In the past few weeks and months, there has been increased conversation about ChatGPT. You must be aware of this issue and its implications for your child’s education and future as a parent of a New Mexico student.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence-based system that uses natural language processing (NLP) to generate conversations. ChatGPT enables users to ask questions or tell a story, and the bot will respond with relevant, natural-sounding answers and topics. The interface is designed to simulate a human conversation, creating a natural engagement with the bot.
It has the ability to write just about anything on command, which could fuel academic dishonesty and hinder learning. When it launched, teenagers and college students were among the millions of people who began experimenting with ChatGPT. While many found ways to use it creatively and harmlessly, the ease with which it could answer take-home test questions and assist with other assignments sparked panic among some educators.
At AIMS@UNM, the state’s highest-ranking school for several years in a row, the impact is already being felt and addressed aggressively by its teachers.
This is a small sample of the ChatGPT issues and solutions the teachers have developed: I am going through the painful process of developing strategies to detect when ChatGPT is being used and when content is original to the student. The program has made students so confident in cheat programs being able to earn their grades that they refuse even to take notes on instructional expectations because they trust something that is more of an authority than the instructor to be real. While the auto-writing programs have tuned up their grammar, their ideas are unfocused and disorganized.
We’re having problems in math where students can go home, get on the computer, type in the problem and the answer with steps of working now appears. We now make calculus students turn their work in at the end of the period.
I find this horrifying. Teachers have to become more creative in how they combat this. No homework, just classwork. In addition, it is worth only 10% of their grade, and quizzes and tests are taken in class under close proctoring.
As one teacher encouraged the others, she said, “Bravo, colleagues. Thank you all for being such excellent professionals who are doing something about all of this. I love that we’re not just complaining about things like this, but everyone is actually doing something about it!”
Technology has changed the world forever in some exciting and amazing ways. This technology, however, has the ability to affect our students’ futures. A student who would normally be competing against the best and brightest of their peers for scholarships and awards now faces the possibility of competing against students who put forth no more effort than asking a non-human entity to produce an essay for them. As educators and parents, we must make ourselves aware of the resources available to our children, and ensure they are being educated and not simply “copied and pasted.”
AIMS@UNM is eager to collaborate with educators and state representatives to develop comprehensive strategies to ensure the proper education of all of our wonderful children.
