AI in the Classroom: Opportunities and Challenges
I was sitting next to a classmate one day when I saw her try to summarize an article using OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It was a relatively new article and had not been incorporated into ChatGPT’s vast knowledge yet. Instead of telling my classmate it did not know how to summarize that article, ChatGPT gave her a summary of a similar article. Its answer was very confident, and my classmate was ready to believe it. This is an example of one of the problems AI presents in the classroom. Yet, AI has massive potential to be a resource to both students and educators. This technology will vastly change the educational landscape, and we have to be ready for it.
A quick social experiment
In my English class, I proposed a social experiment to my teacher to see how good of a writer ChatGPT is. I submitted two essays for my assignment. One written by me and one written completely by AI. My teacher had some feedback on the AI essay. Firstly, she said that it was very prosaic and machine-like. It lacked a distinct style. It wrote about some topics that we have never discussed in class, which was a clear red flag for my teacher. The AI did not use a diverse range of transitional phrases. It repeated “this” or “this shows” consistently throughout the essay. It also had a few punctuational errors. Overall, the AI essay was a good draft, but it would not earn me a high grade. My takeaway from this experiment is that AI can write a decent first draft, but needs a healthy dose of editing for it to be ready for your deadline.
You can view the essay that ChatGPT wrote here.
Teachers need to be vigilant
As we have seen, AI can be used to write a pretty convincing essay. This warrants some caution from educators. There are some tools to detect the use of AI in writing, such as GPTZero. But, teaching responsible use of AI for class and incorporating it into the curriculum are two ways that teachers can mitigate some of the adverse effects of AI use by students more effectively. AI will be the future of how we interact with the internet and how we do certain tasks. Teachers need to prepare students to use this rapidly evolving technology so that students can be ready for what the future holds.
Opportunities for students
I see the value of AI writing in a couple of different areas. Firstly, research. Although all information that an AI like ChatGPT provides should be verified, it is a very helpful tool. It can perform research that would normally take a student hours to do in a couple of seconds. It can write summaries, bullet points, and talking points on nearly any topic. Now, AI like Microsoft’s Bing can search the web for even more accuracy. Next is writing a first draft of an essay. Say you are writing an essay for a class on a topic you’re not very knowledgeable about. You can use an AI to write a pretty good first draft and edit it from there. You should never use Artificial Intelligence to engage in plagiarism or academic dishonesty in any way, but it can give you a pretty good idea of where to go from that draft. Finally, AI provides exciting opportunities for social media content creation. AI like Tribescaler can generate tweets, hooks for your captions, and LinkedIn carousels. Being a student is hard enough, and using these tools can help you more efficiently complete your tasks.
Conclusion
There are benefits and drawbacks to using Artificial Intelligence in education for both students and teachers. When used responsibly, AI can significantly help students more efficiently complete their tasks. Educators should adopt strategies and curricula that teach students how to use this technology as part of their class to provide the requisite skills necessary for this rapidly developing technology. AI will be the future, and both students and educators need to be well-versed in how to use this technology for success.