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foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this past December I was

sitting around a table having lunch with some English teachers when
one of them started sharing how she had recently caught a student
cheating on an essay using this new form of artificial intelligence
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called chat GPT she watched in awe astonishment and a bit of mild
horror as this program constructed an entire essay for the student
with a click of a button the initial reaction around the table was
disbelief there's no way that AI can write a quality essay naturally
curious I whipped out my laptop to test it out all of us watched in
shock as this AI
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program constructed a well-written analysis essay right before our
eyes in a matter of seconds if you've ever wondered how to induce
an immediate existential crisis amongst a group of English teachers
yeah that's how while there are dozens of text generative AI
programs out there open ai's chat GPT which was released to the
public this past November is the
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most well known since its release chat GPT has been featured on
almost every major news station and even made it to the cover of
Time magazine in February this program caught the World by storm
because it was 10 times smarter than the version that had come
before it chat GPT is what is known as a large language model which
is essentially a network of neural pathway connections
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that allows the program to learn and become more accurate in its
responses over time when I asked chat GPT what it wanted the
world to know about its capabilities it responded I can provide
information on a wide range of topics and understand and respond
to natural language I can also generate creative and personalized
responses and learn from my interactions to improve my language
processing
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capabilities over time oh is that all right after its public emergence
companies and people around the world began harnessing the
immense power of this technology doctors have used it to help
diagnose patients businesses began using it to create
advertisements and blog posts and Joe schmoe has been using it to
help him write all those pesky thank you cards from his wedding 14
months ago
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and all of this is being done with the click of a button common
applications like Snapchat instacart Duolingo and Quizlet have also
begun to integrate this technology into their platforms and then
openai released gpt4 in March which is the newest version of the
system that powers chat GPT
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gpt4 unlike chat GPT can also analyze images and web links instead
of being restricted to text input only Microsoft began using gbt4 to
power their search engine Bing they also have plans to integrate
gpt4 with the Microsoft Office Suite products soon you'll be able to
turn your boss's 20-page email into a comprehensive
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PowerPoint presentation with a single click a couple of weeks after
Microsoft released their new search engine Google released their AI
system bard and I'm sure it's only a matter of time until we see
artificial intelligence Incorporated with the Google Suite products as
well the tech world has entered an AI arms race but with such an
explosive advancement in technology seemingly overnight
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Educators across the globe have entered a state of panic of course
there are the typical concerns about AI taking over the world
courtesy of too many movies and TV shows like Terminator and
Westworld but for educators the concern lies more with their
students post-pandemic Educators have noticed severe declines in
students ability to think critically and problem solve at the most
basic levels but now with AI
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able to do the thinking for them educators are Awash in worry not
merely for their jobs but for the development of their students but
as author and writing instructor John Warner points out the reason
the appearance of this Tech is so shocking is because it forces us to
confront what we value rather than letting the status quo churn
along unexamined there is no doubt that AI is going to
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transform the landscape of Education as we know it after all we've
seen this type of transformation before and for most of us it
happened within our lifetimes the widespread proliferation of the
internet just a few decades ago completely transformed how schools
and our global economy functioned isn't it safe to assume that a
new technological leap might do the same hard work of this leap is
going to fall to educators
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generative AI systems will force Educators and educational
institutions to re-evaluate what they teach and why and how they
teach it do students really need to know how to write a five
paragraph rigorously structured essay or do they need to
understand how to approach a concept break it down and organize it
into bite-sized pieces since the dawn of time teachers have been
posed to question by students when
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will I use this in real life well now is the time to come up with a
concrete answer to that question because the truth is many of the
assignments given in the classroom really don't prepare students for
real life when are students going to need to know how to diagram a
compound complex sentence unless you end up an English teacher
Chances Are Never if students feel as though what they are
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learning in the classroom will benefit them in the long run they will
become invested in the learning and won't be looking for shortcuts
to Simply get the work done but instead of embracing and learning
from this new technology many schools across the country
responded to the public release of chat GPT by immediately blocking
it and other AI applications on all School sanctioned devices but is it
beneficial to restrict student
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use of a technology that businesses around the world are using or
should we instead teach our students how to interact with AI safely
and productively anyone that has been around teenagers for any
length of time understands All Too Well the implications of reverse
psychology even adults fall prey to this trap if I tell you not to think
of an elephant like whatever you do don't think about an elephant
yeah we're all thinking about an elephant right now if you tell a
teacher
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a teenager not to do something you can bet they'll be itching to try
it out as soon as your back is turned blocking chat GPT and similar
AI applications won't work it will only make the programs more
intriguing for students who wouldn't want to explore the secrets this
technology holds that has caused such an adverse reaction amongst
their teachers plus we can't control what students do outside of their
classrooms and school buildings it's all too easy for students
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to pull up this program on their phone when they go to the
bathroom or simply access it on a different device when they're
completing their schoolwork at home and once Microsoft and Google
integrate this technology into their office suite products unless we
want to regress to the pre-internet age of paper and pencil we won't
be able to avoid AI in the classroom we will never be able to truly
and fully block it instead we have to
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find ways to work with and around it in order to implement effective
use of AI in the classroom teachers may need to re-evaluate how
they are teaching the material and assessing student learning What
If instead of assigning worksheets and essays we encouraged more
collaboration in the classroom project-based and student directive
learning have always been my go-to's as an educator as an English
teacher my students were
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constantly creating posters and participating in debates in order to
analyze various aspects of literary work they would work on group
projects and presentations as their end of unit assessment and we
would use gameplay to review material such as participating in an
escape room or a competitive game of Jeopardy even if my students
were able to access AI in my classroom it wouldn't have provided
them with much help beyond the ability to be a sounding board for
their ideas
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and what would be so wrong with that I think most Educators would
agree that the goal of education is to help our students learn how to
think critically and problem solve AI technology can be incorporated
into the classroom in ways that actually engage students in critical
thinking math students could create their own math problems and
then use AI to test the results social studies students could use chat
GPT to write alternative realities to
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history and then discuss the results as a class science students
could use the chat bot to adopt the voice of a famous scientist and
then engage in a stimulating conversation about their discoveries
students can also utilize AI to help edit their Writing Practice
vocabulary terms provide individualized tutoring and edit their ideas
and research and these are just a few of the unlimited applications
from the student perspective
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but it also has abilities that can benefit teachers almost immediately
after my school blocked AI on all of our student devices my co-
workers began using it to help them do their jobs more effectively
they use chat GPT to write lesson plans come up with discussion
prompts and create tests and quizzes and I actually used it to help
me write a final exam for my students a process that normally takes
me hours
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took only 30 minutes with the assistance of AI not only does AI have
the ability to Save hours of preparation time for teachers but it can
also take a piece of writing and adapt it in any way the user asks
which can help make learning and reading more accessible to
students of all abilities for example we could ask chat GPT to take a
complex text and transform it into something a fourth grader could
read or we could have it transform
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Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into a modern day Telenovela
possibilities are only as limited as the user's imagination we are
living in a digitally Progressive world shouldn't our schools reflect
that as Matt Miller from ditch that textbook said this version of chat
GPT is the weakest most rudimentary artificial intelligence
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of its kind our students will ever use if we are blocking technology in
our schools that are being used in businesses across the country
and around the world we aren't adequately preparing our students
to enter the 21st century Workforce our students need to be trained
how to interact with the world around them via the technology at
their disposal and how to do so safely and who will teach them these
skills if teachers don't
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but if we also need to give students the benefit of the doubt just like
Educators do with other classroom technology teachers can
establish times to utilize Ai and times to not when one educator
gave the option for his students to use chat GPT on an assignment
only four actually took him up on the offer many students are just as
nervous as their adult counterparts are about this new technology
they too worry about the impact that it will have on their
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ability to problem solve and become functioning adults who are able
to make a positive contribution to the world in fact there are many
students who don't know about this new technology of course this
will change in the coming months and years but for now we have
time and we need to use this time to adapt accordingly just as the
internet did before it AI is going to weave its way into every facet of
Our Lives the process is already
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started we're already carrying around little AI machines in our
pockets and purses and while Chad GPT and gpt4 are far more
advanced than Siri or Alexa they too will eventually become a staple
in our everyday routines large language model generative AI is
going to change the landscape of the world's economy and launch
us into a new era of Education schools need to start teaching their
students how to use AI safely and
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effectively and teachers need to begin reevaluating and redesigning
their curriculum so that next year we're not sitting around a table in
shock as our co-worker shares how they just caught a student
cheating using whatever form of AI is coming next thank you
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