I recently hosted a job-alike for media specialists in my region. Our knowledgeable technology director offered to teach us all a little more about the website called ChatGPT. If you haven't heard of ChatGPT, it's artificial intelligence that acts in a conversational way. When you type in a question you want answered, it will create a response. If the response isn't quit as specific or clear as you want, you can modify it's search. Essentially, the system responds to your requests and keeps searching until it gives you what you are looking for. It can create emails, letters of recommendation, short essays, poetry, songs, and respond to questions (much like Google).
Educators have not hidden their concerns over students using the site to cheat. Many have declared the site should be banned in schools. Can kids cheat using ChatGPT? Sure they can. But they can also use Google and calculators to cheat. Should we ban those, too? Instead of banning it, I suggest we use it as a teaching tool. Teaching students how to use technology appropriately, provides them a sense of security, understanding, and trust.
#1 Use it to brainstorm and gather ideas.
Have you ever heard a student say, "I don't know what to write about?" In conjunction with books and peer discussions, ChatGPT can be used as an idea generator for writing stories, poems, or songs. Students can type something like, "A fictional narrative about a bird" into ChatGPT, and the system will deliver a fictional story about a bird. Students can read the story, discuss with a peer, and decide what they like and what they would change. They can use the ideas they discussed with the example ChatGPT offered to revise their search. When teaching students how to use ChatGPT to brainstorm, allow them time to revise their search several times. After they've learned how to use it to gather ideas, you might consider limiting their ChatGPT search to 2 or 3 times. Using ChatGPT in this way, provides students a tool that can be used to alleviate stress and anxiety over getting started on an assignment.
#2 Use what it offers as a model to discuss and analyze.
First, use it as a model yourself. Type into the search what you want to see. Be as specific as possible. How closely did it reveal your desired expectation? Using what ChatGPT offers can be used as a teaching model. For example, if students are learning how to write an argumentative essay, they can type what they want to see into the system. Using what they have learned (and a rubric), students can analyze the work ChatGPT provided to determine proficiency. With the whole group, you can use the system to develop examples of quality work, discuss what makes the examples excellent, and determine how the exemplars can be used to develop individual work. Taken a step further, students can work with peers to have ChatGPT provide models of levels of work: excellent, proficient, and various levels of needs improvement. Using ChatGPT to develop examples, requires students use higher order thinking skills to discuss, analyze, and interpret understanding.
#3 Fact Checking
Students are learning content in all classrooms, every day. They are reading, listening, watching videos, engaging in inquiry, discussing, and writing about what they are learning in various ways. ChatGPT can be used as a tool to check facts against resources students are using in the classroom. This process can support understanding the relevance and implications for reliable sources. When strategically and purposefully implemented as part of the research process, students can use ChatGPT to determine their level of understanding. Students can discuss and decide what is fact and opinion, as well as what is real and what is fake.
Try It Out
It's normal to be concerned when we hear about something new that could potentially make the job of teaching harder. ChatGPT can be used to support teaching and learning, not make it harder. My recommendation is to first try it yourself and with colleagues. Brainstorm ideas about how and when it can be implemented in the classroom. Artificial intelligence isn't going away. With a little imagination and flexibility, we can learn to see its place in the classroom.
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