Hi Chris, Your connection with our Detain/Release activity to AI-powered technology in education is fascinating. ChatGPT, Bing AI, and other tools are readily available, and students know they exist. The original intent of ChatGPT was to assist humans with “composing emails, essays, and code” (Ortiz, 2023). Did they program ChatGPT to do this because they realized humans have the most difficulty completing these tasks? The invention may not have come with ill intentions, but humans can take advantage of these tools. You mentioned that students have to complete high-stakes assignments. If students were using AI systems like ChatGPT to complete these assignments, would it detract from their ability to think like their authentic selves? Would creativity exist? I recently joined a recreational sports team, and we struggled to design our jerseys. Someone on our team had access to the premium version of Bing AI, and he gave us parameters for Bing AI to create a team logo for us. What happened in the days when we designed with our creativity instead of depending on other sources?
It is also interesting that ChatGPT openly shares that writing emails, essays, and codes are the three main tasks it is designed to do. I just tried out ChatGPT and asked it to help me plan a 10-day trip to Japan, visiting three cities. It recommended me hotels, sites to see and even places to eat. I then asked it to replace one of the cities with another one, and it did that seamlessly. ChatGPT could also advertise to do more than write emails, essays and code. Other things could help humans, such as finding recipes, looking up places to eat, planning a trip, etc. Educators need to understand better what ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools are capable of. In doing so, they can help students get back on track to finding their originality in writing and critically thinking.
There is a website called Moonshot Pirates. They claim to be “a global movement of changemakers” (Moonshot Pirates, n.d.). In one of their blog posts, they suggested that automated administrative work allowed educators to have time to engage with their students (Bačová, 2022). These automated tasks include “school admissions to the grading of exams” (Bačová, 2022). Isn’t this the same as our Detain/Release activity? Would these automated tasks put the “at-risk” students more at risk?
Educators must engage with their students, wouldn’t grading exams be part of the engagement? After AI-powered technology has graded the exam, would the teacher have to review the scores or would AI assess and provide feedback already? Without evaluating and critically thinking about the positive and negative implications of AI-powered technology used in the education system, we might result in a similar situation as the schools that Pasquini and Gilliard mentioned in their podcast – without adequate training, schools will use biased data and in turn, will marginalize at-risk students even more (2021).
Reference:
Bačová, L. (2022, October 4). How can artificial intelligence improve education: Blog. Moonshot Pirates. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://moonshotpirates.com/blog/how-artificial-intelligence-will-transform-education/#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20can%20turn%20knowledge,while%20paperwork%20processes%20are%20automated.
Moonshot pirates. Moonshot Pirates. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://moonshotpirates.com/
Ortiz, S. (2023, March 23). What is CHATGPT and why does it matter? here’s what you need to know. ZDNET. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-chatgpt-and-why-does-it-matter-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/
