ChatGPT, the fastest-growing consumer application ever, is a new buzzword that is shaping our world with new technical dimensions. ChatGPT is a sophisticated chatbot created by OpenAI, powered by an NLP model and an advanced language models (LLMs) model since November 2022. ChatGPT enables users to interact with a language model by asking questions, similar to having a conversation with a chatbot. LLMs are undoubtedly remarkable for their ability to produce a huge range of convincing content in enormous human and programming languages. ChatGPT is an effective technology for educators and learners that has the power to generate desired content and essay generation, chatbot responses, language translation, question-answering, and programming code.
At the beginning phase of Open AI, many of the largest schools (e.g., Los Angeles Unified, New York City Public Schools) in the US and several leading universities in the UK (e.g., the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London) warned against using ChatGPT and had blocked access using their institutional networks, which initially created panic in the education sector. But a few months later, they revised their thinking and how it could be best meant for teaching their kids. The world’s different educational techs, like Duolingo and Quizlet, integrated their apps into the OpenAI’s chatbot. Not only that, but in Bangladesh, different healthcare tech companies like Susastho, Maya, and Care have also launched AI chatbots with their applications. In February 2023, the Ministry of Education in South Korea unveiled an ambitious plan to integrate AI deeply into the public education system.
The AI revolution has the potential to change educational systems, enhancing inclusivity, effectiveness, and innovation—providing opportunities for everyone, not just a select group. Like South Korea, Nigeria, and Rwanda, a sharp move for Bangladesh is needed to experiment with the new window of AI-enabled education. As we know, most of our teachers are subscribed to Bloom’s taxonomy, introduced by the renowned educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in the 1950s, which is mainly focused on different forms of learning like analysis and evaluation. Educators and learners can use ChatGPT to generate ideas, arguments, and analyses. Now, numerous educators contend that ChatGPT might significantly enhance the educational experience. Although it has different risks, it may be used as an opportunity tool to intake in education-
Lesson planning: Pedagogical proficiency and the ability to transform curriculum into engaging lessons are needed to deliver quality lessons. A significant feature of ChatGPT is its capacity to comprehend and reply to natural language inquiries. Teachers can use ChatGPT for preparing classes, lesson plans (e.g., such as mathematics, chemistry, biology, social science, physics, computer science, civil engineering, language, and literature), or draft assignments.
Prepare assessment questions: ChatGPT may produce quiz questions that are customized to a topic and aligned with the desired difficulty level. ChatGPT helps to produce multiple-choice items, essay questions, and practical tasks. Evaluate exam scripts: There is growing interest in using ChatGPT to assess and provide feedback on students’ written texts, such as essays and open-ended exam responses, as these tasks are time-consuming for teachers. While ChatGPT-4 accurately identifies many fundamental student errors, detecting more complex errors remains challenging.
Support with language barriers: ChatGPT currently supports over 80 languages. In this context, the chatbot could function as a means to enhance the teachers’ language skills, enabling them to teach more efficiently in either their first language or a second language. Personalised tutoring: Using ChatGPT to generate personalised practice exercises for students and educators. ChatGPT enables the student to get immediate feedback, eliminating the need to wait for the teacher to evaluate their assignments. An educator can utilise the model to offer feedback regarding grammar, critical thinking, case analysis sentence construction, and the overall organisation of a student's writing.
As we harness benefits but certain pitfalls to understand for sustainable advancement. We need to work with security risks (LLM helps someone to write malware with malicious intention), bias, incorrect prompts, and hallucinations (produce incorrect facts). The integrity of assignments and online examinations, and blind reliance on generative AI tools may be questioning our merit, skill, and ability. ChatGPT exhibits issues like language inconsistencies, improper citations, factual inaccuracies, vagueness, and inadequate context awareness.
Banning ChatGPT won’t be an effective decision. It's good news for Bangladesh that a renowned Dhaka University Professor, Lafifa Jamal, along with three other team members, Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, has attended (21-25 October 2024) a week-long event entitled “Universities’ Role in AI Innovation Ecosystem” held in Fudan University, Sanghai, along with 50 university leaders, researchers, and experts from 21 universities across Asia and Europe, and their presentation was selected for the ‘AI in Education’ category that motivates us to go with AI. According to keeping pace with the changing phenomenon, it is time for policy experts to prepare plots, guidelines, and a regulatory framework for developing AI-based digital content for learners and educators. To what extent can AI be incorporated into pedagogical literacy or the education system? A burning question that needs research. However, there is pressing work to be done to achieve this.
The writer is a Lecturer, Department of Management, Satkhira Govt. College. He can be reached at [email protected].
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