I know this blog normally starts the week off, but hey! Even a blogger/ teacher deserves to take a break from her usual routine.
It doesn’t mean that my mind wasn’t buzzing with different topics to write about, but one I never expected to appear in the mix, jumped out at me in a very real way, during the last week of school.
So how did it happen? My department tends to mark together once we’re in school. It’s an informal way of standardizing, discussing what mark we would give, arguing about rubrics and also, to be honest…catching some kicks about what students write (who knew France was a French-speaking country in the Caribbean? 😂)
Anyway, to make a long story short, we came across some scripts with some high-level Spanish and French structures. I mean, I know I didn’t teach the Subjunctive to my form 4s and neither did my colleague do it in Spanish. Yet, there it was, in the student’s letter, and 😱! USED CORRECTLY.
In the past, we were able to just draw a red line through it, notify Dean and parents and disqualify the candidate. This year, it wasn’t that simple. In fact, a heated debate started in the staffroom.
You see, we had given our students a revision guide and the student, in preparing for his exam, turned to ChatGPT. He got an example of a well-written letter, and learnt phrases from it just prior to the exam. MANY phrases from it. We all knew it wasn’t his level of French/ Spanish, but could we consider it cheating? It wasn’t his work, but technically, did he cheat on the exam?
The Gen X’s fought with the Millenials…it went back and forth…and in the end, there was no conclusive answer. Outcome pending.
All I know is, that student’s grade (if awarded), is not going to be a true reflection of his proficiency in the language. But there were no devices used DURING the exam itself and I can foresee both parents and students having a case to plead. A case that…truth be told, can be won, if fought on technicalities.
This just brings home for me even more, how Artificial Intelligence is transforming the landscape of YET, another field. And it’s spreading like a wildfire that we, as educators, can’t necessarily control. How are we going to grade our Student Based Assessments? Are discussions with our students about having a moral compass and using technology responsibly going to be enough?
How can they be, when we ourselves, turn to AI to make our lives easier? We use Goblin tools Magic to-do lists to break down our projects. Canva has a magic studio that is AI powered: lesson plans can be generated in a matter of minutes. I’m not a science teacher, but I can get my hands on a lesson of Photosynthesis and run a pretty attractive presentation on it, that for the most part, is auto-generated.
And there're so many more AI tools out there …popping up like red dots all over the world wide web.
Opinions about AI go from one end of the spectrum to the next:
- “Artificial Intelligence is a tool, not a threat.” - Rodney Brooks
- “It [AI] will have a big impact on education, but so did handheld calculators a few decades ago and, more recently, allowing computers in the classroom,” - Bill Gates.
- “There will be abuses of power that involve AI, just as there will be advances in science and humanitarian efforts that also involve AI.” -Danah Boyd, (a principal researcher for Microsoft & founder and president of the Data & Society Research Institute)
- “The potential benefits of artificial intelligence are huge, so are the dangers.” -Dave Waters
So was the student just using a tool? Can his use of ChatGPT be compared to his use of a calculator? Or was he abusing/ misusing the power of AI? Is AI a danger/ threat when it comes to assessment principles like Validity, Reliability and Fairness?
We want to hear from you. Weigh in on our poll and let us know what you think. Sooner or later, we have to have a candid discussion on the way forward. Prepare for it.
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