11 Comments
Dec 13, 2022Liked by Ethan Mollick

As a student myself I can confirm many students are aware of ChatGPT

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I feel making the AI act as a “student” is a remarkable yet simple and practical approach to learning. I try Feynman method for learning a new concept, I.e. try to teach someone with a simple explanation, but often fall short of an obedient and dedicated student - ChatGPT may be one such patient student.

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Some good suggestions here- but all rely on the students being self directed learners

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Using AI as worked examples is a great idea! Thank you!

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Loved it. Thanks

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Great article and I love the way you're thinking about using AI as a learning tool.

(also noted a small typo: "The goal of education is straightforward: to permanent[ly] change someone’s knowledge about the world")

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I find this way of looking at ChatGPT (and AI in general) to be instructive and enlightened. Critiques of 'the student essay' as a potentially empty and soulless exercise, conforming to structure at all costs and writing no significant content, are nothing new. Legacy and other media producing formulaic collections of 'facts' when many are untrue, irrelevant, exaggerated, biased, prejudiced, (etc), also has a long history. Exams as a way of assessing someone's learning, skills and ability to use their knowledge and skills in new ways after their formal education is frequently questioned. The need to be able to evaluate explanations and 'facts', found in the media, academic papers, books, training courses, etc, and especially from 'experts', has always been something high on the list of good quality education. If it's missing, as it often is, that's another criticism of the education most people receive.

ChatGPT and other LLMs and AI tools are only presenting us with problems that we should all have been facing for generations. In fact, many thinkers have been facing them for millennia. So using the output of these tools sounds like an excellent way of highlighting what's wrong with a lot of education, media, science, books and other ostensible sources of truth.

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Hey ChatGPT, what is the meaning of "Explantory"?

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This is a somewhat ironic typo:

"You can create assignments, right now, using ChatGPT, that we will help stretch students in knew ways."

Also assuming that the subheading "Practing Evaluation: The Power of Teaching Someone" is supposed to Practicing?

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Thanks for this! Sharing with my department (English). I was also thinking of having students include the ChatGPT response in their assignments, so this is helpful. I always teach composition and writing from the angle of generating questions at issue, so the act of generating questions for the Chat bot is a great testing ground to think about how the questions you ask determine the answers you get.

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Love this exploration of ChatGPT as an opportunity for learning, not a threat!

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