Students should be encouraged to use ChatGPT for academic classes under appropriate guidelines
Ever since ChatGPT came out in November 2022, there have been wide discussions about whether or not students should use it. ChatGPT, a brand new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, is so advanced that it can generate a complete essay with a given prompt and length without looking “artificial.” For many students, this new technology has become a free robot that writes skillful essays for them and lets them get away with school assignments. For this reason, several schools throughout the United States have banned ChapGPT on campus. According to Forbes, Los Angeles Unified School District became one of the first districts to ban it on Dec. 12, soon followed by New York City Public schools, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Montgomery County in Alabama. However, despite concerns surrounding plagiarism and academic dishonesty, ChatGPT has numerous potential benefits if used properly. Therefore, teachers should be encouraged to teach students with ChatGPT under effective guidelines instead of banning the technology.
One of the most important reasons why ChatGPT should be incorporated into education is that it familiarizes students with growing technology and teaches them how to take advantage of it in modern society. An article from MIT Technology Review discusses an example of a teacher, Emily Donahoe, who incorporated ChatGPT into her class. Prior to the advent of ChatGPT, Donahoe gave her students assignments where they had to come up with an argument and graded them based on their arguments. The most recent semester, however, she made the students utilize ChatGPT to come up with an argument and then analyze the effectiveness of the argument among specific types of audience. Students then turned in a modified version of the original argument. After a simple change to her education strategy, Donahoe realized that the new strategy using ChatGPT helps students focus on certain skills without getting overwhelmed by starting with a blank document. ChatGPT also teaches students how to work with evolving technology instead of being the technology itself. Therefore, ChatGPT is crucial for education as it not only reduces unnecessary anxiety among students but also prepares them for the AI-based future.
From a literary perspective, ChatGPT helps students grow critical thinking skills. In the case of Danahoe’s class where students are asked to rewrite an AI-generated text, students get to learn how to critique and improve arguments for a targeted audience rather than to collect information; collecting information is what technology is for. This benefit becomes more prominent in debates as students are enabled to easily explore information of opposite sides regarding a certain topic using technology and construct their own argument with a minimum amount of bias. More specifically, ChatGPT can serve as the opponent of a debate and generate numerous opposing sides, allowing students to be aware of opposite sides, find their weak points and improve those points. Again, by focusing on the writing and thinking aspect of a debate instead of gathering facts, students get to practice human cognitive skills, which AI does not necessarily possess. This is especially true because certain elements of an argument, such as the emotional appeal, are not as effectively understood by AI as they are by humans. Since ChatGPT allows students to polish their weaknesses by developing critical thinking skills, ChatGPT can bring significant advantages to learning sites, especially in English and history classes, which typically put huge emphasis on thinking skills.
Furthermore, ChatGPT makes overall learning much easier and more engaging. Outside of school, ChatGPT can fulfill the role of teachers to some extent or possibly even better in some circumstances. When a user asks the chatbot to explain a specific topic, ChatGPT generates a concise response with necessary information and an example within a few seconds. This extremely quick and accessible source of information can benefit students in multiple ways. The free, online availability of ChatGPT suits specific needs of different individuals, which are less likely to happen in classroom settings at school where one teacher has to teach multiple students. In addition, for assignments like simple essays or research, ChatGPT’s concise answers increase the efficiency of learning because students can pick up only what they need without having to read articles with numerous paragraphs. Since the answers are not only concise but also conversational, using the chatbot makes learning more fun because students do not have to passively read but actively ask questions. Therefore, ChatGPT makes learning much more interactive, efficient and less stressful.
Unfortunately, the inevitable truth is that no matter how beneficial ChatGPT is, there will be students trying to take unfair advantage of it to get away with their assignments. An example of this is a student asking ChatGPT to generate an essay and not putting any effort into the assignment himself or herself. Since ChatGPT’s responses sound fairly human-generated, it is hard to tell whether a student used ChatGPT to complete their assignment or test. Moreover, even though the purpose, method or outcome of using ChatGPT can vary widely, some people perceive using the chatbot for assignments or tests as cheating; a nationwide survey by BestColleges reports that 51% of college students agree that using ChatGPT commits academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This misunderstanding that using AI means cheating often makes students feel guilty using it, making them less inclined to use it even when it is the right time to do so.
However, there are ways to overcome or at least ease cheating and the negative stigma of using ChatGPT. The easiest way is to communicate the expectations and guidelines with students. Once the instructor has a clear understanding of the course, they should tell their students how ChatGPT should be used in their specific class both to maintain academic honesty and to make the most out of it. Once the communication becomes clear and students know exactly what they should do with ChatGPT, they will be less likely to cheat either by mistake or on purpose and feel more comfortable using it because they understand that the right way to use ChatGPT is not cheating. If teachers encourage students to utilize ChatGPT under appropriate guidelines and direct communication, students will be more motivated to use the right way and more comfortable using it. The proper incorporation of ChatGPT to modern education will bring a variety of benefits to students, including a chance to learn about advancing technology, greater critical thinking skills and easy learning.