Educators are grappling with the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which is becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible for students to use. In a recent article, a religion studies professor at Elon University in the US shared his experience of catching students using ChatGPT to write their essays and how he used it as a teaching opportunity.
Rather than punishing his students, the professor challenged them to use the AI to generate an essay based on a prompt, before grading it. He found that many of the essays contained errors, caused by the AI fabricating bogus information, such as page numbers for non-existent books and articles. Some students were concerned that overreliance on such technology could lead to laziness or the spread of disinformation and fake news.
Other educators are also experimenting with integrating generative AI technology into their teaching. One professor had students write an essay and compared it to one that ChatGPT wrote on the same topic. Another produced a standard essay from ChatGPT and had students grade it. Future iterations of this task could focus on teaching students to prompt the AI more precisely and to compare it to other chatbots.
The article suggests that while some AI enthusiasts criticize educators for not using more sophisticated AI like GPT-4, the focus should be on teaching students about the limitations of AI and how to use it mindfully. Educators could use these strategies to improve AI literacy in students and inoculate them against overreliance on the technology.
The professor’s experience also highlighted the importance of instilling confidence in students about their own minds and abilities. By showing them how flawed ChatGPT is, he helped his students realize their value as people. Thus, teaching with and about AI can help educators to do their job better by illuminating the minds of the young and grounding them for a future in flux.
