Should we let students use ChatGPT? | Natasha Berg | TEDxSioux Falls

foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this past December I was sitting around a table having lunch with some English teachers when one of them started sharing how she had recently caught a student cheating on an essay using this new form of artificial intelligence called chat GPT she watched in awe astonishment and a bit of mild horror as this program constructed an entire essay for the student with a click of a button the initial reaction around the table was disbelief there's no way that AI can write a quality essay naturally curious I whipped out my laptop to test

it out all of us watched in shock as this AI program constructed a well-written analysis essay right before our eyes in a matter of seconds if you've ever wondered how to induce an immediate existential crisis amongst a group of English teachers yeah that's how while there are dozens of text generative AI programs out there open ai's chat GPT which was released to the public this past November is the most well known since its release chat GPT has been featured on almost every major news station and even made it to the cover of Time magazine in

February this program caught the World by storm because it was 10 times smarter than the version that had come before it chat GPT is what is known as a large language model which is essentially a network of neural pathway connections that allows the program to learn and become more accurate in its responses over time when I asked chat GPT what it wanted the world to know about its capabilities it responded I can provide information on a wide range of topics and understand and respond to natural language I can also generate creative and personalized responses and

learn from my interactions to improve my language processing capabilities over time oh is that all right after its public emergence companies and people around the world began harnessing the immense power of this technology doctors have used it to help diagnose patients businesses began using it to create advertisements and blog posts and Joe schmoe has been using it to help him write all those pesky thank you cards from his wedding 14 months ago and all of this is being done with the click of a button common applications like Snapchat instacart Duolingo and Quizlet have also begun

to integrate this technology into their platforms and then openai released gpt4 in March which is the newest version of the system that powers chat GPT gpt4 unlike chat GPT can also analyze images and web links instead of being restricted to text input only Microsoft began using gbt4 to power their search engine Bing they also have plans to integrate gpt4 with the Microsoft Office Suite products soon you'll be able to turn your boss's 20-page email into a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation with a single click a couple of weeks after Microsoft released their new search engine Google released

their AI system bard and I'm sure it's only a matter of time until we see artificial intelligence Incorporated with the Google Suite products as well the tech world has entered an AI arms race but with such an explosive advancement in technology seemingly overnight Educators across the globe have entered a state of panic of course there are the typical concerns about AI taking over the world courtesy of too many movies and TV shows like Terminator and Westworld but for educators the concern lies more with their students post-pandemic Educators have noticed severe declines in students ability to

think critically and problem solve at the most basic levels but now with AI able to do the thinking for them educators are Awash in worry not merely for their jobs but for the development of their students but as author and writing instructor John Warner points out the reason the appearance of this Tech is so shocking is because it forces us to confront what we value rather than letting the status quo churn along unexamined there is no doubt that AI is going to transform the landscape of Education as we know it after all we've seen this

type of transformation before and for most of us it happened within our lifetimes the widespread proliferation of the internet just a few decades ago completely transformed how schools and our global economy functioned isn't it safe to assume that a new technological leap might do the same hard work of this leap is going to fall to educators generative AI systems will force Educators and educational institutions to re-evaluate what they teach and why and how they teach it do students really need to know how to write a five paragraph rigorously structured essay or do they need to

understand how to approach a concept break it down and organize it into bite-sized pieces since the dawn of time teachers have been posed to question by students when will I use this in real life well now is the time to come up with a concrete answer to that question because the truth is many of the assignments given in the classroom really don't prepare students for real life when are students going to need to know how to diagram a compound complex sentence unless you end up an English teacher Chances Are Never if students feel as though

what they are learning in the classroom will benefit them in the long run they will become invested in the learning and won't be looking for shortcuts to Simply get the work done but instead of embracing and learning from this new technology many schools across the country responded to the public release of chat GPT by immediately blocking it and other AI applications on all School sanctioned devices but is it beneficial to restrict student use of a technology that businesses around the world are using or should we instead teach our students how to interact with AI safely

and productively anyone that has been around teenagers for any length of time understands All Too Well the implications of reverse psychology even adults fall prey to this trap if I tell you not to think of an elephant like whatever you do don't think about an elephant yeah we're all thinking about an elephant right now if you tell a teacher a teenager not to do something you can bet they'll be itching to try it out as soon as your back is turned blocking chat GPT and similar AI applications won't work it will only make the programs

more intriguing for students who wouldn't want to explore the secrets this technology holds that has caused such an adverse reaction amongst their teachers plus we can't control what students do outside of their classrooms and school buildings it's all too easy for students to pull up this program on their phone when they go to the bathroom or simply access it on a different device when they're completing their schoolwork at home and once Microsoft and Google integrate this technology into their office suite products unless we want to regress to the pre-internet age of paper and pencil we

won't be able to avoid AI in the classroom we will never be able to truly and fully block it instead we have to find ways to work with and around it in order to implement effective use of AI in the classroom teachers may need to re-evaluate how they are teaching the material and assessing student learning What If instead of assigning worksheets and essays we encouraged more collaboration in the classroom project-based and student directive learning have always been my go-to's as an educator as an English teacher my students were constantly creating posters and participating in debates

in order to analyze various aspects of literary work they would work on group projects and presentations as their end of unit assessment and we would use gameplay to review material such as participating in an escape room or a competitive game of Jeopardy even if my students were able to access AI in my classroom it wouldn't have provided them with much help beyond the ability to be a sounding board for their ideas and what would be so wrong with that I think most Educators would agree that the goal of education is to help our students learn

how to think critically and problem solve AI technology can be incorporated into the classroom in ways that actually engage students in critical thinking math students could create their own math problems and then use AI to test the results social studies students could use chat GPT to write alternative realities to history and then discuss the results as a class science students could use the chat bot to adopt the voice of a famous scientist and then engage in a stimulating conversation about their discoveries students can also utilize AI to help edit their Writing Practice vocabulary terms provide

individualized tutoring and edit their ideas and research and these are just a few of the unlimited applications from the student perspective but it also has abilities that can benefit teachers almost immediately after my school blocked AI on all of our student devices my co-workers began using it to help them do their jobs more effectively they use chat GPT to write lesson plans come up with discussion prompts and create tests and quizzes and I actually used it to help me write a final exam for my students a process that normally takes me hours took only 30

minutes with the assistance of AI not only does AI have the ability to Save hours of preparation time for teachers but it can also take a piece of writing and adapt it in any way the user asks which can help make learning and reading more accessible to students of all abilities for example we could ask chat GPT to take a complex text and transform it into something a fourth grader could read or we could have it transform Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into a modern day Telenovela possibilities are only as limited as the user's imagination we

are living in a digitally Progressive world shouldn't our schools reflect that as Matt Miller from ditch that textbook said this version of chat GPT is the weakest most rudimentary artificial intelligence of its kind our students will ever use if we are blocking technology in our schools that are being used in businesses across the country and around the world we aren't adequately preparing our students to enter the 21st century Workforce our students need to be trained how to interact with the world around them via the technology at their disposal and how to do so safely and

who will teach them these skills if teachers don't but if we also need to give students the benefit of the doubt just like Educators do with other classroom technology teachers can establish times to utilize Ai and times to not when one educator gave the option for his students to use chat GPT on an assignment only four actually took him up on the offer many students are just as nervous as their adult counterparts are about this new technology they too worry about the impact that it will have on their ability to problem solve and become functioning

adults who are able to make a positive contribution to the world in fact there are many students who don't know about this new technology of course this will change in the coming months and years but for now we have time and we need to use this time to adapt accordingly just as the internet did before it AI is going to weave its way into every facet of Our Lives the process is already started we're already carrying around little AI machines in our pockets and purses and while Chad GPT and gpt4 are far more advanced than

Siri or Alexa they too will eventually become a staple in our everyday routines large language model generative AI is going to change the landscape of the world's economy and launch us into a new era of Education schools need to start teaching their students how to use AI safely and effectively and teachers need to begin reevaluating and redesigning their curriculum so that next year we're not sitting around a table in shock as our co-worker shares how they just caught a student cheating using whatever form of AI is coming next thank you [Applause]