ChatGPT for Teachers?

 ChatGPT For Teachers?

Guest written by Joe Taylor, DHS AP for C & I

I'm not the only educator in my house. My wife teaches English and Special Education and my daughter is getting close to entering the teaching market with Special Education and Dance credentials. Over the last couple of months, I've heard a lot of fear and frustration over the disruption that AI technologies, like ChatGPT, will likely have across the teaching field. Yes, this technology has the potential to change things a lot in ways that we can't fully comprehend at the moment. However, and hear me out, if we become the early adopters of this kind of technology we could use it to our advantage and set the parameters for acceptable use in education.

OK, hear me out. I've always been an early adopter for transformative instructional technology, and I understand that my colleagues aren't always there with me at the beginning of that process. But, think about some of the real time-consuming things you have to do in any given week. If you are an English teacher, say, and you want to create a lesson plan based on a passage from last night's reading that has kids up working on skills at different stations in your classroom? Now let's say you'd like to make sure that there is some differentiation built into those stations to accommodate learners at different levels? An hour? Two? More?

Ted Pickett, a teacher for an American High School in Abu Dhabi used ChatGPT to create that lesson in 6 minutes. Here's his video:

Thanks to Ken Williams for finding and sharing this video!

I think we are just scratching the surface? What if we need to generate 10 or 15 word problems based on a single problem structure? How about automatically creating different versions of a test?

Here's what ChatGPT thinks it can do to help teachers write lesson plans efficiently:

"As a language model trained by OpenAI, ChatGPT has the potential to assist high school teachers in creating differentiated lesson plans that cater to the diverse needs of their students. Differentiated instruction involves designing lessons that accommodate different learning styles, abilities, and interests of students. However, creating such plans can be time-consuming and challenging for teachers, especially when they have a large class size.

ChatGPT can help alleviate this burden by providing high school teachers with personalized and differentiated lesson plans. By inputting information about the students' learning styles, abilities, and interests, ChatGPT can generate tailored lesson plans that meet the needs of each student in the classroom.

ChatGPT can also assist teachers in identifying gaps in students' understanding of the subject matter. Through its natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can analyze students' responses to quizzes, assignments, and tests to identify areas where students may need additional support. This information can then be used to design targeted lessons that address the specific needs of each student.

Moreover, ChatGPT can provide teachers with access to a wealth of educational resources, including articles, videos, and interactive simulations. These resources can be integrated into lesson plans to enhance students' engagement and understanding of the subject matter.

In addition to assisting with lesson planning, ChatGPT can also facilitate communication between teachers and students. By using natural language processing, ChatGPT can understand and respond to students' questions in real time, providing instant feedback and support. This feature can help students who may be hesitant to ask questions in class, providing them with a safe and comfortable space to ask for help.

Overall, the potential for using ChatGPT to create differentiated lesson plans for high school teachers is immense. By providing personalized, targeted, and engaging lesson plans, ChatGPT can enhance students' learning experiences and support teachers in their efforts to meet the diverse needs of their students."

But that is really just from a casual conversation I was having with ChatGPT over a cup of coffee. I didn't even take time to dive into specifics. 

I think we fear what we don't know, and we haven't really taken the time to see how this fascinating new technology can reduce our workload as teachers. (I haven't even brought up letters of recommendation yet...and I'm just going to let that one sit for a while.

Richard Byrne runs a resource site called Free Technology for Teachers. It has been one of my favorites for a long time. Currently, if you explore his website, you can demystify ChatGPT by getting general overviews of the tool and learning some quick tips on how to detect whether or not an essay was created by ChatGPT. Additionally, though, he is advertising a course created by another of my favorites, Rushton Hurley. The course is called ChatGPT: Boom or Our Doom? and it "is a free, self-paced course in which Rushton leads you through five lessons about ChatGPT and its implications for classrooms. Each lesson features a five-minute video and a suggested practice or reflection activity. The lessons cover what ChatGPT is and how it works, how to handle concerns about cheating, and using ChatGPT to create materials and activities for your classes" (Free Technology for Teachers, February 18).

What do you need to start your exploration? And how can you use ChatGPT to reduce your workload?