Please AI - Fix My Habits!

What to expect this week:

4 min read

These last two weeks have been focused on AI tools for teachers. This week, we’re going to shift back to ChatGPT - but from the perspective of your students. Teachers - share these ideas with your students to supercharge their learning and improve their academic habits in ways beyond copying and pasting simple questions

• AI & Academics - How students can leverage ChatGPT beyond the conventional Q&A

• How using ChatGPT can ACTUALLY help?

• Move beyond the mundane with ChatGPT as your learning ally!

Tech Talk

No - you haven’t accidentally opened up the same issue from two weeks ago 

We got some great feedback last time we looked at ChatGPT from a teacher’s perspective. So much so that this week, we’re doing as you told us and are going to look at how to deal with students using the almighty chat bot.

Let’s get a hot take out of the way first - outright school bans on ChatGPT are going to be as useful as banning calculators in the 1970s. Remember how that turned out? The USA’s National Council of Teachers of Mathematics ended up recommending that all grade levels take advantage of them by 1980. But just as we don’t encourage students to simply copy and paste their calculated answers into their work, we have to do everything we can to ensure students don’t do the same with ChatGPT. So where to begin? For this week, we’re going to turn to an article written by Toronto Metropolitan University’s own Academic Integrity Office. You can get the whole scoop here, or read below for a summary and thoughts on what this mezans for your K-12 classroom.

One of the primary concerns raised by the Academic Integrity Office is the risk of over-reliance on AI tools such as ChatGPT. While these tools can be powerful aids in generating ideas and content, they should not replace the need for students to engage critically with their learning material. Educators need to ensure that students understand the limitations of AI and the importance of developing their own analytical and creative skills.

To address these challenges, the Academic Integrity Office recommends 5 strategies for educators using ChatGPT in the classroom. 

1. Clear expectations: first and foremost, educators should clearly communicate their expectations regarding the use of AI tools. By explaining the rationale behind the rules, educators can help students understand the importance of using AI responsibly. 📋💡

2. Fact checking skills: additionally, educators should teach students how to fact-check information obtained from AI tools. This skill is crucial in an era where critical thinking is so valuable; students need to be able to discern reliable sources from unreliable ones. By teaching students to verify information independently, educators can empower them to be more discerning consumers of information.🔍📚

3. Proper citation: another important aspect of using AI tools ethically is teaching students how to cite sources properly. When students use AI tools to generate content, they should be taught to acknowledge the source of that content. This not only promotes academic integrity but also helps students understand the collaborative nature of knowledge creation.📝🔗

4. Study Aid - not replacement: educators should encourage students to use ChatGPT as a study aid rather than a replacement for traditional study methods. By using ChatGPT to generate study questions or organize study schedules, students can enhance their learning experience without relying solely on AI-generated content.📚🤖

5. Exploration and skill development: educators should encourage students to use ChatGPT to learn new skills that may not be covered in their regular curriculum. By using ChatGPT to explore new topics or develop new skills, students can expand their horizons and develop a lifelong love of learning.🚀🧠

While AI tools like ChatGPT can be valuable aids in the classroom, they should be used judiciously and in conjunction with traditional learning methods. By teaching students to use AI responsibly, educators can help them develop the critical thinking skills they need to succeed in the digital age.

Brainy Bits

ChatGPT vs. Creative, Reflective & Critical thinking - not the answer you think

Let’s keep this generative AI ball rolling. This week’s Brainy Bit is going to take what was covered in Tech Talk to the next level. This week’s study comes to us from Essel et al. (2024), as they aimed to gather evidence for the effects of ChatGPT on cognitive skills of undergraduate students. More specifically, receiving instant responses from a conversational tool (like ChatGPT) can impact student success. 

For all you research nerds, here’s how they did it. They utilized a mixed-methods approach, applying quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments. This included an experiential procedure with a pretest-posttest control group. The experiment utilized a sample of 125 students randomly allocated between experiment and control group. In other words, this study means business. 🤓

The students in question were in an undergrad Research Methodology course (oh the irony). The experimental group used ChatGPT for any in-class tasks while the control group made use of traditional databases and search engines for the same tasks. Data was then collected over a Critical Thinking Scale, Creative Thinking Scale, Reflective Thinking Scale, and a slightly informal student interview. Here’s what they found:

• 🧠 Critical Thinking: Surprisingly, the experimental group showed higher critical thinking skills. ChatGPT's follow-up questions and personalized learning were key factors.

• 🎨 Creative Thinking: The experimental group also scored higher in creative thinking, particularly in areas like inquisitiveness and self-discipline, attributed to the personalized experience with ChatGPT.

• 🔄 Reflective Thinking: Reflective thinking saw a boost in the experimental group, especially in understanding, habit formation, and critical reflection. The instant feedback from ChatGPT increased engagement, and this instant feedback meant the group didn’t need to waste time and energy going through endless websites and databases.

• 🗣️ Student Interviews: Students appreciated the independence ChatGPT offered, and moreso, liked that they didn’t need to ask professors for minor questions, freeing up their time for significant ones. 

So does ChatGPT affect student study habits? You’re darn right it does. In terms of your own classroom, if ChatGPT is being used already, make sure it’s a guided approach. The more we can avoid the ‘copy + paste the answer’ trap, the more our students can see the same success that this study’s experimental group showed. No matter the grade, the more structured we introduce this vastly powerful tool, the better chance we give our students. What will be very interesting to see over the coming years is after the novelty of generative AI wears off, will we still see these higher rates of critical, creative, and reflective thinking skills? Only time will tell, but you can be sure we’ll cover it here when it does.

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References

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources:

Tech Talk:

Watters, A. (2015, March 12). A Brief History of Calculators in the Classroom. Hacked Education. https://hackeducation.com/2015/03/12/calculators

Grady, M. (2023, September 26). Thinking about using ChatGPT as a student? Read these tips. TorontoMet Today. https://www.torontomu.ca/news-events/news/2023/09/tips-for-using-chatgpt/#:~:text=You%20can%20put%20course%20notes,to%20organize%20all%20your%20information.

Brainy Bits:

Essel, H.B., Vlachopoulos, D., Essuman, A.B., Amankwa, J.O. (2024). ChatGPT effects on cognitive skills of undergraduate students: receiving instant responses from AI-based conversational large language models (LLMs). Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100198