ChatGPT - How are you and your students using AI?

Hi everyone,

I've been really engaged in the discussion around ChatGPT in education, particularly on Twitter, over the last couple of months. With the constant updates and development of AI, I thought it might be interesting to hear how others are using it either as teachers or with students. As a secondary teacher I'm constantly learning new ways of how it can be used, and I'm challenging myself to come up with ideas for how it can engage learning for my students.

So far these are my ideas, I'd love to hear yours:

  • I had it generate study schedules for students targeted at different abilities / age levels by providing it with entire syllabuses and guidelines.
  • I've had it generate stimulus for creative writing
  • I've asked it to find historical sources which it still struggles with in terms of accuracy, but this allows for the opportunity for students to see the inaccuracies, explain why they aren't correct and then work to fix them.
  • I've used it to generate questions based on a written tasks I've given it.
  • I've created 'bump-up' tasks where I've written a model text and then I've given ChatGPT the marking rubric and my response and asked it to re-write it as a 6/10 and then 3/10 response which was really interesting.
  • I've had students ask it to generate questions for them to reflect on a lesson as well as revision question for them as part of their study.

I like how it can be refined like "use the language of a high school student" or create a goal for a student who is struggling with a particular skill...

I know there are challenges and this is something we need to address, but I'd really like to hear how you've seen it add to your students' learning.

9 replies

March 17, 2023

Thanks for your ideas Erin. I know there are tons of articles out there on ChatGPT but I found this one I read this morning in Edutopia particularly interesting and full of ideas: Using AI to Help Organize Lesson Plans

March 17, 2023

This is funny, I’m at a conference and attending session on Generative AI, and I had that same very question and logged in to ask the question in the community.

I had the idea of teaching students how to create how to create effective prompts.

and I thought about having them use ChatGPT to create a 30 sec script on a topic, and then have them film or animate it.

So new and exciting. I want to embrace it, and am also looking for ideas for my 6th grade students.

A lot of this reminds me of when search engines came out and how teachers were afraid that students would just google the answers. I’m excited.

March 17, 2023

I totally agree, it really is exciting. I love your idea of creating a script.

March 18, 2023

Hi Erin,

I have been researching ChatGPT as well and as we have all found I am sure it is the quality of the prompt that really can make a huge difference in the way we receive responses from the AI. In my research I found someone who developed a series of prompts to generate better prompts... here is the sequence...

The initial prompt would be this...

I want you to become my Prompt Creator. Your goal is to help me craft the best possible prompt for my needs. The prompt will be used by you, ChatGPT. You will follow the following process: 

1. Your first response will be to ask me what the prompt should be about. I will provide my answer, but we will need to improve it through continual iterations by going through the next steps. 

2. Based on my input, you will generate 3 sections. a) Revised prompt (provide your rewritten prompt. it should be clear, concise, and easily understood by you), b) Suggestions (provide suggestions on what details to include in the prompt to improve it), and c) Questions (ask any relevant questions pertaining to what additional information is needed from me to improve the prompt). 

3. We will continue this iterative process with me providing additional information to you and you updating the prompt in the Revised prompt section until it's complete.

You can answer just one or all the questions posed to update the prompt... it looks like this when you use it.

 




 

March 18, 2023

I love this idea, thanks. The potential of this software truly is infinite!

March 18, 2023

I have used it for many of the tasks that I just do not want to do or take time.

  • Replying to a parent email that I really do not want to answer. I paste the email in and tell it what sort of response I want to give and it writes it beautifully
  • If I get an extra I get it to write a quick lesson plan, if the teacher has not left anything.
  • The starting points for writing Departmental documents like risk assessments, annual plans, funding proposals... They still need a lot of work on them but it gives me a start

I think that is the best thing about ChatGPT. It takes away the blank page and gives you somewhere to start. I wish it was not banned for students.

March 20, 2023

I love the idea of getting it to do the mundane tasks; so often they take up so much cognitive load just procrastinating them.

March 20, 2023

One of my favorite uses is asking it to summarize information or rewrite text into various reading or English proficiency levels, which then can be distributed to students as needed. For example, when I taught 8th grade U.S. history, I might have asked it to "translate" excerpts from the Mayflower Compact or Declaration of Independence into more modern language for my students to use side-by-side with the primary source.

Asking it to "explain ____ like I'm ___ years old" is also such a simple but helpful use. I think that AI can really be a game changer for differentiation and accessibility for students (and even new teachers who might need more support familiarizing themselves with their tougher standards!).

March 20, 2023

This is a great idea, it would work really well with Shakespeare - you could get students to have it re-write it for different genres, ages, or even write it as a rap, song... thanks for the inspiration.

This post contains content from YouTube.

If you choose to view this content, YouTube may collect and process certain personal data. You can view YouTube’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/t/privacy" target="_blank">privacy policy here<span class="a11y">(opens in new window)</span>.</a>

This post contains content from YouTube.

You have rejected content from YouTube. If you want to change your consent, press the button below.