Let’s Talk! An Exploration on ChatGPT and Its Implications on Education

So we can ask chatGPT for something simple like a recipe… but can it be creative, or at least fake creativity? How about if we ask it to write a poem? I asked it the following question:

Let’s have it write a poem!

Once again, in mere seconds, it produced a very usable poem:

I would call this poem a success!

The interesting thing about this is that any number of us sitting around a table could ask the same question and would receive a different variation of this poem. ChatGPT is not finding content on the Internet and simply returning the result. It’s not returning someone else’s work. This is actually a unique poem created on the spot. That starts to move the needle when thinking about the implications on our classrooms.

More examples to come later!

Let’s quickly review our progress: ChatGPT has demonstrated it can find basic information and that we can interact with said information. We can have a “back and forth”… dare I say a conversation… with the responses. We’ve also seen its ability to be fairly creative. Let’s keep going and see what it can do next.

What if we offer it an essay question? I approached when one of district’s history teachers and asked for her latest essay assignment for her students. She wanted her students to write about the Boston Massacre. Specifically:

Write an argumentative essay on the Boston Massacre from the British perspective.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it was able to generate a response. In fact, the teacher found the response to be on par with what she expected from her students:

ChatGPT’s original essay on the Boston Massacre from the British perspective.

But what if we wanted this at a higher reading level… or with more detail? Let’s push it by interacting and asking specifically for that and see what it can do:

While this may not be perfect, I would argue it is impressive and provides enough of a start that students would not have to take it much further… of course depending on any other requirements set forth by the teacher.

Keep in mind, this is original work. ChatGPT did not go out to the Internet and find an essay and return it as a search result. ChatGPT literally wrote this on the spot. If you were to ask it the same prompt, there’s a very good chance you would get slightly different language on the same topic. I personally have not submitted this to a plagiarism checker, but I have seen other reports that suggest pieces generated by chatGPT pass the test.

So this now definitely moves the needs on implications for education.

More examples later!

We’ve looked at AI’s ability to assist with recipes. We learned it can write poetry. It can even write essays. We can interact with the results and get human-like responses. How about programming? To what degree can it do that?

Below is a very basic request from the tool. I asked it to assist with writing an app in SwiftUI that allowed me to snap a photo and immediately share it via AirDrop. It offered up the code then explained how some of the functions worked. I copied the code into Swift Playgrounds on my iPad, and sure enough, the app worked. I want to reiterate, however, that this was a very basic ask and it is also important to note I am not a programmer… so I can’t vouch for the efficiency of the code. All I know is it worked.

I don’t know about you, but I think this is pretty amazing. I’m not quite sure what to make of this yet, but wanted to get this out there so that it can be discussed.

This is very helpful @millerbp and I appreciate you documenting a few different directions and starting this conversation. I'm fascinated with the iterative value of Machine Learning and so I took your prompt just over 2 weeks later, not only is it different, but I think it's better.

Certainly! Here is an argumentative essay on the Boston Massacre from the British perspective:

On March 5, 1770, a group of colonists in Boston, Massachusetts confronted a squad of British soldiers, leading to a confrontation that would come to be known as the Boston Massacre. The event has been portrayed by many historians as a clear-cut case of British oppression, with the soldiers being depicted as cold-blooded killers who fired upon innocent civilians without provocation. However, a closer examination of the circumstances surrounding the event reveals a more complex and nuanced picture. From the British perspective, the soldiers were acting in self-defense against a mob of angry colonists who were threatening their lives.

To begin with, it is important to recognize the context in which the Boston Massacre took place. At the time, tensions between the colonies and Great Britain were running high due to a variety of issues, including the imposition of taxes on the colonies without their representation in Parliament. In Boston, these tensions had been exacerbated by the presence of a large garrison of British troops, who were viewed by many colonists as an occupying force. This climate of animosity and mistrust made it more likely that any encounter between colonists and soldiers would turn violent.

On the night of the Boston Massacre, a group of colonists confronted a squad of British soldiers who were guarding the Customs House. According to eyewitness accounts, the colonists taunted and jeered at the soldiers, throwing snowballs and other objects at them. Some accounts even suggest that the colonists were armed with clubs and other weapons. Faced with this hostile and threatening mob, it is not surprising that the soldiers felt threatened and decided to defend themselves.

Furthermore, the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre were acting under orders from their superiors, who had instructed them to use whatever force was necessary to maintain order and protect government property. In the face of a violent and threatening mob, it is not unreasonable to assume that the soldiers would have felt justified in using their weapons to protect themselves.

In conclusion, while the Boston Massacre is often depicted as a clear-cut case of British aggression and oppression, a more nuanced and balanced view of the event reveals that the soldiers were acting in self-defense against a hostile and threatening mob. It is important to recognize the complex circumstances surrounding the event, rather than simply portraying it as a one-sided act of brutality.

I'm also interested in the creative potential this will unlock for students, but not in the traditional sense, but rather a complete rethinking of our educational system, priorities and goals. We as educators have a phenomenal opportunity to lead this conversation as we have the best insight, motivation and access to shape changes. No one has the answers but with this level of disruption, there will be plenty of people wanting to fill the vacuum with either status quo or self-serving solutions.

Please continue to add more resources to this thread and I will do the same.

Now that’s interesting! One question I have had is whether ChatGPT is “locked” in terms of its growth or if it continues to learn based off feedback. Your experience may support the latter.

Forgive my experimentation and brain wanderings, but my goal is to look at this from an educationally supportive standpoint and not as a detriment, as it’s so easy to take the pessimistic route.

This is something I have put together over the last few days. I don’t normally share my own brainstorms in a public place, but hey, what the heck. If nothing else, hopefully it will serve as a springboard into better thinking than what I have to offer!

Thank you for sharing your thinking. This is a really important part of developing ideas, thought processes and conclusions about how ChatGPT might impact the classroom. I am assuming you also made one for how it might negatively impact the classroom?

I'm a bit obsessed with this whole discussion at the moment! I've been particularly interested in its links to creativity and skills development.

I wrote a Twitter thread last week about it with some suggestions and things I've been playing around with - it's unrolled here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1603404610797830144.html

I love the idea of it being a collaborator for creative writing and design projects... so I got it to brainstorm ideas for names for places or objects, create writing models for me to edit and also got Midjourney to create visuals of some story elements to help to bring it to life. I also tried to get ChatGPT to coach me on skills development, which worked quite well.

I think all school leaders need to have BIG discussions about this now and decide how they're going to approach it and embrace the opportunities it gives us. I'm worried it'll scare a lot of people off technology completely and that we'll see a big rise in paper-based, exam-only assessments.

Fascinating use cases and examples! Thank you for sharing!

Our discussions at the district office have been wide ranging in terms of how our students might use it and whether we should close it down. We wrestle constantly with this and have not found a clear cut direction. I’ve heard the paper-based solution be mentioned a handful of times as well. I hate to say it, but for the amount of time I’ve spent thinking about this tool, I sure haven’t made much progress!

Thanks for your posts on AI, although it is really machine learning.

Recent developments see many Education authorities banning the use of the technology.

A recent policy document may assist anyone involved with dealing with the teaching and learning opportunities created by the arrival of low cost machine learning.

[over 3 billion data entries, though mostly US based, have been analysed and patterns identified to allow synthesis of 'plausible' responses to questions in a conversational format. Text to voice has allowed

AI and education: guidance for policy-makers - A UNESCO publication

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000376709?fbclid=IwAR0mQClsa5sT1wZdXZcIClvw0WaRM50W5izrFWDt8m3EVdxoXl5m0gYxVJo

Remember - the genie is out of the bottle. And won't be put back in - LOL!

So, "How do we teach writing that can leverage this tool we are learning about?" is the real question here. People need to know how to write well and tell something is written well (with factual information).

Maybe that is what we should ask ChatGPT ;)

Thoughts about that?

Also, there is an age limit in the Terms of Use and accounts should not be created if someone is not of age. (I purposely left that for you to find out.) How do we educate about that? And how do we teach ChatGPT if you cannot technically create an account? OK, this isn't REALLY going to happen - Kids will create accounts and use it. But, again, how do you teach about its proper use while you set an example and support the Terms of Service and students are not to have accounts? Just sayin' ;)

Thoughts about that?