Why Generative AI is Poised to Revolutionize Education Instead of Destroying It
By: Rooz Aliabadi
Shortly after its release in November 2022, ChatGPT faced criticism for enabling students to cheat on assignments effortlessly. The Los Angeles Unified School District was among the first to block access to OpenAI’s website on their network, and many other school districts worldwide soon followed suit. Several top universities also warned against using ChatGPT for cheating. New York City Department of Education emphasized that although the tool may provide speedy answers, more is needed to foster critical thinking and problem-solving abilities essential for academic and lifelong success.
The education sector’s initial response of panic was justifiable. ChatGPT, accessible to the general public through a web application, can respond to queries and generate polished, well-organized passages of text spanning several thousand words on almost any subject matter presented, whether it is quantum physics or Omar Khayyam Poetry. Each composition it produces is distinct, even if given the same prompt again, and its origin is nearly impossible to detect. This would challenge the fundamental approach to evaluating students’ learning, an essential education component.
However, after three months, the situation seems far less dire. As a member of ReadyAI, I converse with multiple teachers and educators who are presently reconsidering the implications of chatbots like ChatGPT on our teaching methods. Rather than merely a tool for dishonesty, many teachers now believe that ChatGPT could enhance Education.
Using advanced chatbots as classroom aides can revolutionize Education by enhancing interactivity during lessons, teaching media literacy, creating personalized lesson plans, streamlining administrative tasks, and more. Educational technology companies such as Duolingo and Quizlet, whose digital flashcards and practice assessments are utilized by half of all US high school students, have already integrated OpenAI’s chatbot into their applications.
When incorporating new technologies like ChatGPT, educational policy experts must determine what works best for their districts and schools. Many companies, including ReadyAI (Click here to see our recent Lesson Plan on Chat GPT), are working with educators nationwide to educate them about ChatGPT’s capabilities. These discussions are significant as they enable educators to understand AI’s potential benefits and risks and how they can apply them to their classrooms.
However, educators need sufficient time and resources to innovate in this way. Many educators are overworked, under-resourced, and constrained by strict performance metrics, making it difficult to take advantage of chatbot opportunities.
It is premature to determine the long-term impact of ChatGPT since it has been around for only part of the semester. Nevertheless, it is evident that essay-writing chatbots are here to stay, and they will continue to improve in accuracy and their ability to evade detection. Banning them is unlikely to be effective and may even be counterproductive. Instead, we must consider how we can prepare learners for a world increasingly relying on AI.
While past claims about technology’s ability to revolutionize schools may have been overstated, the potential of ChatGPT feels more significant. AI will inevitably become a part of the classroom experience, and we must ensure we get it right.
The Evolution of Education: From Traditional Teaching to AI-Powered
The hype surrounding ChatGPT was focused on its ability to excel at test-taking. OpenAI proudly showcased its latest version, GPT-4, in March, emphasizing that it could pass the bar exam, score high on the SAT, and ace various AP tests. Some school districts were alarmed by this and called for a ban on ChatGPT. However, this knee-jerk response missed the opportunity to explore the potential of this technology in the classroom.
While there is still some fear and concern around using chatbots like ChatGPT, teachers are beginning to recognize the need to educate their students on how the technology works and what it can do. Rather than vilifying the technology, they want to learn how to use it effectively.
A recent survey commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation found that over half of K-12 teachers had used ChatGPT, and the majority reported a positive impact. Both teachers and students agreed that schools could not continue to do things the old way in the modern world.
I firmly believe that ChatGPT could help improve schools by spurring necessary conversations about how we assess learning and transform Education. Instead of banning technology, we should consider throwing out outdated assignments and rethinking how we assess learning.
While there may still be some fear and uncertainty, the potential benefits of chatbots like ChatGPT in the classroom are clear. It’s time to embrace technology and explore how it can best serve the needs of students and teachers alike.
Critical Thinking and AI Thinking
I have observed changes in classroom discussions since the release of ChatGPT. Many teachers initially felt a duty to talk to their students about the technology; they now believe that ChatGPT could help teachers avoid disproportionate focus on final results. By engaging with AI and thinking critically about its outputs, teaching could become more human, allowing students to develop critical thinking skills instead of writing like robots. As outlined in Bloom’s taxonomy, chatbots could help teach skills beyond basic knowledge and understanding, such as analysis and evaluation.
Previously, teachers would assign their students writing tasks and grade them on the final text. This semester, as I talked to many teachers in the US and worldwide, they asked students to use ChatGPT to generate an idea and then annotate it based on its effectiveness for a specific audience. Students then turned in a rewrite based on their criticism, which helped them to focus on particular skills without getting sidetracked. Teachers told me that they found that utilizing ChatGPT to make a first draft assisted some students in overcoming the fear of a blank page and focusing on the critical phase of the assignment.
Many teachers are also experimenting with ChatGPT assignments and believe that teaching students how to use technology effectively is a valuable skill. We could compare the anxiety about using ChatGPT to teachers during the pandemic, who had to create assignments that were not too easy for Google. Knowing how to formulate a prompt and understand the output from ChatGPT is a crucial skill that should be taught.
A fresh approach to Education
Teachers’ roles are changing as information is no longer solely available in the classroom but online and through chatbots. Teachers must now guide students on how to find trustworthy information and distinguish it from misinformation. They act as facilitators rather than gatekeepers of knowledge.
Teachers can use chatbots’ limitations, such as bias and misinformation, to initiate valuable discussions about media literacy. For example, teachers can assign students to generate text on a topic using ChatGPT and then have them identify flaws in the generated content.
Many teachers are exploring how chatbots can enhance teaching methods. She believes that chatbots can promote interactivity in the classroom by generating counterarguments or opposing viewpoints to encourage critical thinking. Chatbots can also assist students with different learning needs, such as drafting text or paraphrasing information. For instance, if a student learns better with images, a chatbot can generate an explanation of Newton’s laws of motion featuring balls rolling on a table.
Customized Education: Tailoring Learning to Individual Needs
Personalized teaching materials benefit all students because everyone has different learning preferences. To accommodate these needs, teachers can create multiple versions of their materials. Chatbots could generate personalized content for 50 to 100 students, making customized tutoring the norm. In five years, relying on information written for someone else will feel strange.
Some ed-tech companies are already using chatbots for this purpose. For example, Quizlet recently introduced a Q-Chat feature that tailors material to each user’s needs, adjusting question difficulty based on their knowledge and learning preferences. This provides a one-on-one tutoring experience.
Some educators envision future textbooks bundled with chatbots trained on their content. Students could converse with the bot about the material and receive personalized quizzes to improve their understanding.
However, there are concerns. Some of the teachers I spoke with and their students developed guidelines for using ChatGPT together, but success is not guaranteed. Students need support to ensure that ChatGPT promotes learning and is not a crutch. Some students may still use it to cheat, making cheating more accessible. ChatGPT is particularly effective at summarizing information, posing a challenge for assignments with that goal.
None of the educators have a straightforward solution to cheating, but they are not overly worried. Cheating is not a new problem, and teachers have adapted to changes in technology before. Implementing chatbots is a unique experiment, and teachers need support to navigate it. Let’s further avoid impulsive judgments and explore ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.
This Chat GPT Lesson Plan and others are available FREE to all educators at edu.readyai.org
This article was written by Rooz Aliabadi (rooz@readyai.org). Rooz is the CEO (Chief Troublemaker) at ReadyAI.org
To learn more about ReadyAI, visit www.readyai.org or email us at info@readyai.org.
