As we have entered the digital world, technology continues to advance and become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. As upcoming teachers, we must consider the academic risks surrounding digital accessibility in the classroom as well as how we can use technology to our advantage in ways that could substantially benefit pedagogy in all subjects.
ChatGPT, a highly accessible AI that can generate detailed responses to almost any question given, is a new technological that may concern many teachers. Thanks to ChatGPt, educators must start reconsidering the format of essays and other written work that they require from their students.
When discussing in our Tech Ed class last Friday, many of showed concern for the authenticity of research essays that a student could submit, secretly using ChatGPT. Some of us suggested that essays should only be written in class from now on and students should only be permitted to use pen and paper. Others suggested that teachers should only assign opinion-based essays where students must draw from personal experiences. I agree with the latter. As someone who isn’t a great formal research essay writer myself, I would prefer if the number of essays required in school were reduced. I also believe that opinion-based essays offer a more accurate evaluation of the student’s interpretation of the subject.
Thankfully we only have to worry about ChatGPT affecting grades 6 and up as younger students are not expected to know how to write a proper essay.
ChatGPT can also be helpful for teachers as it can structure lesson plans for any subject. This means that if we’re ever behind on lesson or unit plans, we can always ask ChatGPT to create a structure for us, to help guide our lessons.
Although schools have found methods to block or detect the use of ChatGPT, it isn’t possible to fully restrict the AI to students. Therefore, us teachers must also alter our assignments to avoid the possible use of ChatGPT. Changing the way we teach can be difficult as we may have to alter assignments to fit the curricular competencies. This also means that we must create new lesson plans, demanding more prep time. Thankfully, ChatGPT can come to us as an advantage in this situation to offer a helpful base to our new pedagogy.