Using ChatGPT in teaching

By Francisco Pascual Romero (University Professor).

For a couple of months, content conversations or controversies related to the irruption and massive use of Artificial Intelligence models that generate language have been generated daily. This has mostly happened since its accessibility and ease of use has become more apparent with the tool Chat GPT. So much so that she dedicated the last session of 2022 of the ESI Garage on the subject.

From the point of view of teaching the appearance of ChatGPT is a complete revolution, perhaps it could be compared to what happened when the calculator appeared, the first personal computers, Internet browsers or the Internet itself. All these "waves of technology" have made us modify our way of acting and teaching, with more or less drastic changes that have developed over time, such as simple examples, the presentation of content through PowerPoint, student-student communication. teacher via email or videoconference, etc. This new wave is coming strong and will affect both students and teachers at all levels.

change in activities

The first "victims" are already being those activities that correspond to theoretical works, that is, those in which topics that should be developed theoretically were proposed. Right now, with a series of questions or prompts launched in ChatGPT, all these tasks can be carried out, generating results that could not be considered copied. This means that this type of activity must change and its purpose is to evaluate the interrogative capacities to follow a method and a plan in order to delve into a specific topic. In this case we already have some experience and we have differentiated at least the following four skill levels.

• 1 level: We ask about a concept and then all we do is ask it to give you more information through requests like “give me more information” or “something else”.
• 2 level: We follow a partially structured script, we ask about that script that can be a definition of the concept, examples, advantages/disadvantages, etc. It's an established, generic script.
• 3 level: We know the subject or we have prepared it at least slightly, we know controversial issues and those that are more difficult to solve and with this we prepare questions that cover those issues, a pre-established script is followed but more complex and specific than the previous one.
• 4 level: I take advantage of the system's responses to delve deeper into the subject, I modify, adapt, and deepen my script with the help of the system's own responses.

As a consequence, much is being said about the work of the "prompt engineering” which is defined within the framework of image-generating programs as “work of finding a text that, inserted into a diffusion model, generates an image as close as possible to the one we have in our imagination“. Regarding ChatGPT, we should change the definition, or rather adapt it to the more than diverse tasks that can be completed with this tool. In addition, if we really want to delve into a topic, we should more or less follow the five phases of the PEACE method, which can be summarized as follows: preparation and planning, interaction and explanation, adaptation, closure and evaluation.

Another of the tasks that is affected by the ChatGPT earthquake is coding to solve a specific problem. In this case, it is important, on the one hand, to be able to understand the solution proposed by the system and, furthermore, to develop critical thinking and the necessary skills to know if the answer is accurate or not. For example, if I have a statement of a problem and the code that solves it has been generated, it is very important to have the ability to verify the results and identify the errors, and if there are any, solve them. In this case, it is still necessary to define activities, evaluation rubrics and test a pilot experiment.

The problem is that with the speed that this advances, it will arrive GPT-4 and it will make us rethink even more tasks

The great opportunity of flipped classroom

The accessibility of ChatGPT facilitates the implementation of the flipped classroom in a subject.

The methodology flipped classroom It consists of inverting the traditional order of classroom teaching, in such a way that students prepare the contents at home before class and use class time for discussion, problem solving and practical application of the knowledge acquired. This allows for greater interaction between teacher and students, greater personalization of teaching, and greater effectiveness in learning.

Within this context, ChatGPT can be used to generate educational content automatically, allowing teachers to spend more time interacting with students and assessment instead of spending time creating materials. Additionally, ChatGPT can also be used to generate interactive questions and exercises that help students review and reinforce content learned before class.

Students can easily consult ChatGPT on a topic and go with the fundamental concepts, doubts that arise, resolution of ChatGPT inaccuracies, feedback, etc. They will be the ones that occupy the time of the class that will be more dynamic, enjoyable and productive.

However, it is important to note that effective implementation of the flipped classroom it requires a holistic approach and cannot be achieved with technology alone.