Ban on ChatGPT in Schools Shortsighted

No sooner than ChatGPT started making headlines, a handful of public schools quickly responded by banning its use by students.?Some academics welcomed these bans, likely due to relief that their jobs were secure for the time being. However, those who are open to new ideas and understand the disruptive nature of technology simply shrugged and continued to ask ChatGPT challenging questions to push its capabilities.

“One who laughs last, laughs best!” - fortune cookie

The reality is that responsible usage of effective technology always prevails, and always will. This is evidenced by technologies now vital to education, that were also once banned.

• Calculators were banned because students were required to demonstrate their mathematical abilities through manual calculations, even beyond mastery of such.
• Laptops were initially banned due to concerns that such devices would be a distraction to the learning process.
• The use of online references were once restricted because everything on the internet was once considered an unreliable sources of information.

So, instead of implementing bans without even knowing what’s being banned, educators and administrators would better serve students (and themselves) by seeking a deeper understanding of how technologies like ChatGPT can be used to improve the learning experience.?We should be leaning into our responsibility to teach students how to get the most out of AI.?Perhaps start by educating our teachers on how to leverage AI to assist with lightening their burdensome workloads. ?

When people have effective tools at their disposal to problem solve, to distinguish important questions from unimportant ones, and to find quality and timely answers; everyone wins. So, let us not demonize certain sources of our wisdom, but rather celebrate that we continue to create new ways to acquire more of it.?