‘The Future is here’ - that’s how Beth McMurtrie,
Senior Writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, starts her article. AI has
been around for a while but It’s only been two months since OpenAI made ChatGPT
available to the public. Even celebrities are now checking it out. This is the most
recent video posted by Ryan Reynolds, showing how he used it for his ad
campaign. Its ability to understand requests and reply in clear, well-organized
prose that reads like it was written by a human already makes its introduction
feel like an epoch-shifting moment for the tech industry, if not humanity
itself.
That is also very true for educators, with students
having a full, unlimited access to this technology and using it to write
essays, writing assignments etc. It’s a clear disruption of the reality we have
inherited and it’s not going away. Yes, at present it’s still in its early
stages, what you get back after you prompt the AI is mostly coherent but maybe
not captivating, and it still doesn’t get all the facts right. That said, its
current version is just a taste before the next generation, the already
announced GPT4, makes its debut.
Hence, what Beth is exploring, is how educators will have to adapt to this new
landscape, how to adjust the assessment of learning and judge the outcomes
authentically. She gives few, very poignant ideas on how to alter your approach
now, before it’s too late. The approach that most intrigued me is one that has
to do with engaging students in a conversation about why and how they write,
sometimes using these AI tools. Please read a full article
here, with many more links to resources about AI and its impact on
education.