O Brave New (AI) World

Last week I overheard a conversation from a group of students that went something like this:

Student 1: I really think I should apply to College X as a backup school but don’t have time to write or revise my essay to the school’s prompt, so I guess I won’t.

Student 2: Well if it’s for your backup school, just use ChatGPT to write the essay.

Welcome to education in 2023.

The rest of the story: the student did not apply to the school or use ChatGPT, but these same students were incensed when we were talking about teachers who didn’t have time to write recommendation letters (students think this should be our first priority). I reassured them that now teachers could use ChatGPT to write recs thus saving us hours of work outside of school and allowing us to meet deadlines (which ironically correspond to holidays and time off).

Student 1: Teachers cannot use it for recommendations!!!!

Student 2: That’s so wrong; I don’t want my admissions decision hanging on something written by ChatGPT.

Teacher: But it’s okay for a college essay . . . I rest my case. (For the record, I don’t plan on doing this but it made the point).

When I initially read The End of High School English, I was intrigued about this new AI. Maybe it’s my age and experience, maybe I’m still numb from Covid teaching, or maybe it’s because of my perpetual bent toward optimism, I wasn’t panicked but instead ready to explore this brave new world of AI. What I needed though was time. I was amazed at initial responses from educators immediately flooding the internet while I was quietly sipping my eggnog and trying to wrap my mind around the program and the possibilities.

Now that I’ve sat with ChatGPT for a little over a month, I feel like I’m at a place where I can share some initial thoughts even though I am a long way from fully understanding how ChatGPT works and/or its implications. My thoughts are for sure ever evolving so judge tenderly of me-

1 – Patience, friends, patience.

Teachers and students are in murky water, and just like it takes time for the creek to clear after a hard rain, settling in with AI will take time. The next couple of years will probably be messy. Will some students pass off AI generated work as their own? Yes. When will teachers have time to learn about ChatGPT? Great question – add it to the list of other things I should do but don’t have time for. I often encourage my students to lean into questions and not be too quick to find answers; the same is true for us now. We need to extend grace to ourselves during this time realizing that we cannot – and I argue even should not – sort this out overnight.

2 – Big picture thinking.

Part of the challenge for teachers is we are teaching in the here and now (hello, Monday) where we are forced to think about how ChatGPT is being used by students in our classes (already nicknamed CheatGPT), but we also need to carve out time for a 30,000 foot view of AI implications. How can teachers use AI as a tool in the classroom? What do authentic assessments of critical thinking look like in the 21st century? Why do English classes deserve a place in our tech-oriented future? We cannot be so caught up in the present day to day that we neglect to set aside time to think about the pedagogical shifts that must occur.

3 – Short term implications.

But we do teach in the present. Very few of my assignments are ones that students can put into ChatGPT and turn in. Our work tends to be more process rather than product focused. The poetry blog exchange, however, is an exception. In this assignment, students choose a living poet to follow throughout the year and low key analyze a different poem each month written by their poet. After they post their blog, they read posts from other students across the country and comment on their poems. I love this because students are writing for someone other than me and getting feedback from other students. But this is the perfect assignment to plug into ChatGPT (and some have). With the help of Jennifer Stuckey, Adrian Nester, and an idea from Carol Jago, I’ve revised the assignment around the Goldilocks approach to analysis which will help in the short term while I rethink this assignment.

4 – Experiment on your own and in class.

When in doubt with technology, I turn to my resident experts: my students. Here are some of the programs we will be playing with in class:

Historical Figures Chat (on Apple) – here’s a quick conversation I had with Mary Shelley as we are currently in the middle of Frankenstein:

Talk to Books – Ask a question, this platform pulls answers from books. Following the Frankenstein example:

Some ideas ran better than others. For example when I asked, “What are some jobs for English majors that are not teaching?” (hypothetical of course), it didn’t pull much.

Bearly does so much with writing and reading. Here are some of the writing functions followed by an experiment I did with the continuation feature which will give ideas for the next paragraph if you’re stuck:

In addition, I played around with a few of the reading applications using the summary feature. I fed it Brian’s post from last week (Confessions of a Mid-Career Teacher), and it spit out this summary which, while accurate, does not capture Brian’s voice. But oh the time this would have saved me doing my postgraduate research on holistic grammar instruction.

Lex claims will “unlock your best writing” and it looks like I’m not the only person needing some writing help on a Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to playing around with this.

Perplexity is interesting because unlike other applications I’ve seen, this one cites sources.

Dall E 2 is an art application that you can prompt to make specific images or upload photos for some crazy editing features. I’m going to let students play with this for their Writing Romantically project next week. I’ve spent the last 45 minutes playing with this (because I have nothing else to do today ←– sarcasm), and this is crazy.

Sheet Plus – This deals with spreadsheets so I’m not really interested in playing around with it even though I’m sure it does cool things. Some of my students will love this though.

Glasp is a note taking and highlighting platform that has some interesting possibilities for collaboration.

ChatGPT – what brought us here.

I learned about the majority of these AI platforms from Ivy Xu on Twitter. I also realize some people may not feel comfortable doing this in class or their districts may not allow it. You know your spaces and should use your judgement accordingly.

5 – Create assignments using AI.

I can definitely see using AI in the classroom specifically to give feedback in the writing process which students can use in revision. In an article I wrote for Education Week, I give several examples of how I could use ChatGPT in the classroom. Here’s the list of ideas but click on the article for explanations of how this would work.

Provide suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.
Give feedback on essays.
Generate ideas.
Debate/discussion generation.
Create quizzes for reading checks.
Create writing samples for revision.
Practice scoring.
Generate writing prompts.

I’m sure there are so many more ideas that I haven’t even begun to think of; please tell me how you’re using ChatGPT in your class.

That’s about all I have to say on ChatGPT and AI at the moment. When I started writing, I prompted ChatGPT to “Write a teacher response about ChatGPT to encourage other teachers that this new platform is not the end of writing instruction.” Here’s the response I got: ChatGPT is a powerful tool for language generation, but it should not be viewed as a replacement for traditional writing instruction. Instead, it can be used as an aid to support and enhance the writing process. For example, ChatGPT can be used to generate writing prompts, assist with grammar and punctuation, and provide feedback on organization and style. Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to help students with special needs or those who struggle with writing. As teachers, we should embrace new technologies like ChatGPT, but also remember that it is not a substitute for the valuable skills and knowledge that we can provide to our students. Writing is a complex and nuanced skill that requires careful instruction and practice, and ChatGPT is just one tool that can be used to support that instruction.

I could have kept feed ChatGPT details with the writing becoming more and more specific and possibly even get to what I produced (minus my jokes, sarcasm, and literary allusions). But this would have failed me: failed me in the act of processing the ideas myself and failed me in exercising my brain in general. I need the process of writing and creating for my growth as a thinker and person. The core our my class – engaging with texts, thinking , writing, and discussing our ideas- will remain the same. These acts are what separate us from a computer program, and while AI will continue to shape the future of education, the humanities will be even more important as ever as we strive to learn how to preserve our humanity in this brave new world.

Susan Barber teaches AP Lit and Writers Workshop/Advanced Composition at Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as the College Board Advisor for AP Lit. In addition to reading, writing, and investing in the next generation, she loves watching college football with her family especially when Alabama is playing.