Stop reaching for the "low hanging fruit" in education (ChatGPT)
Learning takes work, and there is no getting around that.
Here is your new teacher! Mr. ChatGPT!
Today’s post has nothing to do with Goal Setting, Prioritization, Time Management or Scripting (even though those are my favorite topics!) and I wouldn’t normally post on a Saturday, but today’s topic (ChatGPT) does need to be discussed right away and given serious consideration. And EVERYBODY is talking about it!
Several years ago, I taught chemistry in a school where the vast majority of students were new English learners. Some spoke a little while others spoke a little more. A couple were fluent. Our Regents passing rate was (overall) between 25-30%. Fairly dismal, but given the level of English fluency, it was not altogether unexpected. I taught Regents chemistry, and like math, it was a more universal subject that did require English, but much more math than some of their other classes, so I made an executive decision. Students would not be permitted to use calculators either in class or on the Regents. I did this because after meeting my students, I could see they were smart and I felt with enough hard work not having calculators would strengthen their mathematical skills sets. And I made this clear to them regularly. It worked, my class was the first class ever in the school to have a Regents passing score (for any Regents) of 100%. There was no magic or mystery. It was hard work and lots of repetition. The students (and administration) were beyond excited! So was I. Again, they did this without calculators. No technology. Hard work wins!
As a young naive high school or college student, if I were given an assignment to write an essay about “Titans vs. Olympians of Greek Mythology”, it would probably involve the following steps:
Read the assignment/prompt
Define my topic and the parameters (length, format, and level of detail)
Review class notes and texts used to date
Plan and schedule
Research the topic (library books often provide solid research material)
Come up with an introduction (and so a “lead-in”)
Draft a Thesis Statement (the most important sentence!)
Write headings for each paragraph (Introduction, 3 Body and Conclusion)
Build an outline that includes each heading
Incorporate detailed analysis and discussion under each heading
Conclusion - Summarize, make a broad point, but do not add new information
Write your essay
But times have changed. Now we have chatGPT and all levels of education are consumed with how to apply this new technology. Student-created essays (and other previously student-written assignments) are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. ChatGPT is doing the work and students are taking the credit. Instead of going through all those 12 boring steps, students can read the prompt, type in a topic with the requested length, format, and level of detail, hit Enter and voile! Instant essay! AI/ChatGPT companies even advertise essays can be made in under 10 minutes! Great, none of that boring essay writing to content with anymore!
For those who do not know, Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is free software developed to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response. It “enables users to refine and steer a conversation (or write a paper) towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language.” In other words, it takes all the work - or heavy lifting - out of thinking. Yes, it negates the need for students to think. Just what we need, right? This at a time when we are trying to hit the restart button following Covid-19 where student academics were set back 2 or 3 years! This is a time to fire up the brain’s neurons and get moving. Not hit the brakes and stop them from working. Taking away the need to go through the “time honored” steps of say, writing an essay - or thinking - is like hobbling a teenager before he or she joins the track team.
All this week I have been in education forums with teachers and principals talking about the use of ChatGPT in the classroom - or with any school work. They are absolutely giddy about the prospects! Following these discussions, I know that I will not be changing the minds of anyone who is “pro-ChatGPT”. Like politics today, it is a very polarizing discussion. I know that and it is not my desire to coerce anyone to change their minds. I am not going to debate pros and cons of the ChatGPT software, but only ask that schools consider the consequences before becoming fully invested in its classroom use. I am not throwing in the towel, but I am asking that those in charge think about what they are doing.
These discussions are reminding me of the chats (arguments) I had with math teachers about the need for students to be fast and fluent in knowing their times tables as a precursor to higher level math. Yes, I argued for them to absolutely have this skill set in their bag of tricks. My point was that in order to do higher level math, like trig and calculus, students need to be able to do quick foundational calculations that they could build on. The math teachers argued that students would always have a calculator or cell phone on them to do those calculations so they don’t need to know their times tables. It is not the same. I have actually had middle school students punch in “1x4” or “1x7” on their calculators. And I am sure some of you have seen this as well. Some of you “old-timers” might remember the anti-drug commercial that warned, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” It sure is, and if you are going into high school without knowing your times tables backward and forward, you are wasting a good chunk of that precious brain.
My first introduction to ChatGPT was when I heard that a former colleague used the software to develop his lesson plans. I had another colleague tell me she used ChatGPT to develop curriculum for the year. So we have two issues here:
the use of Artificial Intelligence to create work that we have been developing for years with our own little brains
the NEED to create new work. The new norm that teachers MUST develop NEW lesson plans as the old ones cannot just be “reused” (but that is a whole other discussion for a whole different forum)
After our 1st or 2nd year, our curriculum is pretty well set. Maybe we want to tweak it a bit from last year to include or delete something, but that just helps to keep our finger on the pulse of our work. I am sure that any ChatGPT generated program would need to be tweaked as well. So why can’t we just “tweak” our own work? Some of you might say, “But I have THREE preps this year and two of them I have never taught before. Well, how about a schoolwide “bank” of curricula in our Google Drive to be shared? These are already “school tested”! I have personally put every lesson, ppt and file from my classes onto thumb drives and just given them away to new teachers who will be teaching what I teach now. Is it just me, but are we losing the personal touch in schools (where it should be at its zenith?) I do know of teachers who have been asked for their materials from new teachers that they have honed for decades and have outright refused to give away. Really? Come on, man. Let’s bring that human touch back! And using software that does the work for students and that is all the rage? That is reaching for the low hanging fruit. Let’s challenge ourselves and reach higher where that really good fruit is just waiting to be picked!
The only way we are going to be able to see if using AI/ChatGPT is helpful is to look at the data. If the data shows that students are performing better, great! But I have my doubts. Next post? How to eliminate lateness and tardiness in classrooms and the school!
One last point. I often have “book discussions” with both my son and daughter. We usually discuss fiction, but occasionally we go into the classics, non-fiction and even historical fiction. Over the years, I have tried to have conversations with my students about these same books, but 9 out of 10 times they come up blank. Those required middle and high school books have been relegated to the short list. And it is sad because I believe that reading and then exchange ideas based on what we have read is one of the primary ways in which we grow. People haven’t changed much over the past two thousand years. We still have the same desires, vices and dreams. Now with ChatGPT that conversational gap is sure to widen. I can hear it now, “Oh yeah, I wrote an essay about Greek Mythology in high school, but don’t really remember much.” That’s because you didn’t write it Sparky, ChatGPT did.
Have a great week and thank you again for listening or reading School Goals Work! Please share with a friend or colleague!
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