As technology has improved over the years, its usage in classroom settings has become more prevalent. For example, a technological advancement we’ve seen used more and more in today’s age is machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). AI constantly improves as time goes by.
There have been several applications and services developed within the past decade. One such service is “ChatGPT.” ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. It’s an online learning tool where you can input a prompt, and it responds, trying to come up with a set of ideas, answers, or categories related to what you want. ChatGPT uses AI to find things around the web, and constantly adapts its responses to better fit a desired result.
Many schools most likely see ChatGPT as a problem, in that students will likely use AI to finish essays, solve math problems, and even create school projects. Should this be the case, and students become over-reliant upon such tools, student learning would be negatively impacted, or at least that is what schools believe.
In response, schools have been blocking ChatGPT and AI tools from computers, and use other types of websites like Turnitin.com to crack down on students using AI technology to write essays.
On the other hand, some students could argue that tools like ChatGPT are beneficial. The conflict between AI writing is very spilt with lots of mixed opinions. In order to get a better understanding of whether or not AI should have a place in a classroom setting, I interviewed several teachers and students to see what they had to say on this topic.
Out of the several students I interviewed who wanted to keep their names anonymous, most said they use ChatGPT to cheat.
Other reasons students used AI was for missing work. “It’s a good tool to use when you need help with classwork, I used it to help me with missing assignments,” said an 11th grader.
AI is also commonly used for other things like advice and translation. “I like the idea of it since I have a friend who doesn’t know English and uses ChatGPT for translation so, its very helpful in the right hands,” said another 11th grader.
Students find AI very useful however, teachers claim that students are abusing the system and using ChatGPT with different goals in mind.
Here’s what the teachers had to say:
“I see the importance of AI, But I feel like we won’t be able to ban it entirely. I think we are going to have to work with it eventually,” said Ms. Castillo, an English teacher.
Another English teacher, Mr. Khanzadeh said, “I think it’s very dangerous and it can be very useful but threatens the capability of human beings.”
Finally, Ms. Murray, who also teaches English said, “I don’t think we should have ChatGPT because we don’t have enough information about what it’s for and it’s mostly used for cheating.”
In conclusion, AI can be used for a lot of things. It plays an important role in school and we are still learning how to use it in education and other work places. Overall, it can create biased responses and inaccurate information based on what several staff and students say. Hopefully we can find a better way to work with ChatGPT in the future.
