact with the world around them via

the technology at their disposal and how to do so safely

and who will teach them these skills if teachers don’t

but if we also need to give students the benefit of the doubt just like Educators

do with other classroom technology teachers can establish times to utilize

Ai and times to not when one educator gave the option for

his students to use chat GPT on an assignment

only four actually took him up on the offer

many students are just as nervous as their adult counterparts are about this

new technology they too worry about the impact that it will have on their

ability to problem solve and become functioning adults who are able to make

a positive contribution to the world in fact

there are many students who don’t know about this new technology

of course this will change in the coming months and years

but for now we have time and we need to use this time to adapt

accordingly just as the internet did before it AI is

going to weave its way into every facet of Our Lives the process is already

started we’re already carrying around little AI machines in our pockets and

purses and while Chad GPT and gpt4 are far more advanced than Siri or Alexa

they too will eventually become a staple in our everyday routines

large language model generative AI is going to change the landscape of the

world’s economy and launch us into a new era of Education

schools need to start teaching their students how to use AI safely and

effectively and teachers need to begin reevaluating and redesigning their

curriculum so that next year we’re not sitting around a table in shock as our

co-worker shares how they just caught a student cheating using whatever form of

AI is coming next thank you

[Applause]