Into the wild: Teachers as guides in the uncharted territory of AI
To be honest, I really didn’t know anything about ChatGPT until I read an article in the New York Times last January announcing that NYC Public Schools had banned the chatbot on all school networks and devices. I’m like, damn, what is this thing and why don’t I know about it? And, if its so powerful—and so perilous—to education that the largest school system in America felt like it had to shut it down, I really need to learn more about it. So, a few days later, I logged onto Open AI and started experimenting.
After playing around for a couple of weeks and asking simple questions and receiving startlingly quick and seemingly accurate responses, I went back to some of my recently-posted blogs and asked ChatGPT my central questions: How can I teach my high school students to be better critical thinkers? How is public education conflated with scarcity mindset? How do I help my high school athletes cultivate joy and internalize their love of sports for a lifetime?
What I discovered is that ChatGPT is profoundly good at providing an instant and fundamentally sound—albeit rudimentary—short textual response, which captures and numbers the most salient elements of each issue I asked it about. I was slightly shocked and a little humbled to see that these responses included most all of the points that it had taken me hours and sometimes days to think about and research and write about. And, on more than one occasion during my little experiment, I found that the ChatGPT response actually included an idea or two that I had overlooked completely.
In short, I found ChatGPT to be consistently adept at providing me what I call the basic shape of a conversation—what other writers and researchers before me have published about a topic. And the fact that it does this at lightening speed is a revelation in itself. What it doesn’t do, of course, is provide substantive references to those writers and researchers, so if I am going to use those ideas in any kind of formal academic way—or even in my more casual blog kind of way—I have to find out more; ie, I have to do the research.
One of my mentors in grad school always said that before you attack a research question in academia or any kind of writing situation, you should understand that there’s probably already a conversation about your question. Your job as a writer/researcher is to understand the main points of the existing conversation so that you can use that as your starting point. And this, I think, is exactly how ChatGPT—and whatever AI tools might come next—can be useful, not only to me as a teacher and a writer, but also to my high school students. If used with integrity and critical awareness, AI can enable students to quickly ascertain the salient elements of an issue, so that they can enter the conversation with the background information they need to understand more deeply and write more meaningfully about a topic.
So the question then becomes: How do we help high school students navigate this uncharted territory, or more specifically, how do we guide high school students to utilize AI tools, like ChatGPT, with discernment and integrity? Naturally, I turned to the experts and typed this very question into ChatGPT. This was the response:
Helping student writers utilize AI with integrity involves guiding them to understand the ethical considerations, responsible use, and potential pitfalls associated with AI-powered writing tools. Here are some suggestions to support your students in this process:
Educate on AI limitations: Explain the capabilities and limitations of AI writing tools. Emphasize that these tools are designed to assist, not replace, human creativity and critical thinking. Encourage students to view AI as a tool for generating ideas, improving grammar, or suggesting edits rather than relying solely on it for content creation.
Teach critical thinking skills: Emphasize the importance of critical thinking and the need for students to evaluate and analyze the AI-generated content. Encourage them to question the accuracy, bias, and appropriateness of the suggestions made by AI tools. Promote a mindset of skepticism and independent thought when using AI-generated content.
Discuss ethical considerations: Engage students in discussions about the ethical implications of AI in writing. Talk about plagiarism, copyright infringement, and academic integrity concerns related to using AI tools. Encourage them to understand the importance of giving proper credit, citing sources, and using AI as a complementary tool rather than a substitute for their own original work.
Promote responsible use: Instruct students on the responsible use of AI writing tools. Teach them to use these tools as aids for learning and improving their writing skills, rather than relying on them exclusively. Encourage them to maintain control over the final output and take responsibility for the content they produce, ensuring it reflects their own voice and ideas.
Foster creativity and originality: Encourage students to develop their own unique writing style and voice. Emphasize the value of originality and creativity in their work. Guide them to use AI tools as inspiration rather than a crutch, and to actively engage in the writing process to produce content that is genuinely theirs.
Teach proper citation and attribution: Provide clear guidelines on citing and attributing AI-generated content or ideas. Teach students how to differentiate between their original work and AI-generated suggestions. Emphasize the importance of acknowledging the contribution of AI tools when applicable, similar to citing other sources.
Stay up-to-date with AI advancements: Encourage students to stay informed about the latest developments in AI technology and its impact on writing. Discuss emerging ethical issues and guide them in navigating the changing landscape of AI tools.
Provide real-world examples: Share real-world examples of AI-related controversies or misuse. Discuss cases where AI-generated content has caused harm, spread misinformation, or violated ethical guidelines. By examining these examples, students can understand the potential consequences and make more informed decisions.
As you can see, this answer is a pretty good starting point for a conversation about this topic and although the ChatGPT response is generated by a non-thinking bot, it actually gave me quite a lot to think about. The overarching theme in the response seems to be that we, as educators, can not simply allow our students unfettered access to this technology and assume they can navigate it ethically. Instead, we should introduce the technology as a tool which has a number of incredible possibilities, but also a number of distinct pitfalls. How we do this is complex and nuanced, but the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that we don’t just ignore it—or worse, try to eliminate it. (And I guess this is a good time to mention that NYC Public Schools reversed its ban a few weeks ago.) Instead, I think we introduce AI as a starting point.
Two weeks ago, I did a short unit on AI with my 12th grade students. After they explained what they already knew about AI in a ChatGPT-created survey I gave them on this very topic, I assigned an informational slide presentation on the uses of AI in various industries. I heard audible gasps in my classroom when I urged my students to create an account on Open AI and then invited them to use the information they gleaned from ChatGPT as a starting point and outline for their presentations. They were then required to find and reference at least three additional sources to substantiate and illustrate their claims. As they were working on their projects in small groups, I asked them to cut and paste the responses from ChatGPT into a separate document, so that I could see those responses and have individual real-time conversations with each group about how best to use this information effectively and ethically. Naturally, I emphasized the importance of creativity and critical thinking and then I tried to be crystal clear about how to properly cite other people’s work and avoid plagiarism.
What I found was that my students were highly engaged in the research aspect of this project and in the conversations about how to turn this research into a credible and ethical project, ie, one that wouldn’t get them in trouble for plagiarizing. Although I wouldn’t classify their finished projects as brilliant (It is May, after all and they are seniors in high school, only a few weeks from graduation.) I would say that we were able to accomplish a lot in a short time and that the ideas they gleaned from ChatGPT helped my students to feel confident about their understanding of the topic and in their research about it. Not surprising to me was that this confidence seemed to lead to increased curiosity about their topic and more diligence—rather than laziness—about learning more.
Clearly there are so many more things to talk about here and obviously there are big picture issues that go far beyond the scope of my little conversation. As far as education goes, though, my simple take-away at this early juncture: AI is a wild new place with endless possibilities and a number of distinct perils. Students definitely need help navigating the trail and if teachers want to be effective guides, we need to approach this work with open minds and adventurous spirits.
Luckily, I think I know just the place to start.
