ChatGPT - TO BOLDY GO FORWARD OR DUCK FOR COVER

ChatGPT has been met by some in the Educational community with amazement and consideration of splendid possibilities, but mostly with Trepidation. It is thought to be 'THE End of English as we Know it', 'THE End of Trust and 'THE Biggest Threat to Education we have Ever Seen.'

Even?Stephen Hawking has warned that AI could “spell the end of the human race.”

So the choice is - TO BOLDY GO FORWARD OR DUCK FOR COVER.?

If preparing our students for their future is a real objective in?education, ignoring AI tools is not an option. And YET the NSW Education Department is choosing to Duck for Cover .........

"The state’s public school children will be the first in Australia to be banned from accessing the powerful artificial intelligence robot ChatGPT in the classroom after the NSW Department of Education put the controversial technology behind a firewall."??https://amp.smh.com.au/national/nsw/can-you-tell-between-a-year-6-student-and-ai-teachers-say-they-can-20230120-p5ce5s.html

What are the fears???

1. Cheating

2. Extra work - the need to rethink how assignments will be set and assessed.

3. Grading will be impossible

4. Reinvention of instruction

5. Reinvention of learning

6. Teachers will be replaced. Yes, that old chestnut again.

etc.......................

It's not the first time that new technology has been met?with fear and well, BANNING.

What do you think caused these ailments??

Go on, guess before you scroll down for the answer.

* ".....bad eyesight, poor posture, incomprehensible babblings, addled wits, depravity and worse..."

And this one

** .... will implant forgetfulness in their souls [and] they will cease to exercise memory..."

The answers are at the bottom of this article.

So - how would I start to use the ChatGPT tool?

Discuss it with the kids, and use it as a learning tool, develop some ground rules.

Develop critical thinking and research skills to confirm or disprove ChatGPT responses.

Develop questioning that elicits great responses.

Set a ChatGPT assignment on say, Goldrush or the metaphors used in Shakespeare's Macbeth, or the evolution of Trilobites (I find Trilobites fascinating?being a Geologist at heart ).?

ChatGPT will provide a well-written response with correct grammar and spelling, great for modelling writing and setting a great standard.

They need to assess its accuracy by cross-referencing the conclusions.?

Here's a starting point:-

1. Did they ask great questions and set the parameters for the response so that they gained the best answers? (I would like to see and discuss their questions and responses and discuss the effectiveness of these).

2. Did they have any following prompts or questions that deepened the responses into areas of their own interest?

3. How many cross-references - google searches and books did they use to confirm or invalidate the responses??

4. Without reference to ChatGPT - resourcing their memory of its responses and their research, write a reflection on the topic in class in 30 mins.?Flow Writing is great for this

You might also like to check out:

Larry Ferlazzo's recent article on?19 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Your Classroom?

I think it offers so many possibilities and as a tamed asset, it can be quite splendidly remarkable.

Keep scrolling down.

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let me know if you guessed them........

* "the bad eyesight, poor posture, incomprehensible babblings, addled wits, depravity and worse that may befall those who immerse themselves too much in books."

Roy Porter | Published in History Today Volume 48 Issue 3 March 1998

** writing 'will implant forgetfulness in their souls [and] they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written'. Knowledge may thus wax, but wisdom will wane. Writing, moreover, is a deceiver; as the reading habit grows, love of the real atrophies.?

Plato's?Phaedrus