ChatGPT and other uses of Artificial Intelligence in Education

 ChatGPT / AI in Education

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By now,  you have all probably heard about the latest artificial intelligence program ChatGPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer).  

See this video explaining what AI is and how it can be harnessed for learning.

Perhaps you have only heard of it as a method for students to automatically generate essays and research papers that are not of their own creation.  Often, the output results from ChatGPT are undetectable by the most common plagiarism software such as Turnitin and Google Classroom.  For this reason, many teachers are quick to dismiss it as nothing but a cheater's tool.  However, let's take a look at some of the beneficial uses of such programs because let's face it; it is here to stay and will only become more powerful. 

Our fabulous colleague, Robby Tabor, will be guest blogging for us on this topic next time!  He has done a very deep dive into the technology!  Here is an awesome video he made about the topic.  It's a must-watch!  I recently had a conversation with him about this and he said something that deeply resonated with me.  

"The more I use it, the more I understand it, and the less scary it gets".

There are so many legitimate uses for teachers to assist in instruction and differentiation. The list below is from a recent blog addressing just these possibilities.

FYI - ChatGPT is currently blocked on our network for students, but open for teachers.  This does mean, of course, that students can't still access it on their phones. 

English Lessons

• Vocab boost: Use Chat GPT to create personalized vocabulary lists for your students. Just input a list of words and the tool will generate sentences using those words, giving students contextual examples to help them understand the meanings. 

• Writing prompts galore: Need a fresh idea for your writing lesson? Use Chat GPT to generate writing prompts based on a specific theme. Just input the theme and the tool will churn out a variety of prompts related to that theme. This is a great way to get your students thinking creatively and practicing their writing skills. 

• Storytelling magic: Use Chat GPT to help your students develop their storytelling skills. Input the beginning of a story and the tool will generate potential next steps, allowing students to continue the story in their own words.

• Reading comprehension made easy: Chat GPT can create personalized reading comprehension questions based on a passage you provide. Simply input the passage and the tool will generate a series of questions to help students better understand and retain what they have read.

• Language translation: Chat GPT is a great tool for your EAL learners. It allows students to easily translate texts from one language to another, providing them with a valuable tool for comprehension and communication. Whether they’re reading a story in Spanish or writing a letter to a pen pal in French, Chat GPT is a reliable and accurate translation tool. It’s like having a personal translation assistant, without the added cost and hassle.

Math Lessons

As a math teacher, let’s face it – sometimes it can be a challenge to keep our students engaged and excited about the subject. But fear not! Chat GPT can also be a useful tool in livening up your lessons and keeping your students on their toes.

Here are a few ways that you can use Chat GPT in your Math lessons:

• Practice problems: Need to give your students some extra practice outside of class? No problem! Just have Chat GPT generate a never-ending supply of math problems for them to work on. 

• Explanations: Got a student who’s struggling to understand a concept? No worries – have them ask chat GPT for a step-by-step explanation. It’ll be like having a virtual math tutor right at their fingertips.

• Quizzes: Want to review material in a fun and interactive way? Have Chat GPT create a customized quiz for your class. 

• Interactive Lessons: Chat GPT can be used to create interactive lectures or lessons. For example, you could have the chatbot ask questions and have students respond with their answers. This can be a great way to keep students engaged and involved in the material.

• Group work: You can use Chat GPT to facilitate group work by having it generate math problems or questions for students to work on together. This can be a great way to encourage collaboration and problem-solving skills.

• Differentiated instruction: If you have a diverse class with students of varying skill levels, the chatbot can be used to provide personalized instruction to each student. For example, you can have the chatbot generate more challenging problems for advanced students and easier problems for those who need more support.

• Gamification: You can use Chat GPT to create math games or challenges for your students. For example, you could have the chatbot generate a series of math problems and have students race against the clock to solve them. This can be a fun and engaging way to review material and encourage competition.

Other Uses for Teachers

• Emergency Sub Plans:  Have you ever woken up too sick to come in to work and have no time to make sub plans.  Hit up ChatGPT to create emergency sub plans that do not require printables or textbooks.  See this example I made for an emergency lesson plan for 6th grade on Egyptian Gods & Goddesses.

• Re-level text to increase comprehension: Perhaps you have a student who has a reading level significantly lower than his/her peers, but you want them to be able to comprehend and meaningfully participate in class discussions.  Enter some grade-level text and ask Chat GPT to rewrite it at the desired grade level.  Here is an example I entered into the bot.

• Create a quiz of comprehension questions: Ask ChatGPT to create Grade Level specific comprehension questions based on an excerpt of text.  

• Ask ChatGPT to explain a concept to a struggling learner:  Have you tried to explain a certain concept over and over and you have that one student who just cannot grasp it.  Perhaps you should try to explain it in a different way.  Ask ChatGPT to explain a concept at a specific grade level.  It may even become part of your future lesson plans

• Check out this blog post from Matt at Ditch that Textbook for more ideas on using ChatGPT as a teacher's best friend!

AI Image Generators:

There are also many AI image generators available.  These can be used to illustrate a story such as this example I made for my Grandson.   The technology is still pretty sketchy but I found this program (Beta Dream Studio) pretty good if you would like to give it a try.   I asked the program to show me images of a german shepherd outside with a little girl in a watercolor format.  Here is one of the images I got.  You can see that there is the beginning of a duplicate dog on the right which I just cropped out.

There are other image generators that are much more powerful such as MidJourney, but I'll let Robby address those next time.

Please feel free to use the comment section to share your ideas on this very hot topic!   Let's get comfortable with AI together and learn how to use it to enhance our instruction and improve student learning!