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

Full transcript

1. 0:00Transcriber: Daeun Choi Reviewer: Raúl Higareda
2. 0:14This past December,
3. 0:15I was sitting around a table having lunch with some English teachers
4. 0:19when one of them started sharing
5. 0:21how she had recently caught a student cheating on an essay
6. 0:24using this new form of artificial intelligence called ChatGPT.
7. 0:30She watched in awe, astonishment, and a bit of mild horror
8. 0:35as this program constructed an entire essay for the student
9. 0:39with the click of a button.
10. 0:42The initial reaction around the table was disbelief.
11. 0:45There is no way that AI can write a quality essay.
12. 0:48Naturally curious, I whipped out my laptop to test it out.
13. 0:53All of us watched in shock as this AI program constructed
14. 0:58a well-written analysis essay right before our eyes
15. 1:03in a matter of seconds.
16. 1:05If you’ve ever wondered how to induce
17. 1:07an immediate existential crisis amongst a group of English teachers,
18. 1:11yeah, that’s how.
19. 1:13(Laughter)
20. 1:15While there are dozens of text-generative AI programs out there,
21. 1:20OpenAI’s Chat GPT,
22. 1:22which was released to the public this past November,
23. 1:25is the most well-known.
24. 1:27Since its release,
25. 1:28ChatGPT has been featured on almost every major news station
26. 1:32and even made it to the cover of Time magazine in February.
27. 1:37This program caught the world by storm
28. 1:40because it was 10 times smarter than the version that had come before it.
29. 1:45ChatGPT is what is known as a large language model,
30. 1:49which is essentially a network of neural pathway connections
31. 1:53that allows the program to learn
32. 1:55and become more accurate in its responses over time.
33. 1:59When I asked ChatGPT what it wanted the world to know about its capabilities,
34. 2:05it responded,
35. 2:07“I can provide information on a wide range of topics
36. 2:10and understand and respond to natural language.
37. 2:14I can also generate creative and personalized responses,
38. 2:17and learn from my interactions to improve
39. 2:20my language processing capabilities over time.”
40. 2:23Oh, is that all?
41. 2:26(Laughter)
42. 2:28Right after its public emergence, companies and people around the world
43. 2:32began harnessing the immense power of this technology.
44. 2:36Doctors have used it to help diagnose patients.
45. 2:39Businesses began using it to create advertisements and blog posts.
46. 2:44And Joe Schmo has been using it to help him write
47. 2:46all those pesky thank you cards from his wedding 14 months ago.
48. 2:51And all of this is being done with the click of a button.
49. 2:55Common applications like Snapchat, Instacart, Duolingo, and Quizlet
50. 3:02have also begun to integrate this technology into their platforms.
51. 3:07And then OpenAI released GPT-4 in March,
52. 3:13which is the newest version of the system that powers ChatGPT.
53. 3:17GPT-4, unlike ChatGPT, can also analyze images and web links
54. 3:25instead of being restricted to text input only.
55. 3:29Microsoft began using GPT-4 to power their search engine Bing.
56. 3:34They also have plans to integrate GPT-4 with the Microsoft Office Suite products.
57. 3:40Soon, you’ll be able to turn your boss’s 20-page email
58. 3:44into a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation
59. 3:47with a single click.
60. 3:49A couple of weeks after Microsoft released their new search engine,
61. 3:53Google released their AI system, Bard.
62. 3:57And I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until we see
63. 4:00artificial intelligence incorporated with the Google Suite products as well.
64. 4:04The tech world has entered an AI arms race.
65. 4:09But with such an explosive advancement in technology seemingly overnight,
66. 4:14educators across the globe have entered a state of panic.
67. 4:19Of course, there are the typical concerns about AI taking over the world,
68. 4:23courtesy of too many movies and TV shows like Terminator and Westworld.
69. 4:28But for educators, the concern lies more with their students.
70. 4:32Post-pandemic, educators have noticed
71. 4:35severe declines in students’ ability to think critically and problem-solve
72. 4:39at the most basic levels.
73. 4:42But now, with AI able to do the thinking for them,
74. 4:46educators are awash in worry,
75. 4:48not merely for their jobs, but for the development of their students.
76. 4:53But as author and writing instructor John Warner points out,
77. 4:57“The reason the appearance of this tech is so shocking
78. 5:00is because it forces us to confront what we value,
79. 5:03rather than letting the status quo churn along unexamined.”
80. 5:09There is no doubt that AI is going to transform
81. 5:12the landscape of education as we know it.
82. 5:15After all, we’ve seen this type of transformation before,
83. 5:19and for most of us, it happened within our lifetimes.
84. 5:22The widespread proliferation of the internet just a few decades ago
85. 5:27completely transformed how schools and our global economy functioned.
86. 5:33Isn’t it safe to assume
87. 5:34that a new technological leap might do the same?
88. 5:38But the hard work of this leap is going to fall to educators.
89. 5:41Generative AI systems will force educators and educational institutions
90. 5:46to re-evaluate what they teach and why and how they teach it.
91. 5:52Do students really need to know
92. 5:54how to write a five-paragraph, rigorously structured essay?
93. 5:58Or do they need to understand how to approach a concept,
94. 6:01break it down, and organize it into bite sized pieces?
95. 6:04Since the dawn of time,
96. 6:06teachers have been posed the question by students,
97. 6:09“When will I use this in real life?”
98. 6:11(Laughter)
99. 6:13Well, now is the time to come up with a concrete answer to that question.
100. 6:18Because many of the assignments given in the classroom
101. 6:21really don’t prepare students for real life.
102. 6:24When are students going to need to know
103. 6:26how to diagram a compound, complex sentence?
104. 6:30(Laughter)
105. 6:31Unless you end up an English teacher, chances are never.
106. 6:36If students feel as though what they are learning in the classroom
107. 6:39will benefit them in the long run,
108. 6:41they will become invested in the learning
109. 6:43and won’t be looking for shortcuts to simply get the work done.
110. 6:48But instead of embracing and learning from this new technology,
111. 6:53many schools across the country responded to the public release of ChatGPT
112. 6:58by immediately blocking it and other AI applications
113. 7:02on all school-sanctioned devices.
114. 7:05But is it beneficial to restrict student use of a technology
115. 7:09that businesses around the world are using?
116. 7:12Or should we instead teach our students
117. 7:14how to interact with AI safely and productively?
118. 7:18Anyone that has been around teenagers for any length of time
119. 7:21understands all too well the implications of reverse psychology.
120. 7:25Even adults fall prey to this trap.
121. 7:27If I tell you not to think of an elephant,
122. 7:30like whatever you do, don’t think about an elephant...
123. 7:33Yeah, we’re all thinking about an elephant right now.
124. 7:36If you tell a teenager not to do something,
125. 7:39they’ll be itching to try it out as soon as your back is turned.
126. 7:43Blocking ChatGPT and similar AI applications won’t work.
127. 7:47It will only make the programs more intriguing for students.
128. 7:51Who wouldn’t want to explore the secrets this technology holds
129. 7:54that has caused such an adverse reaction amongst their teachers?
130. 7:58Plus,
131. 7:59we can’t control what students do outside of their classrooms and school buildings.
132. 8:04It’s all too easy for students to pull up this program on their phone
133. 8:07when they go to the bathroom,
134. 8:09or simply access it on a different device
135. 8:11when they’re completing their schoolwork at home.
136. 8:13And once Microsoft and Google
137. 8:15integrate this technology into their Office Suite products,
138. 8:19unless we want to regress
139. 8:21to the pre-internet age of paper and pencil,
140. 8:24we won't be able to avoid AI in the classroom.
141. 8:27We will never be able to truly and fully block it.
142. 8:31Instead, we have to find ways to work with and around it.
143. 8:36In order to implement effective use of AI in the classroom,
144. 8:40teachers may need to re-evaluate how they are teaching the material
145. 8:43and assessing student learning.
146. 8:46What if, instead of assigning worksheets and essays,
147. 8:50we encouraged more collaboration in the classroom?
148. 8:54Project-based and student-directive learning
149. 8:56have always been my go-tos as an educator.
150. 8:59As an English teacher, my students were constantly creating posters
151. 9:03and participating in debates
152. 9:05in order to analyze various aspects of literary work.
153. 9:08They would work on group projects and presentations
154. 9:11as their end-of-unit assessment,
155. 9:13and we would use gameplay to review material,
156. 9:15such as participating in an escape room or a competitive game of Jeopardy.
157. 9:20Even if my students were able to access AI in my classroom,
158. 9:24it wouldn’t have provided them with much help
159. 9:27beyond the ability to be a sounding board for their ideas.
160. 9:31And what would be so wrong with that?
161. 9:33I think most educators would agree that the goal of education
162. 9:37is to help our students learn how to think critically and problem-solve.
163. 9:42AI technology can be incorporated into the classroom
164. 9:45in ways that actually engage students in critical thinking.
165. 9:49Math students could create their own math problems
166. 9:52and then use AI to test the results.
167. 9:54Social Studies students could use ChatGPT to write alternative realities to history
168. 10:00and then discuss the results as a class.
169. 10:02Science students could use the chat bot to adopt the voice of a famous scientist
170. 10:08and then engage in a conversation about their discoveries.
171. 10:12Students can also utilize AI to help edit their writing,
172. 10:16practice vocabulary terms,
173. 10:18provide individualized tutoring, and edit their ideas and research.
174. 10:23And these are just a few of the unlimited applications
175. 10:26from the student perspective,
176. 10:29but it also has abilities that can benefit teachers.
177. 10:32Almost immediately after my school blocked AI on all of our student devices,
178. 10:37my coworkers began using it to help them do their jobs more effectively.
179. 10:41(Laughter)
180. 10:43They used ChatGPT to write lesson plans,
181. 10:46come up with discussion prompts, and create tests and quizzes.
182. 10:49And I actually used it to help me write a final exam for my students.
183. 10:53A process that normally takes me hours
184. 10:56took only 30 minutes with the assistance of AI.
185. 11:01Not only does AI have the ability
186. 11:03to save hours of preparation time for teachers,
187. 11:06but it can also take a piece of writing and adapt it in any way the user asks,
188. 11:11which can help make learning and reading
189. 11:13more accesible to students of all abilities.
190. 11:16For example, we could ask ChatGPT to take a complex text
191. 11:21and transform it into something a fourth grader could read.
192. 11:24Or we could have it transform Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
193. 11:28into a modern day telenovela.
194. 11:32The possibilities are only as limited as the user’s imagination.
195. 11:38We are living in a digitally progressive world.
196. 11:41Shouldn't our schools reflect that?
197. 11:44As Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook said,
198. 11:48“This version of ChatGPT is the weakest,
199. 11:51most rudimentary artificial intelligence of its kind
200. 11:54our students will ever use.”
201. 11:59If we are blocking technology in our schools
202. 12:01that are being used in businesses across the country and around the world,
203. 12:05we aren’t adequately preparing our students
204. 12:07to enter the 21st century workforce.
205. 12:10Our students need to be trained how to interact with the world around them
206. 12:14via the technology at their disposal
207. 12:16and how to do so safely.
208. 12:19And who will teach them these skills if teachers don’t?
209. 12:23But if we also need to give students the benefit of the doubt,
210. 12:27just like educators do with other classroom technology,
211. 12:30teachers can establish times to utilize AI and times to not.
212. 12:34When one educator gave the option for his students
213. 12:37to use ChatGPT on an assignment,
214. 12:39only four took him up on the offer.
215. 12:43Many students are just as nervous
216. 12:45as their adult counterparts are about this new technology.
217. 12:48They too worry about the impact that it will have
218. 12:51on their ability to problem-solve
219. 12:53and become functioning adults who can make a positive contribution to the world.
220. 12:58In fact, there are many students who don’t know about this new technology.
221. 13:03Of course, this will change in the coming months and years.
222. 13:06But for now, we have time
223. 13:10and we need to use this time to adapt accordingly.
224. 13:14Just as the internet did before it,
225. 13:16AI is going to weave its way into every facet of our lives.
226. 13:20The process has already started.
227. 13:22We’re already carrying around AI machines in our pockets and purses.
228. 13:26And while ChatGPT and GPT-4 are far more advanced than Siri or Alexa,
229. 13:31they too will eventually become a staple in our everyday routines.
230. 13:35Large language model generative AI
231. 13:38is going to change the landscape of the world’s economy
232. 13:42and launch us into a new era of education.
233. 13:45Schools need to start teaching their students
234. 13:48how to use AI safely and effectively.
235. 13:51And teachers need to begin re-evaluating and redesigning their curriculum
236. 13:55so that next year, we’re not sitting around a table in shock
237. 13:59as our coworker shares how they just caught a student cheating
238. 14:02using whatever form of AI is coming next.
239. 14:06Thank you.
240. 14:07(Applause)