Artificial intelligence in education: opportunities, challenges and the first steps of the great adaptation

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Just two months after its release, ChatGPT grew to 100 million active users. Interest in AI tools is growing faster than ever before. People’s ideas about artificial intelligence are divided into two opposing camps – the first underestimates the possibilities of real impact of AI and considers it a temporary “hype”, while the second dramatizes the power of change, believing that AI is about to “take over the world”. In order to make productive use of new technologies, it is important to have a realistic understanding of the capabilities and limitations of such tools. In this article, we will understand what ChatGPT-like applications actually are, what positive impact they have on the educational process, and how to minimize the risks arising from the growing interest in AI among students. About reality The use of artificial intelligence in the educational process is not a fantastic future, but today’s reality. In January, a survey was conducted among Stanford University students. According to the results, almost 20% of students have already used ChatGPT to help with homework, exams and study projects. A recent survey of teachers in the US found that two-thirds of educators have experienced situations where students have used ChatGPT to prepare homework without their permission. This indicator is undoubtedly growing every month. It is obvious that a significant number of pupils and students already use ChatGPT in Ukraine, and this number will soon be more and more significant. Therefore, the question “Should ChatGPT be banned in the educational process?” doesn’t make sense right now. Such conversations are reminiscent of the heated debates of the past about the prohibition of the use of Wikipedia in education – a meaningless waste of time. We must understand that in real life and professional activities, people will increasingly use such applications, and it will probably become the norm in the coming years. Accordingly, the ability to use them effectively and ethically is an important skill, as is the ability to use Wikipedia responsibly. AI-ethics is a must-have of the future On the one hand, the use of ChatGPT-like applications can reduce the spread of educational fraud related to writing assignments for money. On the other hand, there are new ethical challenges that need to be worked on now. The results of a Stanford University survey indicate that students are actively using ChatGPT to help generate ideas for future essays and receive instant, automatic feedback on their own written work. In this context, the use of AI tools should not be condemned, but rather encouraged. But it is clear that using ChatGPT by students to generate ready-made essays or homework is unacceptable. Therefore, the first challenge facing the educational community is to convey to students the ethical norms of using AI in the educational process. We need to explain that using AI tools can be useful when they help with idea generation, initial information gathering, and improving writing. However, this does not mean that you can completely rely on such tools and pass off their work as your own in your studies and future career. In order for the educational process to correspond to reality, we need to take important steps towards technology. Step #1: Explain to students the possibilities and limitations of ChatGPT ChatGPT can answer questions and help generate ideas, but it is not a reliable source of information and cannot replace critical thinking and independent analysis. This is evidenced by recent stories with a fake biography of Honchar on the “New Channel” Instagram and other “hallucinations” of the application, which can easily be repeated in the educational process. Using ChatGPT to quickly gather information and initial analysis, and then independently prepare a report based on it, is a positive example of effective use of the tool. In addition, there are already such cases of using AI in Ukrainian education. However, it is important to realize that insufficient verification of the information provided by AI can lead to false conclusions and misinterpretation of any topic. Therefore, our goal is to teach students to think critically, check and analyze the information received. This includes understanding the limitations of ChatGPT and being able to distinguish between real facts and possible hallucinations that the tool may generate. Step #2: Teach teachers how to use ChatGPT In order to teach students how to use the new tools, teachers themselves first need to understand how it works. It is for this purpose that we at Prometheus, together with the regional director of Microsoft Oleksandr Krakowetsky, launched a free course “Getting started with ChatGPT”. In skillful hands, this tool can become a useful teacher’s assistant. In the near future, similar educational programs that explain the principles of working with AI technologies and teach them how to use them will be popular. This can contribute both to the education of teachers to teach their students, and to the students themselves to use ChatGPT-like applications effectively. Step #3: adapt the educational process to the availability of AI applications According to the results of the Walton Family Foundation survey, 72% of teachers believe that “ChatGPT is another example of why in today’s world we cannot work in schools based only on old traditions” . In addition to mastering AI tools, educators should adapt their teaching to new opportunities. One of the aspects can be the automation of routine tasks, which consist in the simple collection and structuring of information. According to the Intelligent.com survey, about 90% of teachers surveyed use ChatGPT for lesson planning, grading, student feedback, e-mails and recommendations. Teachers cite time saving as the main reason for such use. Another aspect of this process is that teachers must learn to distinguish student work from artificially generated responses from AI applications. Therefore, just as students should develop critical thinking and fact-checking when processing ChatGPT answers, it is also important for teachers to be critical of the results of students’ work. Don’t believe the myths that there are applications capable of identifying ChatGPT text. Western universities do buy similar programs, but you can’t seriously count on them. For example, when testing such applications, it turned out that, according to their results, the Bible and the US Constitution were half created by ChatGPT. Therefore, the only way to really adapt to the appearance of such programs is to introduce fundamentally new training formats. At the same time, it is important to note that the role of the teacher remains indispensable in the context of learning, in addition, it becomes even more important. Step #4: create new approaches in the educational process It is obvious that typical essays or laboratory works can be performed “perfectly” by AI applications, so this type of tasks should remain in the past. Instead, tasks that require analysis, individual approach and critical thinking should occupy an increasing share of the educational process. It is important to teach students not just to repeat existing ideas, but to use them as a basis for creative solutions and new research. In this sense, ChatGPT-like applications open up additional opportunities for students and educators. For example, a teacher of an entrepreneurship course can offer students the task of generating ideas for a startup with the help of AI, analyzing and choosing the best of them, which will contribute to the development of students’ creative and analytical skills. Working on tasks that do not have a clear right answer and stimulate critical thinking is important in the modern learning process. Approaches where reasoned discussion and analysis of different positions, in the formation of which AI tools act only as assistants in gathering information, should be the basis of modern quality education. Such methods of education will meet the requirements of reality and prepare truly educated generations of the future. Ivan Prymachenko, founder of Prometheus online university, specially for UP.Life Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect the author’s point of view exclusively

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