and 2. I asked ChatGPT to write an explanatory essay on Buffalo's early history, which is my model essay for students in our current writing unit. It was pretty cool to see that the first 3 topics I explored in my essay were the same as what the chat bot came up with it. It's crazy to me, because I spent my planning periods for at least a week researching, organizing, planning - and the bot completed the entire task in just minutes. I also asked it to create a lesson plan, which it created instantly, and I tried the inference questions with answers like the video demonstrated. Those can be incredibly helpful for generating ideas as a teacher! I also can see the value in asking it questions for students who need clarification or help finding answers. It's so fast, and can filter through information pretty quickly. I wonder how everyone would say this compares to a Google search? I am also incredibly impressed at the expansiveness of its knowledge. After searching topics related to my class, I asked questions about so many random topics and it had extensive knowledge of all of it. I'm blown away!
Would you consider using it WITH your students? Why or Why not? I'm torn on this. Students know it exists, so I feel like it's better to teach them how to use it to their advantage and to use it a resource. I also think it would be good to show them the shortcomings so they know that we can identify their writing versus the writing of the bot. For example, specific phrases I encourage them to steer clear of are used frequently in the responses I searched, so it could be a fruitful discussion of the language we are capable of versus what the AI is capable of or defaults to. Some suggestions on how to use it WITH students would be welcome in future badges!!
